Retired Insurgents

[jastay3]

It wasn't so long ago that there were quite a few former insurgents hanging around who could give an inside look in lectures for military and intelligence personal. The generation that gave us "Casablanca" and "Exodus" is dying but still has members left and the Cold Warriors are still hanging around. It shouldn't be to hard to find people who would be willing to tell what it is like to be an insurgent.

[pcmfr]

Think of all the late 20th century small wars/insurgencies and I'm sure you will find many are doing just that. I attended a course on insurgent warfare last year and one of the instructors was a former Algerian militant for years then later turned and helped the French.

[goesh]

good insurgents die young - only old hippies burn out and mend their evil ways.

[120mm]

I think the trick is to get as many "current" insurgents to come work for our side. I have reason to believe that in both Afghanistan and Iraq, we are attempting and sometimes succeeding at doing just that.

[Old Eagle]

Chieu hoi!

[Abu Buckwheat]

I think the trick is to get as many "current" insurgents to come work for our side. I have reason to believe that in both Afghanistan and Iraq, we are attempting and sometimes succeeding at doing just that.

This is not a bad strategy, except that its being handled in sort of a clumsy way.

Its a common misperception that every insurgent is a Jihadi and will never surrender or stop his actions ... religious extremist insurgents comprise only 15-17% of the insurgency (AQI is just 2-5%) ... the Mujhideen Central Command (which is better translated as the Unified Mujahideen Command) are actually the Baathists FRLs ... they couldn't care less about Islam, even though they are Moslems who use the Rhetoric of the Islamists, they aren't fanatics - yet they account for 83-85% of the daily attacks.

In fact with the right amount of money the FRLs could be bought, but it will take huge concessions on the oil pipeline through to Syria and a ruthless crackdown on the Shiite Militias before that could even be brought to the table. Most Sunni AIFs just want a life and air conditioning for their kids ... with the right incentives they could be a force to rid us of AQI.
Just a thought.

[Thepartisan]

We would like to hear your perspective on the subject. For example, if you could provide your reasoning as to why or why not amnesty programs or subsidizing Sunni families would or would not have an impact upon the insurgency.

Heh, it's very amusing to observing how you americans think and tackle problems, i don't like to generalise all of you, but i think it's fair to say many of you have a capitalistic mentality, or atleast the ones in power. You think everything can be bought, everything has a price, people's lives, peoples dignity. You kill someones brother, mother, child, and you think that throwing money at the issue is going to fix it all. You assume that everyone is just an opportunist, who only acts only to further their own interests, because you assume everyone is like you.

Well i'll tell you why your strategy won't work, since your asking. The people whome you fight don't think the same way as you do, they belive in things that you probably can't even comprehend, like honour. They do not accept bribery, with money or power, because neither of those things is what they are fighting for. Try to understand, even if you where NOT knocking down peoples doors, raping their sons and daughters and stealing their resources, even if your occupation was the most benovelent in history, there would still be resistance against you. People don't like to be meddled with, it's not your place not your right, to meddle in the country's affairs.

Don't worry about it, Every Iraqi who was willing to sell their souls, their nation, and their people for money and power is already collaborating with you. Wether he/she was a sunni or a shia, or a ba'athist, or simply a back stabbing thief. Every opportunistic dirt bag who was already corrupt on the inside before the war, is already on your side. Furthermore, contrary to what you implied with your question, there is a shia resistance just aswell as a sunni resistance, and sunni traitors as well as shia traitors. It doesn't matter what you are but who you are and there is good and dirt everywhere.

This was all quite elequently put by US consul Warren Parker during the fall of Saigon. "All these years I've been down there, doing a job of work for my country and for this country, and today all I can see is that we've succeeded in separating all the good people from the scum, and we got the scum." - As reported by John Pilger.

Your battle with the resistance is a battle to the end, they will remain steadfast. Money won't save you. They fight for their nations dignity and freedom in the real sense. To suggest you can put a price on that or on peoples lives, is an insult.

-Victory or Martyrdom.