Iraqis still ask if U.S. invasion was worth it

[DOMLORD]

can you really train an army to fight against guerilla and follow the geniva conventions? people will be in an up roar about that if we ever did something like that. however violence is down in iraq (a little bit, but still not much) and its up in afghanistan. i think if we could make a difference in afghanistan we can do it in iraq, but then again that's just my natural optomist.

[Thorne]

can you really train an army to fight against guerilla and follow the geniva conventions? people will be in an up roar about that if we ever did something like that. however violence is down in iraq (a little bit, but still not much) and its up in afghanistan. i think if we could make a difference in afghanistan we can do it in iraq, but then again that's just my natural optomist.

I doubt that you could train an army to fight against them, but an elite group of commando-type fighters might be able to make a difference. The problem is doing it within the "Rules of War", if there is such a thing. I think the only real way to fight that kind of battle is to infiltrate the guerrilla groups and execute their leaders, as brutally and publicly as possible. Don't try to capture them, don't try to reason with them, don't ever let them off the hook. You go in and grab hold and kill them, one at a time or in groups, until the units wither away and die.
It wouldn't be pretty, it probably wouldn't be legal and, if the US news media found out about it they would castrate (figuratively, hopefully) the soldiers doing the work, the generals who sent them out and the lawmakers who appropriated the funding. But if you consistently take out the leadership you will eventually have a group of guerrillas who won't know how to carry on fighting.

[Ozme52]

can you really train an army to fight against guerilla and follow the geniva conventions?

Sure. Why not? But the cost is stupendous. It just takes too many troops to fight an effective campaign against guerillas. The Geneva Convention rules can easily be followed so long as you have enough troops and an effective internal intelligence machine in situ to crush and capture guerilla cells.

But better yet... do what you need and leave. Then deal with whomever takes over... and if they put the hammer down on their own people... do it again. I realize that may seem like an endless proposition but after one or two governments are replaced by force, you will end up with one that is more concerned with progress than power... and in the long run, that might be cheaper in terms of human lives lost than the way we're doing it now.