Quote:
Originally posted by Ronn_Bman:
They now have taken an American hostage that they threaten to kill unless the US withdraws from the city. It seems like that is something that would take as a victory after all, so there was a drawback.
Japan couldn't afford cave to the threat of burning their citizens alive, in fact you said no government could, so can the US pull back now?
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It's called provocation. They WANT the battle to continue. They are not so foolish to believe that they can win the physical battle against the world's greatest military machine - but they can win the propaganda war.
Oh yes, for sure images of hostage taking will horrify
western, audiences - especially as the pictures of the events inside Falluja are not being aired there. But they are not trying to get western support - they want the support of Iraqis and the wider middle-east. And those people have seen the images.
And in the same way that we bill every inmate of GM bay as a terrorist and therefore not worthy of the justice system or rights, they will bill the hostages as 'mercenaries' who should therefore not be worthy of rights. (Mercenaries are a particularly bad word in the ME, having been responsible for much of the worst attrocities throughout their history).
It's the same tactic that Saddam hoped for during the Iraq war. The cities bombed, hundreds/thousands of dead civilians and US soldiers drawn into urban warfare where they are more vunerable.
A tactical withdrawl is not a defeat. In so doing, the US would take control of a situation that they no longer have control of. It's a matter of perspectives. They would still be in control of all traffic entering and leaving the city. They would still control almost every important aspect of what goes on in the city, when the power goes on or off, when the water is switched on or off, how much or how little food goes in - and more importantly what images leave the city.
As Winston Churchill put it:
"Battles are won by slaughter and manoeuvre. The greater the general, the more he contributes in manoeuvre, the less he demands in slaughter."
and,
"There are many kinds of manoeuvres in war, some only of which take place upon the battlefield. There are manoeuvres far to the flank or rear. There are manoeuvres in time, in diplomacy, in mechanics, in psychology; all of which are removed from the battlefield, but react often decisively upon it, and the object of all is to find easier ways, other than sheer slaughter, of achieving the main purpose."
[ 04-11-2004, 06:20 AM: Message edited by: Skunk ]