[BREAK] Just about every expert agrees that the ONLY way to win against an insurgency is to be able to gain the trust of the vast majority of the population. (As I can attest from my own experience in Vietnam, doing so without an interpreter is damn near impossible. But, that's just one of the myriad of problems we face in Bush's Baghdad Blunder!) After attacking, invading and occupying their country, and after they've seen the results of our torture policy, cluster bombings and the outrageous actions committed by the unfettered contracted security forces our corporations use, we are so reviled in Iraq that we'd have a better chance of successfully pairing up Michael Moore and Ann Coulter than gaining the affections of the civilian populace. In todays Wash Post, we read how an Iraqi Army Major's wife, who holds a master's degree in English translation, fears "death" when asked if she'd work with Americans. And her fear is NOT of being targeted by insurgents:

"With you? No. Not with you. Do I want to die?" she said. "I am afraid of you, I'm sorry."

When you can't win the single "heart and mind" of an English speaking allied officer's wife, your chances are much diminished as far as dealing with a farmer whose crops and livestock you've bombed, or whose children your bombs have crippled/killed. As the soldier said:

Faced with an often distrustful, frightened populace, members of the task force said they doubted that adding thousands more U.S. troops would change this frustrating dynamic. One soldier, on his second tour in Iraq, said the attitude of the Iraqi civilians toward the Americans continues to deteriorate.

JB ===== [/BREAK]

U.S. Unit Walks 'A Fine Line' In Iraqi Capital - washingtonpost.com U.S. Unit Walks 'A Fine Line' In Iraqi Capital By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, February 6, 2007; Page A01 BAGHDAD, Feb. 5 -- The camouflaged American soldiers, weary from hours of struggling to talk with Iraqis during a patrol in eastern Baghdad, laughed with relief after an Iraqi army major's wife met them at her door. The soldiers had no interpreter. She had a master's degree in English translation. "Do you want to work for the Americans?" asked U.S. Army Lt. Anthony Slamar, 26. "Do you want a job as a translator?" The woman stepped back into her darkened doorway. "With you? No. Not with you. Do I want to die?" she said. "I am afraid of you, I'm sorry."

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