Can the American military beat the Iraqi insurgents?

Question

Can the US Army and US Marine Corps forces in Iraq beat the insurgents? If not, why not? What would it take to win?

Chainsaw - apparently you've never heard of something called the "Geneva Convention".

Also, during World War II, the Nazis tried to fight the insurgency in Poland and the Soviet Ukraine in the manner you describe.

If you'll recall, the Nazis lost.

Answer 1

those of you who tout our winning of battles as an indicator that we are winning the conflict are highly mistaken.
this is not a traditional "war". our objective is not simply to "beat the other guys".
our objective, though not very well planned out, is to set up a democracy in a country that has been ruled by a brutal dictatorship for the last 30 years.

you cant fight a war against hate because you will only create more of it. the insurgents are not some finite number of people that we must kill before we can find peace. they are people who hate us, and though we are killing them off every day, their numbers are growing.
what would it take to win?..............................that is a difficult question. i dont think it can be won militarily at this point. i think we need to do more to improve the standard of living for the iraqi people. we have to do something for them that every one of them can see. that is the important thing. we think that we are doing so much for them, and that they are ungrateful, but i was deployed there for 2 years, and i didnt see much being done at the family level. their standard of living has suffered since we invaded, and we need to do something to change that.
none of what i have just said is a complete solution to the problem, but it is the only thing i can think of that would yeild a positive result.

Answer 2

The human beings won't be able to conquer Insurgents by way of mass media coverage. to no longer point out(and that i be attentive to some human beings are going to get mad) our president. returned then there became media coverage, yet to no longer the quantity of immediately's time. while the journalists are allowed to be so on the factor to the front line in recent times. (i.e. many journalists getting injury overlaying war thoughts) If the media weren't allowed, then the U.S. could somewhat do what they mandatory to do. that is humorous how the Insurgents can bomb the hell out of U.S. squaddies, yet we won't be able to return the fire in a similar way. then you certainly've squaddies occurring trial for war crimes. the only area of the armed forces that is ashamed are the squaddies that are doing what they haven't any employer doing which includes raping infants and merchandising weapons to the Iraqi's. different than that, they haven't any determination because of the fact they're basically doing what's in actuality their interest. even nonetheless that is not their fault that they are nonetheless over there. as quickly as returned, blame it on the media, and of path, our president. he's the only one that could decrease in the path of the crap and contact this war off.

Answer 3

The Marines used to make something of a specialty of counterinsurgency operations, having been derisively called "state department troops" by the press in the 1920's, for example. It can be done, but unless we're willing to depopulate the area completely, which is absurd, we have to expect that it will take the usual ten to thirty years that it has taken in the past. I suspect we're near the top of a surge in casualties now, and if we don't pull the rug out from under our troops we'll probably see a decrease in the casualty rate this summer, and a significant hand-over of many operations to the Iraqi government in the next year or two, but the operation overall will take much longer.

Answer 4

Of course they can! If they could beat Germany and Japan, they can beat the insurgents.

The question is whether the American public and the political classes will support them and let them do what they need to do to win. Like addressing the problem at the source: Iran and Syria.

Really, I do hope the rest of us are worthy of the sacrifices made by our brave and selfless troops.

Answer 5

Yes, we need to go in and flatten any area that terrorists hide. No worrying about whether they hide in schools or hospitals. Do this and close off the borders to Iran and Syria and the problem will not last long.

Then you have to fight the PR war at home and abroad. It is time to arrest and try people for treason. It is also time to throw out the media from the battlefield. They are showing all the bad and little if any good.

Answer 6

Winning is not the problem . The problem is the political hoops soldiers and marines have to jump through to satisfy the Geneva convention and our own current policies .

Answer 7

never, it a battle thats lost. look at n.ireland , vietnam , afghanistan , chechnya etc.

and to the idiot a couple of posts above, america did not beat the germans.
america , russia , britain , canada , australia , new zealand ect beat the germans in world war 2. not to mention that britain had been at it alone for 2 years before america decided to join in (2 days after that pearl harbour bombing i might add)

Answer 8

Insuregents are losing in droves. The fact is that it is far safer to be a U.S. soldier there, than it is to be an insurgent, which is quite a good indicator that we are winning the battles where and when they arise.

Answer 9

They are, the media doesn't want you to know that they are.
Not one US unit has been overrun or wiped out, they win every firefight.
2/3's of the "insurgents" are not Iraqi,they come from other countries.
Iran is supplying men,weapons , training and money to keep the fight going.

Answer 10

bbq is correct the only way we can actually win is to kill every man woman and child in iraq because they are the insurgents.any time a us soldier kills an iraqi it is somebodies son,brother or father.those left then have a good reason to hate the us so it never stops.