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Yon’s Latest

By Callimachus | Related entries in Blogging, History, Smart Things Said By Smart People, The War On Terrorism, War

Michael Yon’s latest post from Mosul is up. And truly, in a rare convergence of cliche and truth, journalism is the rough draft of history.

Perhaps fueling his distress was the well-known but little mentioned tendency–some might say emerging trend–for some Iraqi police to release prisoners for bribes. This catch and release program has the same negative consequences as the Coalition tendency of detaining and then releasing suspected insurgents following a brief incarceration at Abu Ghraib. I have heard American military officers and senior enlisted men around Iraq complaining that terrorists are being released back on the streets, where their own soldiers and Marines must face them yet again in combat.

Every combat soldier knows the risks of capturing dangerous men far exceed those associated with just killing them. Capturing a terrorist is no longer a signal of the end of his ability to disrupt forward progress. That’s not a minor shift in emphasis. Among people weary of watching friends and comrades fall and bleed to death, any adjustments in the goal posts give rise to discussions of more expedient and durable ways of dealing with infestations of combatants who scurry in and out of hiding places. Not tightening the lids on these insect jars does more than just lead some cantankerous officers and police to consider more definitive measures of dealing with combatants. It also places our young soldiers and Marines in precarious waters, where one can only hope they are physically and morally conditioned to resist the current.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 and is filed under Blogging, History, Smart Things Said By Smart People, The War On Terrorism, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Yon’s Latest”

Tom Grey - Liberty Dad Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 4:27 am
More will be shot, fewer captured; less intelligence. Less finesse.

The Iraqis have to know that the terrorists will lose, and that those fighting terrorists will not be assassinated.

More anti-bribery measures could help.

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