How to win the peace?

Duty Honor Country

Duty Honor Country

Active member
Anyone can tell you how to win a war. That aspect is relatively easy compared to winning the peace. I am looking for examples from the past and present on how to win the peace...or more importantly, what not to do. With Iraq and Afganistan, this topic should be easy. I'd also like to have examples that are not so known.

NOTE Lets keep this discussion serious. Killing everyone is not how you win the peace.
 
Read Sun Tzu's "The Art Of War"

it talks about how to overcome your enemy without ever fighting him.

Indirect attack, no one gets hurt, well not as much anyways
 
Examples, I want examples!!!


The USMC Small Wars Manual says "...Marines are not to judge native by American standards and give due consideration to their pride, their religions, their class distinction and other social customs...Marines were not to issue orders that needlessly damage people's self-esteem nor to make people suffer humiliation punishments...Warning that reprisals and other drastic punitive measure might "create sympathy for the revolutionists, destroy lives and property of innocent people, and have adverse effect on the descipline of out troops."

I believe that the American Command never issued orders to abuse the prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, but I also believe the command never issed orders to treat the prisoners with respect either. The pictures showing AMERICAN soldiers abusing Iraqi (muslim) prisoners had done more to hurt the operation in Iraq than the deaths of 100 innocent civilians. Not to mention the fact that it pissed off muslims around the world.

I find it interesting that the problems that we are encountering today are addressed in an USMC manual written in 1940.
 
Vietnam Green berrets come to mind. They could do more with words then what most soldiers can do with rifles.
 
Jason Bourne said:
Just read the book, besides, what happened in that prison was a crime, and those responsible are being punished
Click to expand...

Stay on topic, if you have nothing to add to a discussion, do not feel that you are required to post something anyway.


On-topic, I don't believe that "the peace" can be won as far as Iraq is concerned, Doody. It is kind of against my nature to be cynical, but without many years of devoting time, manpower, and funds to that country and a complete absence of any happenings, real or imagined, like those at Abu Ghraib or the fabricated British equivalent, to upset the process, I have little hope that we will ever achieve a peace that will make everyone involved happy. There are just too many factors involved that have to all be handled perfectly, too many local leaders who have to be handled with kid gloves and constantly be reassured that our way is in fact the best way for them personally as well as for their followers, and too many personal and ideological agendas and divisions to allow a tinseltown peace.
That being said, I believe that what we are doing now is in fact the best way to "win the peace," by strongly backing an indigenous government and lending them our military strength to support their claim to authority, but at the same time allowing their own military and police force to prove their abilities and effectiveness, I think that we can build local support and faith in their new government, and without that faith or support, we would be banging our heads against the wall and getting nowhere.
 
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