Kosovo Lessons for Iraq
"Be Not Afraid, for You Have Sons in America," the new book from my friend Stacy Sullivan, is finally in the bookstores. Earlier this month, Stacy did her first reading of the book -- from a galley copy -- and she drew a couple parallels to the war in Iraq. She spoke at the time the U.S. troops were surrounding Fallujah and shooting into the city causing unknown civilian deaths since there were no reports coming from inside the city. Here's a section from her book she read that night:

Classical insurgency theory holds that guerilla movements pass through three phases: the "latent and incipient phase," in which insurgents exploit the populace's dissatisfaction with the leadership, heighten their expectations, and recruit, organize, and train fighters; the "guerilla warfare phase," in which insurgents begin a campaign of intimidation, threats and raids on government police and military forces to provoke more repression, a tactic that shores up support among the population; and finally the "conventional warfare phase," in which the insurgents have enough support to fight government forces in a conventional war. The prerequisites for success, the theory holds, are popular support, a friendly neighboring state or safe haven, and an outside source of financing and weapons.

- posted by Amy @ 5/18/2004 11:41:00 AM