Source: Wire Dispatch / Reuters
March 11, 2008 Author: Mark Trevelyan
STOCKHOLM, March 11 (Reuters) - "Winning hearts and minds" in Western-occupied nations like Iraq and Afghanistan is an impossible goal, a British army commander said in frank remarks on Tuesday that challenged an often-heard mantra.
"There will of course be circumstances where we can earn the trust of local people, where we can prevail amongst the national leadership, establish a constructive dialogue with religious authorities, but I doubt we will (be) or maybe ever have been in a position to win their hearts and minds," Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb said.
"To suggest that good intentions will cross fundamental cultural, social and religious differences and win over a damaged population is at best dangerous and wishful thinking. The image of winning a heart or a mind is almost ridiculous," he told an international security conference in Stockholm.
Lamb, until last October the top British commander in Iraq, was speaking five years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
He said the best an occupying army could hope for was the consent of local people, and this required delivering tangible benefits like electricity, water, health, education and security.
Among the locals were "some who need us, albeit for a short time, others that will accommodate us, albeit for a short time, and others that will hate us simply for all time".
"ARCHITECTS OF CHAOS"
While some opponents could be brought back from the brink by addressing underlying grievances, others were irreconcilable.
"They are simply the architects of chaos. You have to expel them, incarcerate them or kill them," said Lamb, who holds the post of Commander, Field Army Headquarters Land Command.
While voicing optimism about progress in Iraq, he said occupation was unpopular because it "simply upsets people".
"I would contend that the (U.S.-led) coalition just being in Iraq presents to a proud and ancient civilisation abject humiliation, visible shame," he said.
"Every day and in every way we outsiders are seen to be interfering in their affairs -- albeit with the best possible interests, and making a difference -- but nevertheless foreigners to their culture, their faith, their way of life."
His comments on "hearts and minds" marked a sharp departure from what has become a cliche of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, often used by politicians and the media. "I think the language we used was possibly misleading," he said.
Speaking later to reporters, he was upbeat about gains secured in Iraq after 30,000 extra U.S. troops were sent in last year, and the prospect of sustaining that progress even as they withdraw.
The extra forces had gone into "ungoverned spaces" and cleared them of insurgents and militants, Lamb said.
"Those sanctuaries, in my view, have been badly disrupted. An insurgent, a terrorist on the move is someone who is more easy to get to, less established in what he can do," he added, describing al Qaeda in Iraq as "looking pretty threadbare".
Lamb said the number of foreign fighters among the Iraqi insurgents had fallen, and the police and army were growing stronger. "There's a ways to go, it's a hard road, nothing's easy, but I see lots of progress." (Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Source: Reuters North American News Service
