[E-rundbrief] Info 77 - USA - Israeli Warfare Strategy in Iraq

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 77 - USA transfers Israeli Urban Warfare Strategy to Iraq

Bad Ischl, 11.1.2004

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
www.begegnungszentrum.at

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"U.S. tactics now look like Israel's."

The practice of destroying buildings where Iraqi insurgents are suspected 
of planning or mounting attacks has been used for decades by Israeli 
soldiers in Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli Army has also imprisoned 
the relatives of suspected terrorists, in the hopes of pressing the 
suspects to surrender.

Here's a classic quote: "With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot 
of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are 
here to help them."

American officials say they are not purposefully mimicking Israeli tactics, 
but they acknowledge that they have studied closely the Israeli experience 
in urban fighting. Ahead of the war, Israeli defense experts briefed 
American commanders on their experience in guerrilla and urban warfare. The 
Americans say there are no Israeli military advisers helping the Americans 
in Iraq.

Writing in the July issue of Army magazine, an American brigadier general 
said American officers had recently traveled to Israel to hear about 
lessons learned from recent fighting there.

Collective punishment is the practice of punishing entire families, 
communities or groups for the act of an individual. It is illegal under 
Article 33 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which states, "No protected 
person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed."

(Zitate aus den untenstehenden Berichten aus den USA.)

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From: Val Dunmow
Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2003 1:23 PM

Susan Ives: Collective punishment sends the wrong message
Web Posted : 12/20/2003 12:00 AM

A front-page headline in the paper Dec. 7 stunned me.

"U.S. tactics now look like Israel's." I read the story. I read it again. I 
still don't quite believe my eyes.

According to the article, originally published in the New York Times, U.S. 
soldiers have begun "wrapping entire villages in barbed wire."

"They've begun imprisoning the relatives of guerilla suspects in hopes of 
pressuring the insurgents to turn themselves in."

They are "demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers."

These tactics, known as collective punishment, are morally repugnant and 
illegal - in short, war crimes. We should be ashamed.

Collective punishment is the practice of punishing entire families, 
communities or groups for the act of an individual. It is illegal under 
Article 33 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which states, "No protected 
person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed."

Here's another example, published in October in Britain's Guardian newspaper.

"U.S. soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, 
have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon 
trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of 
farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking U.S. troops.

"Farmers said that U.S. troops had told them, over a loudspeaker in Arabic, 
that the fruit groves were being bulldozed to punish the farmers for not 
informing on the resistance, which is very active in this Sunni Muslim 
district."

Do you remember two years ago when seven convicts - two killers, two 
rapists, a child abuser, an armed robber and a burglar - escaped from a 
prison in Kenedy with a cache of weapons?

During their seven weeks on the lam, while robbing a sporting goods store, 
they killed a policeman. We really wanted to catch those guys.

So did we throw their grannies in jail, holding them hostage until the 
killers surrendered? Did we bulldoze their families' homes because their 
wives might suspect where they are and wouldn't squeal? Of course not. That 
would have violated every word of our Constitution.

So why are we doing it in Iraq? What message are we sending to the 
fledgling Iraqi government about the rule of law?

The wrong message. They know these tactics. They were the ones Saddam 
Hussein practiced 15 years ago when he gassed the village of Halabja, 
killing 5,000 as collective punishment for Kurdish opposition to his regime.

It is a slippery moral slope, just a short slide, from razing date groves 
to gassing villages.

The drafters of the Geneva Conventions were remembering reprisals against 
the resistance in World Wars I and II when they incorporated the ban on 
collective punishment.

According to the book "Crimes of War," the Red Cross commentary to the 
conventions states that parties to a conflict often would resort to 
"intimidatory measures to terrorize the population" in hope of preventing 
hostile acts, but such practices "strike at guilty and innocent alike. They 
are opposed to all principles based on humanity and justice.


---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2003 17:29:20 -0500 (EST)

From: KEBOI at aol.com

Subject: [Nion-hawaii] USA uses Israeli Urban Warfare Tactics in Iraq

Here's a classic quote: "With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot 
of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are 
here to help them,"

 From NYTimes: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/international/middleeast/07TACT.html?ex=1071 
378000&en=b9c5e965e018edf1&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ===

December 7, 2003

Tough New Tactics by U.S. Tighten Grip on Iraq Towns

By DEXTER FILKINS

BU HISHMA, Iraq, Dec. 6 . As the guerrilla war against Iraqi insurgents 
intensifies, American soldiers have begun wrapping entire villages in 
barbed wire.

