Marc

Noted: that the enemy deliberatly try to inflame the various factions by extremist action, including televised torture and making examples. The same goes for suicide attacks and IED's. All designed to piss off the other guy, looking for extreme retaliation, particularly misdirected retaliation.

That said US troops ranging in age from 18-21 in most cases are a very susceptible market for this type of attack. C2 of these troops becomes ever more difficult over time. I understand that leadership, strong and effective can and will get these young people through the tough spots but it won't be easy. The more dispersed they are the harder it will get. Regardless of what you say you cannot and will not get troops to value the lives of the locals more than the value of their own. Look at the reaction to a policman being killed here in the US and look at the reaction to these captured troops. The local Iraqi's know that we will not put forth the same effort to recover them.

Seperately: I find the inequity of 'battlefield ethics' difficult to fathom. For instance if you drop a 'precision' 500 lbs bomb on a building in order to kill armed insurgents but in the process you kill five civilians. The civilians get classified as collateral damage. Conduct the same action with 'precision' rifles, grenades and bayonets and then you have a warcrime investigation. I am being somewhat sarcastic but I think that we undestand the point.

Another issue is one of fear. The insurgents may fear our bombs, and our tech, and a platoon of infantry, but they do not fear much else. What does an insurgent with bombs strapped to his chest have to fear? If captured by US forces he will be arrested, detained, charged, he will be fed, his medical treatment will be top flight. It is almost a pre-view of Paradise. No one will use a black and decker on his knee cap. I am not advocating lowering our moral standards this is just a fact of the times, the insurgents fear their own far more than they fear us. And fear is important. Substitute respect for fear and the same concept applies. What are the ethics of fear?

We are banking on the insurgency burning out. For the neutral inhabitants to say enoughs enough and to side with us. We target the leadership, we try to foster splits amongst rival groups, we weaken them by physical presence. But we draw a line at what we consider immoral and barbarous activity. They don't and that is the rub.

-T