is it so difficult for US troops in Iraq to stop an estimated 20,000 insurgents, all of which are located in a concentrated areas (like the Sunni Triangle) where the US knows they are located with no jungle canopy to hide them?
2007-01-03 02:47:52 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
Ok so everyone seems to agree that the main problem is picking out who the insurgents/terrorists are but don't the Iraqi National Army Shia troops know exactly what a Sunni insurgent/ foreign terrorist looks like?
2007-01-03 07:35:18 · update #1
It's basically the same as Vietnam: we don't know who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. Plus we have to be careful of an iron fist approach because we could create more insurgents.
2007-01-03 02:51:52 · answer #1 · answered by Justin H 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Some of the "insurgents" are primarily anti-American. Many are jostling for political power, either for an edge over others or for protection against others gaining an edge, and they are only secondarily anti-American. Various militias are neither friendly nor enemy. Most of the mission in that regard is political, not primarily military. And then there's the other war, which is almost a separate thing. We Americans seem to want to prove Mencken's assertion that for every complex problem there's a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.
2007-01-04 00:37:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It isn't the jungle canopy or lack of it that hides them. It is that unless they are actively fighting, you can't tell which ones are friendly and which ones are enemies. Most troops have walked passed several insurgents not even knowing they were insurgents. It isn't like they have a big sign on their chest that says "Hey I'm the enemy." It also doesn't help that so many children are convinced into doing the dirty acts for the insurgents. We are a civilized nation, and it is hard for us to fire on a child, even when we see that he is the enemy. It has to be done, but it's hard.
2007-01-03 11:00:47 · answer #3 · answered by wanderingphotographer 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It's in the ROE (Rules of Engagement) just like in Vietnam the military is being held to a higher standard than the enemy (as we should), if we blow up a Mosque that has suspected insurgents in it, they are held for murder. If they fight house to house and some little kid gets killed because an insurgent was using him as a shield the soldier get tried as a war criminal. I hope that helps. The military is constantly under scrutiny of the media. For more read the following link.
2007-01-03 10:55:08 · answer #4 · answered by Monte T 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Why do you call the Vietnamese defending their country"insurgents"?
Same in Iraq, they do not want the US there.
Not unlike those dam* minutemen that the Brits. had to put up with in 1776.
Moral of the story- Stop invading sovereign countries.
2007-01-03 23:05:05 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The insurgents, much like in Vietnam, don't wear uniforms that say INSURGENT on them. They are everyday people who intermix with and mostly are the everyday population. It would be much easier if all you had to do was go to one place and see the enemy for what they were. It's guerilla warfare, it's resistance and it's religous groups battling amongst themselves all rolled into one.
2007-01-03 10:59:57 · answer #6 · answered by jimstock60 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No country can walk in ( March in ) and try and take over a country like the USA did to Iraq. ( It didn't work in Korea......It didn't work in Vietnam ) about the 20,000 insurgents. My Dept of Defense friends tell me it's more like 300,000 all together. The American Government doesn't want you to know the truth.
2007-01-03 10:55:14 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 3⤋
It is the same as Vietnam, the people we are fighting are intermingled with the civilians......telling the difference is no easy task, they aren't marked, nor do they wear uniforms.........it's not easy to fight what you can't see, you just have to put yourself out there, and wait for them to come to you........or end up assaulting several innocent civilians (and when you do that, it gets used against you)
2007-01-03 10:57:20 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Simple. The more you kill, the more take their place. They are also not using sophisticated technology to fight us, thus many of our tactics and devices are simply wasted. There's a lot of people in Iraq and we have very small force over there. Anyone could be "the enemy." If we were to go in and simply start slaughtering people, we'd create more enemies that we presently have.
2007-01-03 10:51:39 · answer #9 · answered by texascrazyhorse 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Because the politicians and bleeding heart liberals will not allow the military do what they need to do: obliterate the bastards. This was also the same problem in Vietnam.
2007-01-03 10:51:17 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