It didnt work in 'nam, it doesnt work in Iraq either, mltry doesnt care

http://www.guerrillanews.com/intelligence/doc3092.html

Special Iraq Coverage: Your Hearts and Minds, or Else

Gert Van Langendonck, October 9, 2003



Editor's Note: GNN is proud to kick off a month of special Iraq coverage with an exclusive dispatch from Gert Van Langendonck, a veteran war correspondent and our newest contributor. Van Langendonck reports that U.S. troops facing fierce resistance from Saddam loyalists in the so-called Sunni Triangle are taking a page out of an old textbook, rewarding Iraqis who cooperate with them, and punishing those who shoot at them by destroying their houses and crops. It didn't work out very well in Vietnam, and it doesn't look like it's working out in occupied Iraq.

(Balad, Iraq) Mohammed Al-Awasari's shack was no match for the American M-113 armored personal carrier. In a matter of minutes, the APC's powerful tracks reduced his small shop in the village of Albu Hishma to a pile of rubble. The U.S. soldiers on this "PSYOPS" (psychological operations) mission deep inside Iraq's Sunni Triangle, were laughing, some were taking pictures to show back home, while the gathered villagers stood around and looked on helplessly.

Shopkeeper Mohammed was out of luck. The U.S. troops had decided to give him a break after he told them he wasn't responsible for the spray-painted pro-Saddam slogan on his shop's facade. But the Kurdish translator working with the Americans entered his shop and found a notebook in which Mohammed had apparently been practicing writing the very slogan on the wall outside: "Saddam is the heroic leader of a cowardly people. Saddam is the heroic leader of a cowardly people. Saddam..." Mohammed was given five minutes to clear out his produce before the APC went in.



Mohammed's shop was one of five houses in Albu Hishma that were partially destroyed on this day by the soldiers of the 1st Battalion 8th Infantry, stationed near the town of Balad. Several other villagers escaped the same fate by hurriedly covering up the anti-American graffiti with mud. Today's mission was part of a new, two-tiered approach to winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis in this area, notorious for its stiff resistance against the U.S.-led --
"We have tried to help these people and they have thanked us by shooting at us...We want to make them understand that there is a price to pay if they support the terrorists."


MORE.............


The policy is eerily similar to that of the Saddam regime, only in reverse.

Did anyone bother to see how they wanted to be helped?

...sorry. Just got reminded of an old Benny Hill skit for a moment.

And not just the Sharon regime, although Sharon has pushed its envelope. It does not win hearts and minds. At least the Israelis are clear about that -- their intent is intimidation and dominance. They do not pretend to being in the process of building democracy in the West Bank and Gaza.

Look for Dubya's thugs to be prating about 'smuggling tunnels' in the future, as an excuse for destroying more Iraqi buildings.