From: rhinoceros (rhinoceros@freemail.gr)
Date: Wed May 19 2004 - 08:39:54 MDT
[Casey]
The Last Iraqi Insurgency
By Niall Ferguson
The New York Times, April 18, 2004
<snip>
And this brings us to the second lesson the United States needs to learn from the British experience. Putting this rebellion down will require severity. In 1920, the British eventually ended the rebellion through a combination of aerial bombardment and punitive village-burning expeditions. It was not pretty. Even Winston Churchill, then the minister responsible for the air force, was shocked by the actions of some trigger-happy pilots and vengeful ground troops. And despite their overwhelming technological superiority, British forces still suffered more than 2,000 dead and wounded.
Is the United States willing or able to strike back with comparable ruthlessness? Unlikely — if last week's gambit of unconditional cease-fires is any indication. Washington seems intent on reining in the Marines and pinning all hope on the handover of power scheduled — apparently irrevocably — for June 30.
This could prove a grave error. For the third lesson of 1920 is that only by quelling disorder firmly and immediately will America be able to achieve its objective of an orderly handover of sovereignty. After all, a similar handover had always been implicit in the mandate system, but only after the revolt had been crushed did the British hasten to install the Hashemite prince Faisal as king.
<snip>
[rhinoceros]
I'll give this a similar reply to the one I gave when it was first posted in the BBS.
First, history did not stop with the anexing of prince Faisal in Iraq, did it? Shouldn't we take into account what happened in Iraq from 1920 to our days for our history lesson?
My second objection is with the choice of a goal. If Ferguson speaks as a technical advisor on how to subdue Iraq in an effective and long-lasting way, I can understand his effort. Of course, that does not make me despise his advice any less, if I don't share the goal to which he has set his mind.
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