Because, if you don’t speak the language, if nobody trusts you, if the insurgents can always blend into a civilian population either too mad or too scared to rat them out for you, there’s always one thing you can do that’s sure to work: Kidnap their wives:
Jan 27, 2006 — The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of “leveraging” their husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show.
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.” […]
The U.S. military on Thursday freed five of what it said were 11 women among the 14,000 detainees currently held in the 2 1/2-year-old insurgency. All were accused of “aiding terrorists or planting explosives,” but an Iraqi government commission found that evidence was lacking.
Iraqi human rights activist Hind al-Salehi contends that U.S. anti-insurgent units, coming up empty-handed in raids on suspects’ houses, have at times detained wives to pressure men into turning themselves in.
Hey, this sounds like a great tactic. I wonder who thought it up. Sounds like something Hollywood might come up with, except, of course, they always have the bad guys doing it. But why let them have all the fun, eh?
Just think of the law enforcement possibilities back here in the States. Having trouble finding people with outstanding warrants against them? Can’t get those suspected drug dealers off the streets? No problem. Kidnap their wives or girlfriends, sisters and brothers, even their mother. I bet it would save time and taxpayer expense once the criminals realized we meant business. Especially if they knew the police might torture or rape their poor unfortunate innnocent family members.
Oh wait. I forgot, we’re a liberal democracy, with laws and rights which protect our citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures (sort of). The kind of democracy we’re supposedly bringing the Iraqi people. One with liberty and justice for all.
Well, I guess that whole civil liberties and human rights thing will just have to wait. There’s a war to be won, after all. Can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. Et cetera.
And so it goes.
Update [2006-1-28 15:7:42 by Steven D]: Arcturus had this story yesterday. Go check out his/her diary for more details.