In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to 
be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of 
suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressing the insurgents to turn 
themselves in.

The Americans embarked on their get-tough strategy in early November, 
goaded by what proved to be the deadliest month yet for American forces in 
Iraq, with 81 soldiers killed by hostile fire. The response they chose is 
beginning to e cho the Israeli counterinsurgency campaign in the occupied 
territories.

So far, the new approach appears to be succeeding in diminishing the threat 
to American soldiers. But it appears to be coming at the cost of alienating 
many of the people the Americans are trying to win over. Abu Hishma is 
quiet now, but it is angry, too.

In Abu Hishma, encased in a razor-wire fence after repeated attacks on 
American troops, Iraqi civilians line up to go in and out, filing through 
an American-guarded checkpoint, each carrying an identification card 
printed in English only.

"If you have one of these cards, you can come and go," coaxed Lt. Col. 
Nathan Sassaman, the battalion commander whose men oversee the village, 
about 50 miles north of Baghdad. "If you don't have one of these cards, you 
can't."

The Iraqis nodded and edged their cars through the line. Over to one side, 
an Iraqi man named Tariq muttered in anger.

"I see no difference between us and the Palestinians," he said. "We didn't 
expect anything like this after Saddam fell."

The practice of destroying buildings where Iraqi insurgents are suspected 
of planning or mounting attacks has been used for decades by Israeli 
soldiers in Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli Army has also imprisoned 
the relatives of suspected terrorists, in the hopes of pressing the 
suspects to surrender.

The Israeli military has also cordoned off villages and towns thought to be 
hotbeds of guerrilla activity, in an effort to control the flow of people 
moving in and out.

American officials say they are not purposefully mimicking Israeli tactics, 
but they acknowledge that they have studied closely the Israeli experience 
in urban fighting. Ahead of the war, Israeli defense experts briefed 
American commanders on their experience in guerrilla and urban warfare. The 
Americans say there are no Israeli military advisers helping the Americans 
in Iraq.

Writing in the July issue of Army magazine, an American brigadier general 
said American officers had recently traveled to Israel to hear about 
lessons learned from recent fighting there.

"Experience continues to teach us many lessons, and we continue to evaluate 
and address those lessons, embedding and incorporating them appropriately 
into our concepts, doctrine and training," Brig. Gen. Michael A. Vane 
wrote. "For example, we recently traveled to Israel to glean lessons 
learned from their counterterrorist operations in urban areas." General 
Vane is deputy chief of staff for doctrine concepts and strategy, at the 
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command.

American officers here say their new hard-nosed approach reflects a more 
realistic appreciation of the military and political realities faced by 
soldiers in the so-called Sunni triangle, the area north and west of 
Baghdad that is generating the most violence against the Americans.

Underlying the new strategy, the Americans say, is the conviction that only 
a tougher approach will quell the insurgency and that the new strategy must 
punish not only the guerrillas but also make clear to ordinary Iraqis the 
cost of not cooperating.

"You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown, a company 
commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the 
gates of Abu Hishma. "The only thing they understand is force . force, 
pride and saving face."

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top military commander in Iraq, announced the 
get-tough strategy in early November. After the announcement, some American 
officers warned that the scenes that would follow would not be pretty.

Speaking today in Baghdad, General Sanchez said attacks on allied forces or 
gunfights with adversaries across Iraq had dropped to under 20 a day from 
40 a day two weeks ago.

"We've considerably pushed back the numbers of engagements against 
coalition forces," he said. "We've been hitting back pretty hard. We've 
forced them to slow down the pace of their operations."

In that way, the new American approach seems to share the successes of the 
Israeli military, at least in the short term; Israeli officers contend that 
their strategy regularly stops catastrophes like suicide bombings from 
taking place.

"If you do nothing, they will just get stronger," said Martin van Creveld, 
professor of military history and strategy at Hebrew University in 
Jerusalem. He briefed American marines on Israeli tactics in urban warfare 
in September.

