Iraq and Afghanistan

Today’s paper discusses a British approach to fighting the insurgency that the American forces might profit from adopting. I say “might” because the British approach has not been 100% successful and the British in the South are in a largely Shi’a area in which the foreign intervention has been welcomed more than in the areas of or worst problems.

First, although they are working on setting up local councils, they are less intent on establishing democracy because they simply do not believe it will have much staying power. Second when the al-Sadr revolt reached them, their response was to hold their bases and outlast the mortar rounds. They killed many of the Mahdi Army in the process, but they launched no counterattacks and so spared the civilians. They make a deliberate effort to see the point of view of the local people, including the Mahdi Army. they try to avoid armor and even helmets as much as possible. They have developed a program to aid local businesses with small loans. The effort to involve the leaders even of hostile groups in these programs seems to have paid off — at least for now.