From yesterday’s Slate: The NYT top story profiles the town of Abu Hishma, which the United States has enclosed in 5 miles of barbed wire. Residents must enter and exit through a guarded checkpoint wearing identification tags printed in English. Only one other town has been fenced in like this, but since early November the Army has begun using tactics such as bulldozing and bombing suspects’ houses and arresting their relatives. The strategy has halved the number of attacks on U.S. soldiers, though it has Iraqis muttering that they have become the new Palestinians.
But wait–didn’t we go to Iraq to liberate the people? Or was it to find the WMDs? I don’t know, I get so confused. I wish the Administration could make up its mind.
Certainly, isolating towns isn’t likely to deliver much in the way of goodwill.