The problems in Abu Hishma, a town of 7,000, began in October, when the 
American military across the Sunni triangle decided to ease off on their 
military operations to coincide with the onset of the Islamic holy month of 
Ramadan.

In Abu Hishma, as in other towns, the backing off by the Americans was not 
reciprocated by the insurgents. American troops regularly came under mortar 
fire, often traced to the surrounding orchards.

Meanwhile, the number of bombs planted on nearby roads rose sharply. Army 
convoys regularly took fire from a house a few miles away from the village.

The last straw for the Americans came on Nov. 17, when a group of 
guerrillas fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the front of a Bradley 
armored personnel carrier. The grenade, with an armored piercing tip, 
punched through the Bradley's shell and killed Staff Sgt. Dale Panchot, one 
of its crewmen.

The grenade went straight into the sergeant's chest. With the Bradley still 
smoldering, the soldiers of the First Battalion, Eighth Infantry, part of 
the Fourth Infantry Division, surrounded Abu Hishma and searched for the 
guerrillas. Soldiers began encasing the town in razor wire.

The next day, an American jet dropped a 500-bomb on the house that had been 
used to attack them. The Americans arrested eight sheiks, the mayor, the 
police chief and most members of the city council. "We really hammered the 
place," Maj. Darron Wright said.

Two and a half weeks later, the town of Abu Hishma is enclosed in a 
barbed-wire fence that stretches for five miles. Men ages 18 to 65 have 
been ordered to get identification cards. There is only way into the town 
and one way out.

"This fence is here for your protection," reads the sign posted in front of 
the barbed-wire fence. "Do not approach or try to cross, or you will be shot."

American forces have used the tactic in other cities, including Awja, the 
birthplace of Saddam Hussein. American forces also sealed off three towns 
in western Iraq for several days.

"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I 
think we can convince these people that we are here to help them," Colonel 
Sassaman said.

The bombing of the house, about a mile outside the barbed wire, is another 
tactic that echoes those of the Israeli Army. In Iraq, the Americans have 
bulldozed, bombed or otherwise rendered useless a number of buildings which 
they determined were harboring guerrillas.

In Tikrit, residents pointed out a home they said had been bulldozed by 
American tanks. The occupants had already left, they said.

"I watched the Americans flatten that house," said Abdullah al-Ajili, who 
lives down the road.

American officers acknowledge that they have destroyed buildings around 
Tikrit. In a recent news conference, General Sanchez explained the strategy 
but ignored a question about parallels to the Israeli experience.

"Well, I guess what we need to do is go back to the laws of war and the 
Geneva Convention and all of those issues that define when a structure 
ceases to be what it is claimed to be and becomes a military target," 
General Sanchez said. "We've got to remember that we're in a low-intensity 
conflict where the laws of war still apply."

In Abu Hishma, residents complain that the village is locked down for 15 
hours a day, meaning that they are unable to go to the mosque for morning 
and evening prayers. They say the curfew does not allow them time to stand 
in the daylong lines for gasoline and get home before the gate closes for 
the night.

But mostly, it is a loss of dignity that the villagers talk about. For each 
identification card, every Iraqi man is assigned a number, which he must 
hold up when he poses for his mug shot. The card identifies his age and 
type of car. It is all in English.

"This is absolutely humiliating," said Yasin Mustafa, a 39-year-old primary 
school teacher. "We are like birds in a cage."

Colonel Sassaman said he would maintain the wire enclosure until the 
villagers turned over the six men who killed Sergeant Panchot, though he 
acknowledged they may have slipped far away.

Colonel Sassaman is feared by many of Abu Hishma's villagers, who hold him 
responsible for the searches and razor wire around the town. But some said 
they understood what a difficult job he had, trying to pick out a few bad 
men from a village of 7,000 people.

"Colonel Sassaman, you should come and live in this village and be a 
sheik," Hassan Ali al-Tai told the colonel outside the checkpoint.

The colonel smiled, and Mr. Tai turned to another visitor.

"Colonel Sassaman is a very good man," he said. "If he got rid of the 
barbed wire and the checkpoint, everyone would love him."

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Matthias Reichl
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