Jim
10-03-2004, 06:52 AM
We should treat the cities where we’re having problems with insurgents as hostage situations, because I believe that is truly what they are.
If we ordered everyone out of a small town with the itention of thoroughly searching them and temporarily housing them somewhere else while searching the abandoned buildings, we would find, of course, that many remained behind. These would be insurgents and their hostages. The search of buidlings and homes would no more be possible then than it is now.
But the advantage to this approach is that the situation which results is recognizably a hostage situation to the rest of the world, and everybody knows what that means. The lives of the hostages are at great risk, but that is the necessary condition which the hostage takers-not the would-be hostage rescuers- have created to achieve their ends. The world understands that in some sense the lives of at least some of the hostages are already forfeit by virtue of the actions of the hostage takers, and it is the hostage takers who will bear the responsibility and the blame.
In a large city, sections would have to be cordoned off, evacuated, and barricaded and guarded sequentially. It is obviously more difficult but the principle of exposing the hostage situation existing now for what it is remains the same.
The specifics for dealing with the situation as a hostage situation is a military decision and not within the scope of this post.
If we ordered everyone out of a small town with the itention of thoroughly searching them and temporarily housing them somewhere else while searching the abandoned buildings, we would find, of course, that many remained behind. These would be insurgents and their hostages. The search of buidlings and homes would no more be possible then than it is now.
But the advantage to this approach is that the situation which results is recognizably a hostage situation to the rest of the world, and everybody knows what that means. The lives of the hostages are at great risk, but that is the necessary condition which the hostage takers-not the would-be hostage rescuers- have created to achieve their ends. The world understands that in some sense the lives of at least some of the hostages are already forfeit by virtue of the actions of the hostage takers, and it is the hostage takers who will bear the responsibility and the blame.
In a large city, sections would have to be cordoned off, evacuated, and barricaded and guarded sequentially. It is obviously more difficult but the principle of exposing the hostage situation existing now for what it is remains the same.
The specifics for dealing with the situation as a hostage situation is a military decision and not within the scope of this post.