Quote:
Originally Posted by Militarythinker
Ahh there it is. Not quite what I am looking for but its actually an approach I didn't think of. I think that solution solves the problem of developing more anti-US feeling.
I apologize for not making my initial request more specific. I will do my best to be more specific in the future. Also please forgive my narrowminded persuit of a discussion on military tactics. I don't have time to type out all my ideas on the situation but here is a bit which will hopefully give people a better idea of what I was looking for.
The general plan for Iraq was large troop movement across the continent. Shock and Awe was the name of the game. We rolled up in our big tanks and APC's ready to fight some imaginary regular army. While there were a few regular units that used tactics similar to ours, many units were civilian clothed militia and terrorists.
This allowed many members of the Iraqi military to just drop their AK's or even just conceal them and become instant guerilla fighters. This created a difficult battlefield situation for our large force operations. Territory that the day before been secured and passed by our forces could easily have many undercover militia and terrorists alike.
In a war like the war in Iraq, holding real-estate becomes almost impossible and requires lots of troops.
Instead of thundering into Iraq with our huge columns of tanks. I would have focused more on small unit manuvers. Clumsy tactics like roadside bombs and other acts of terrorism are useless if the enemy doesn't have targets. Take away the endless columns of tanks rolling down their roads and they no longer have anything to bomb.
While I don't know the current capabilities of the US military in this area this is what I would have done:
Small self sustaining units would be sent into Iraq and target the structured units. This would involve removing leadership and destroying military instilations and equipment. Removing leadership could be done through assasination or capture, depending on if we needed information. The rest could be done with placed demo charges or calling in air strikes.
Teams could be moved deep into Iraq territory by either helicopters at night or even night jumps. It is amazing what a small team of well trained US soldiers can do with all the US firepower behind them.
By doing this, we are fighting them with their own tactics, but in a cleaner way. Terrorism like the kind that was used in Iraq can easily kill innocent civilians and almost seems to encourage it in my opinion. Our form of guerilla warfare would not be as deadly to civilians. Controlled operations have a very small chance of hurting innocents. While I am sure there would be at least one mix up with an air strike or a misplaced charge, I think the overall damage to civilians would be minimal.
Anyway that is kinda just the beginning of what I would have done. I have some followup ideas and a few other fun ideas to throw in that I will add later. I hope this clears up what I ment when I said, "What would you have done in Iraq?"
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My dear Military mind..
For you and for all of the others whom like to think that problem of Iraqi insurgency and extremism could be solved by sending small well trained special stealthy and what not force, I have very disappointing news. Please understand that you are fighting the IDEA. Idea as it is, is not a material thing and therefore it can't be eliminated by blowing things up. You can kill someone that is the carrier of that idea but the idea itself won't get hurt at all. In your little special operation thing, the intelligence would find top commander of some problematic organization, than special forces will go there and neutralize that person. For a brief moment his followers would be stunned and disorganized but only for little while. You can bet that soon there would be someone else whom would say that he can do things better and you have a new target. And using the same tactics you would take him out but again soon after he is killed another one will pop up. And that could go for all eternity.
This happens because in all your special operations, you didn't eliminated the idea itself, just the carrier of that idea. Will that reassure people whom believe in idea-no. It will force them to be more effective, more careful and each time you will have more difficulties. In order to fight radical Islam you need to understand first the origins of Islam and than what causes it to become radical. You have to fight that idea with your idea not with LGB or SEALs. They are useless in this case.