Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh
This will cripple any hope of a Democratic Republic of Iraq just as -- if not more certainly than -- guerilla warfare. It is at least possible to shoot the guerillas and make them stop.
Actually, counterinsurgency doctrine would suggest that it is not possible to shoot the guerillas to make them stop. Not to say that patrols shouldn't shoot, or that extremists shouldn't die, but rather that without political reconciliation, victory is impossible.

To win, all a guerilla or insurgent has to do is not lose. To lose, all an occupier (or liberator, if you will) has to do is not win. It's a bad equation for the occupier, and the only way to change it is to deny the enemy support amongst the populace. And the only way to do that is to create a new political reality, something that cannot be accomplished by armed forces alone.

Right now every faction in Iraq thinks that it will get to control the death camps and the oil fields. They have zero history of compromise, and less of clean government.