"Operation Hand-Sheikh" the Alternative Approach for the Ongoing Struggle in Iraq

  Our Government’s decision to go to war in Iraq was a reaction partly based on the belief that our military could defeat any enemy, especially the likes of Al-Qaeda. It is undeniable that our military has and will continue to defeat armed groups when they present themselves in a face to face fight. However, my time in the Middle East and later in Iraq has shown me that traditional fighting methods are not how these Terrorists operate or think. One only needs to study the Muslim Brotherhood and their history.  I knew their focus would quickly become ethnic based (i.e. Shi'a against Sunni) and Americans would become valued targets of opportunity. Large body counts of Iraqis would cause us to loose by default alone. We simply don’t know how to win this type of battle.

Further aggravating the confusion is defining who the enemy is. I have interrogated countless Iraqi Detainees. There is no one definition of the enemy. Is the enemy simply defined as an individual who shot or otherwise attacked U.S. Forces? It sounds simple enough. How about if this individual was forced to attack U.S. Forces because his family had been kidnapped? What if this individual was kidnapped himself and nearly starved and continually beaten over many days and the only respite was to guard a post during an attack? The policy of “capturing or killing the enemy” becomes convoluted and entirely unreliable. What if the "enemy" was captured while protecting his home because a group of Shi'as erroneously believed one of the occupants took part in the killing of another Shi'a? The Shi'a police did not have the ability to successfully take the residence by force, so they request back-up from the U.S. military. All residents who were not killed were arrested or placed in prison for years. Who is the enemy then? What if the Shi'a that was supposedly killed was known to have been part of a Shi'a militant group who was actively killing unsuspecting Sunnis? Again, who is the enemy? The American forces are being led by the nose.