{"id":13154,"date":"2007-10-08T10:40:27","date_gmt":"2007-10-08T14:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13154.html"},"modified":"2007-10-08T10:40:27","modified_gmt":"2007-10-08T14:40:27","slug":"us-troops-struggle-to-know-thine-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/us-troops-struggle-to-know-thine-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. troops struggle to ‘know thine enemy’"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the more painful dynamics on the ground in Iraq is that U.S. troops frequently have no way of knowing whether the Iraqi carrying an AK-47 is an insurgent, a terrorist, a member of a hostile militia, or a member of an aligned militia. The results are frequently deadly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When U.S. sentries fatally shot three guards near an Iraqi-manned checkpoint south of Baghdad, they thought they were targeting enemy fighters planting roadside bombs, according to the American commander of the region.<\/p>\n

The shootings, which are still under investigation, underscore a new dilemma facing U.S. troops as former fighters join forces against extremists and Iraqis are increasingly forced to take up arms to protect themselves — how does one distinguish them from the enemy?<\/p>\n

The U.S. military said the American troops shot the three civilians Thursday near a checkpoint manned by local members of a U.S.-allied group helping provide security in the village of Abu Lukah, near Musayyib, a Shiite-dominated town 40 miles south of Baghdad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s hard to overstate what a nightmare this is. Iraqis can’t differentiate between well-armed Americans serving in the U.S. Armed Forces and the well-armed Americans serving in Blackwater. Americans in Iraq can’t differentiate between well-armed Iraqis serving in friendly militias and well-armed Iraqis who want to kill them. (Worse yet, Americans also can’t tell friend from foe within the Iraqi Security Forces<\/i>.)<\/p>\n

The AP added that “friendly fire killings … could threaten to undermine the U.S. strategy of seeking alliances with local Sunni and Shiite leaders to fill the vacuum left by a national police force that has been plagued by corruption allegations and infiltration by militants.”<\/p>\n

Of course it could. As one allied Iraqi guard said, “We are trying to restore security in the area while the Americans are killing us.”
\n<\/p>\n

In a bid to distinguish the recruits from potential militants, the groups have been given vests with reflective stripes, similar to those worn by traffic police in many countries. Others wear brown T-shirts with Iraqi hats similar to those worn by the national army.<\/p>\n

Capt. John Newman, 31, of Columbus, Ga., said the soldiers believe they can discern volunteers from the insurgents.<\/p>\n

“We’ve given them their road guard vests,” Newman said. “So, he’d better be wearing that vest if I see him carrying an AK-47.”<\/p>\n

Lynch stressed the Americans are not arming the groups because the men already have weapons, primarily AK-47s that are legally permitted in Iraqi households.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nearly five years into the war, U.S. troops will now know friend from foe — both of whom carry AK-47s — based on vests and t-shirts, given to allied Iraqis who were trying to kill Americans up until fairly recently.<\/p>\n

This doesn’t exactly sound like a recipe for success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the more painful dynamics on the ground in Iraq is that U.S. troops frequently have no way of knowing whether the Iraqi carrying an AK-47 is an insurgent, a terrorist, a member of a hostile militia, or a member of an aligned militia. The results are frequently deadly. When U.S. sentries fatally shot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}