According to stories in the the LA Times and the Associated Press on at least two occasions US forces have held the wives of suspected insurgents in an attempt to get the husbands to surrender.
In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young mother of a nursing baby, a U.S. intelligence officer reported. In the case of a second detainee, one American colonel suggested to another that they catch her husband by tacking a note to the family's door telling him "to come get his wife."
In thinking about these Mafia-style tactics I think it is important to remember that the current justification for our forces being in Iraq, now that it is clear that Iraq was not any sort of threat to the US, is that we are bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq so that it can be a shining example to the rest of the region and the world. What lesson are we teaching by these tactics?
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"bringing freedom and democracy " to Iraq is pure semantics. It is what we want in return that is important. You cannot drop 500 pound bombs on a people and then expect them to cheer you on. Abroad the U.S. is seen as an efficient war machine, willing to sacrifice its young in order to keep the system functioning. The majority a placated with the "benefits" of the system. For them life remains unchanged no matter which war we are involved in. All the material resources and leisure time activities keeps us amused and occupied while we export our brand of "freedom and democracy."
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