The Iraq Solution – Coming Sooner Than You Think

posted 16 Nov 04
The Iraq Solution – Coming Sooner Than You Think
Without Reservation
A biweekly column by Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)
MilitaryWeek
Professor Mark LeVine has suggested "Four Solutions for Fallujah" in language suitably West Bank and Euro-colonial.
One solution is based on a Syrian case. In 1982, Asad put down a revolt in the city of Hama. The Syrian army killed 20,000 citizens and flattened the city. The Hama solution was a "demonstration" intended to deter other cities from getting similar ideas.
A second alternative is the 2002 Israeli siege of Jenin. A highly criticized and brutal offensive, in the end it succeeded in wearing down the resistance and maintaining Israeli strategic advantage.
A third is the 1920 British experience in Iraq. A massive display of force on the resistance backfired and further inflamed anger against the British. After losing 3,000 of 50,000 troops, the British withdrew later that year. The 1920 expulsion is known in Iraq as Ath Thawra al Iraqiyya al Kubra, or the Great Iraqi Revolution, and it unified the country across religious and ethnic lines.
A fourth alternative put forth by LeVine is "the more unsettling 'French' scenario" where "... a growing awareness of the human toll of the occupation, coupled with levels of political corruption that are already staggering would lend force to a desire to internationalize the next phase of Iraq's transition to full sovereignty."
While we haven't heard a lot from the top brass at the Pentagon regarding their real strategy for winning the peace in Iraq, there is plenty of advice to go around.....