A history of America's love affair with Counterinsurgency and it's deadly implications, complete wit

[trotskygrad]

[URL]http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2012/06/how_to_kill_a_rational_peasant.html[/URL]

A really really insightful look at how counterinsurgency has developed throughout the years and how it's affected the lives of people.

It's also a really long article, so settle in.

It provides a counterpoint to those in the military who insist counterinsurgency is the way forwards, through winning the hearts and minds of the civilians by using positive tactics similar to the insurgents, because in doing so, you must adapt the torture and fear tactics of the insurgents yourself.

Selected Quotes

[quote]At the beginning of this year one of the weirdest characters ever to become involved in the present Afghan war died. He was called Jack Idema and he was a brilliant con-man. For a moment, during the early part of the war[B], [h2]Idema persuaded all the major TV networks and scores of journalists that he was some kind of special forces super-hero who was using all kinds of "black ops" to track down and arrest the terrorists.In reality, before 2001, Idema had been running a hotel for pets in North Carolina called The Ultimate Pet Resort.[/h2] [/B]He had been in prison for fraud, and had tried to con journalists before about being some kind of super-spy. But September 11th gave him his chance - and he turned up in Kabul dressed like this.[/quote]

[quote]When President de Gaulle decided to give independence to Algeria, [B]many of the senior French army officers who had been fighting the insurgents were furious. They believed it was a complete betrayal of everything they had been fighting for, and also of the thousands of French Algerians living in Algeria.[/B][B]In their anger they set up their own clandestine organisation to try and stop de Gaulle. It was called the Organisation de L'Armee Secrete - the OAS - and among its leaders were some of the officers that had led the Counterinsurgency programme. [/B]But Galula himself was not among them.

The OAS was a terrorist organisation that between 1961 and 1962 created an intensely violent campaign of bombings and assassinations in both Algeria and France. [B]At one point they exploded hundreds of bombs a day, killing innocent people[/B], to try and force the FLN to resume their terrorist attacks and thus justify the return of French control.

[B][h2]They also tried to assassinate President de Gaulle five times.[/h2][/B][/quote]

[quote]
"[I]Behind the scenes, McChrystal, operating his own Phoenix-like Special Ops program, wipes out [B]"thousands,"[/B] according to McChrystal's deputy, Major General Bill Mayville, noting that [B][h2]"JSOC was a killing machine"[/h2][/B][/I].......................[/quote]

(should this be in mass debate or something? I'm afraid it's too long for this sub forum)