What a Plan!

Well, you've got to hand it to SecDef Don Rumsfeld. For years he has promised to transform the military into a new, flexible, rapid response force that could act decisively towards a threat anywhere in the world. We finally are on the precipice of that transformation - Don has done it! The new US military is now embracing fighting strategies from the year 627. Wait, that's the medieval ages isn't it? Can this be what he really intended?

Let's look at what's happening in Iraq. Unable to stem the continuing violence in Baghdad, the Iraqi Interior Ministry is embarking upon a plan to dig trenches around the city.

Inspired by Islamic history, the plan for a ditch around Baghdad is the newest twist in what has so far been a losing battle to prevent suicide car bombs and other weapons from being smuggled into the capital.

"Trenches will be dug around Baghdad in the coming weeks," the Interior Ministry spokesman, Brig. Abdul-Kareem Khalaf, told The Associated Press. "They will surround Baghdad."

He provided no details of what distance the trenches would cover, nor how deep or wide they would be. It is about 100 kilometres around the edge of the city.

He said the plan was inspired by the Battle of Khandaq, Arabic for Battle of the Trench, in 627, during which Prophet Muhammad protected the city of Medina from an army by digging trenches.

Khalaf said that except for the trenches, vehicle and pedestrian traffic would be restricted to just 28 entry points with manned checkpoints. "We will leave only 28 inlets to Baghdad while all other inlets will be blocked. Supports will be added to the trenches to hinder the movements of people and vehicles. The trenches will be under our watch," he said.

Now since the Iraqi defense forces can't do anything without US military approval, Rumsfeld obviously okayed the plan. Good forward thinking. Here's a few additional ideas that may help: crossbows are much quieter than guns, maces are good close quarters combat weapons, horses require much less fuel than Humvees and tanks, boiling oil really strikes fear in the opposition force.....

Isn't this siege mentality? Didn't Bush just tell us things were getting better?

Q: I'd like to ask you another question about Iraq. It's been another bloody day there. The last several weeks have been 40, 50, 60 bodies a day. We've been talking for the last several months about Iraq being on the brink of a civil war. I'd like to ask you if it's not time to start talking about Iraq as being in a civil war. And if it's not, what's the threshold?

BUSH: Well, it seems like it's pretty easy to speculate from over here about the conditions on the ground. And so what I do is I talk to people like our ambassador and General Casey, which I just did this morning.

And they and the Iraqi government just don't agree with the hypothesis it is a civil war..... But they also believe that the Baghdad security plan is making progress.

So to answer your question, it's no question it's tough. What I look for is whether or not the unity government is moving forward, whether or not they have a political plan to resolve issues such as oil and federalism, whether or not they're willing to reconcile and whether or not Iraqi troops and Iraqi police are doing their jobs.

Q: But how do you measure progress with a body count like that?

BUSH: Well, one way you do it is you measure progress based upon the resilience of the Iraqi people: Do they want there to be a unity government; or are they splitting up into, you know, factions of people warring with the head leaders, with different alternatives of governing styles and different philosophies?..... We're constantly changing our tactics. We're constantly adapting to the enemy. We're constantly saying, Here's the way forward. We want to work with you.

Imagine an enemy that can't stand what we believe in getting ahold of oil resources and taking a bunch of oil off the market in order to have an economic punishment. In other words, You go ahead and do this, and if you don't, we'll punish you economically.

It always comes back to the oil doesn't it? That's why we are there. It always was.
Posted on The Human Stain