The news from Fallujah is grim. Casualties are heavy on all sides, the city is being bombed to ruin, and those few civilians that remain are without water or power while bodies rot in the streets. DefenseTech reported on the Fallujah push last week and included some quotes from the Army’s new Counterinsurgency Operations field manual:
- Concentrate on elimination of the insurgents, not on terrain objectives…
- Get counterinsurgency forces out of garrisons, cities, and towns; off the roads and trails into the environment of the insurgents…
- Avoid establishment of semipermanent patrol bases laden with artillery and supplies that tend to tie down the force. (Pay special attention to prevent mobile units from becoming fixed.)
- Emphasize secrecy and surprise…
- Judicious application of the minimum destruction concept in view of the overriding requirements to minimize alienating the population. (For example, bringing artillery or air power to bear on a village from which sniper fire was received may neutralize insurgent action but will alienate the civilian population as a result of casualties among noncombatants.)…
The news reports, obviously, suggest that a different sort of war has been playing out on the ground.