The Eternal Gaijin

Is torture effective? From Andrew Sullivan : I applaud you for standing up on this torture principle. [snip] [The incident detailed in the snip] brought to mind the training I had received on POW handling a decade before as a 2ndLt in Quantico . We were told not to torture because (1) it was wrong and (2) it didn't work.  I remember our instructors noting that even the Soviets didn't torture for information. because it didn't yield reliable information.  The Soviets tortured for retribution, to make an example, maybe just for kicks, but not for information.  That contention was borne out for me on the streets of Fallujah.  Torture doesn't work.  In fact, in a counterinsurgency it works against you because it turns the locals against you.  That is why the Marines took that guy back to his house.  Because they knew we were trying to win that neighborhood's trust, and torturing one of their own was not the way to do it, even if he was w...

The surge is working so violence is up and we can't leave. If the surge had worked violence would have been reduced and we wouldn't be able to leave. The level of discourse related to violence in Iraq is pathetic. Somewhere out there, though, is Robert Pape, doing the actual stats and work showing that most of what you know about suicide bombing is wrong. Foreign Policy Watch: It's the Occupation, Stupid Writing for The Independent, Robert Fisk notes that the Iraq invasion has spawned an incredible spike in suicide attacks. Since the war began, some 1,121 Muslims have blown themselves up. "On several days," Fisk writes, "six even nine suicide bombers have exploded themselves in Iraq in a display of almost Wal-Mart availability. If life in Iraq is cheap, death is cheaper." The numbers are particularly surprising, given the history. Between 1980 and 2003, there were 'just' 315 suicide attacks by terrorist groups around the world. In the past f...