The US Army Needs a Peacekeeping School

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Heerscher
Let's just call it what it is: the Colonization school. I know that it is hard for Americans to accept the fact that right now, they are COLONIZING Iraq, with the US being a former colony. By colonizing I mean using military force to conquer a country and then shape it in such a way - a process in which the conquered state has no real influence and which is legitimized solely by using military force - so that it can fulfill a certain strategic or economic purpose for the victor.

Mind you, I entirely support this idea. Only I am afraid that the Americans don't fully understand the dark and sinister nature of colonization - and that this will be reflected in the way 'peacekeeping' is teached at such a school.

Colonizing a country, be it to turn it into a cheap supplier of raw matrials or to change its government into a democracy and turn it's administration into a reliable ally, involves subjecting a people to your will. The art of subjecting peoples should not be taught using idealistic notions of the right to freedom of all peoples and the necessity of saving innocent peoples from their human rights-violating dictators. Instead it should be taught using the teachings of great political philosophers like Macchiavelli. The end justifies the means. And more important: only if you reach your end will the rest of the world accept its righteousness. If the Americans succeed in turning Iraq into a stable democracy and reliable ally of the West in the Middle-East, the horrors of the Abu Ghraib prison will be quikly forgotten and forgiven.

No disagreement here.

Good post.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
Told you so 30 months ago, Ted, but you were too much of a chickenhawk back then. Good to see you leave the dark side

I never would have thought in my worst dreams that an American Administration could be this evil and this incompetent at the same time.

It really has broken my heart.

I love this country and it has been taken for a ride, and I'm afraid the worst is not over.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
I never would have thought in my worst dreams that an American Administration could be this evil and this incompetent at the same time.

You were young and naive.

[DanS]

The military doesn't want to have this capability, because they would then be expected to use it. I am sympathetic to that line of thinking.

[techumseh]

Originally posted by Ted Striker


No disagreement here.

Good post.

So it's all worth it if Bush gets his way in the end?

[Ted Striker]

Uh, no.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by DanS
The military doesn't want to have this capability, because they would then be expected to use it. I am sympathetic to that line of thinking.

They are already having their capabilities MISused, "because they can," with regards to their other extraordinary abilities.

They are already expected to use this capability whether they want to or not, they just use it from their exisiting units that are neither designed nor trained for the purpose.

[DanS]

They are already having their capabilities MISused, "because they can," with regards to their other extraordinary abilities.

They are already expected to use this capability whether they want to or not, they just use it from their exisiting units that are neither designed nor trained for the purpose.

So let me get this straight. You want the military to have more capabilities that can be misused by the president?

[Ted Striker]

I want the military to have the best tools to do the job they are asked to do.

[techumseh]

This was part of Heerscher's post as well:

The end justifies the means. And more important: only if you reach your end will the rest of the world accept its righteousness. If the Americans succeed in turning Iraq into a stable democracy and reliable ally of the West in the Middle-East, the horrors of the Abu Ghraib prison will be quikly forgotten and forgiven.

I can't see you agreeing with this, Ted.

[Ted Striker]

My post is in reference to more than just Iraq.

Regarding Iraq specifically, a horror like Abu Gharib is a good example of why a peacekeeping school is need to avoid nightmares like that in the first place.

The first line though I started things out in the thread was:

Okay, let me preface this first of all by saying that the best way to avoid silly operations like Vietnam, Somalia, and Iraq is to just not get involved in them in the first place. However, that's a side discussion we've had for the past 2 years.

[Heerscher]

techumseh:

What I mean by that is, that in international politics basically 'might is right'. So the only way for the US to turn this whole mess in Iraq into something positive and worthwile is by reaching their current objectives for Iraq, which I identify as

1) turning Iraq into a stable democracy and example for the region
2) turning Iraq into a reliable political and military ally

I have always considered these goals dangerously overambitious. However, the US has incredible power and resources, so at least in theory it should be possible.

What I am afraid of however, is that the US does not understand that to reach this goal they need perseverance and an attitude that doesn't eschew the use of questionable but effective methods (and no, I don't consider 'Abu Ghraib' and 'Guantanamo' effective methods: to much exposure). In other words: the attitude of the 19th centery European nations that colonized huge parts of the world. I don't mean that the US should colonize this earth, only that the US should analyze and adopt the European methods and use them to their advantage in Iraq.

[VetLegion]

School of the Americas

[Az]

Heerscher makes an interesting argument

[VetLegion]

Only if you think reprisal shootings, bulldozing neighbourhoods, concentration camps and some genocide added in for good measure would show Iraqis who's the boos. I don't think so.

While these tactics undoubtly are effective, you can't just do a little of them, you have to sink in deep - far deeper than US is ready to do, or anyone in the modern world for that matter.