From Deseret News archives:
Iraq insurgents displaying little rhyme, reason
The insurgents in Iraq are showing little interest in winning hearts and minds among the majority of Iraqis, in building international legitimacy or in articulating a governing program or even a unified ideology or cause beyond expelling the Americans. They have put forward no single charismatic leader, developed no alternative government or political wing, displayed no intention of amassing territory to govern now.
Rather than employing the classic rebel tactic of provoking the foreign forces to use clumsy and excessive force and kill civilians, they are cutting out the middleman and killing civilians indiscriminately themselves, in addition to more predictable targets like officials of the new government. Bombings have escalated in the past two weeks, and on Thursday a bomb went off in heavy traffic in Baghdad, killing 21 people.
This surge in the killing of civilians reflects how mysterious the long-term strategy remains and how the rebels' seeming indifference to the past patterns of insurgency is not necessarily good news for anyone.
'Wanton violence'
Counterinsurgency experts are baffled, wondering if the world is seeing the birth of a new kind of insurgency; if, as in China in the 1930s or Vietnam in the 1940s, it is taking insurgents a few years to organize themselves; or if, as some suspect, there is a simpler explanation.
"Instead of saying, 'What's the logic here, we don't see it,' you could speculate, there is no logic here," said Anthony James Joes, a professor of political science at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia and the author of several books on the history of guerrilla warfare. The attacks now look like "wanton violence," he continued. "And there's a name for these guys: Losers."
"The insurgents are doing everything wrong now," he said. "Or, anyway, I don't understand why they're doing what they're doing."
Comments
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870 - Cougars beat Utes in overtime
475 - Max Hall issues apology
153 - BYU is champion of the state
137 - Man trapped in Nutty Putty cave dies
117 - Cave to be sealed with body inside
116 - Rivalry Week is highly profane
90 - Hall's legacy measured today
79 - Hall's pain reflects self-betrayal
70 - Utes fall to Seattle U. at home
65
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