[Marxism] The counterinsurgency strategy

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.spectrezine.org/war/Mendes8.htm
The Counterinsurgency Strategy

by Alfred Mendes

America’s seemingly irrational tactics/behaviour in Iraq can best be 
fathomed by a closer look at its role in Post-World War 2, which had 
resulted in the openly-deep rift between it and the USSR - known as ‘The 
Cold War’. This was a case of Capitalism versus its antithesis, Marxism. 
Communism having spread to China and Korea - and ‘diplomacy’ having 
flown through the window now that FDR was dead - America intervened with 
military might into Korea (keep in mind that, far from being ‘far east’ 
from America, Korea was ‘closer west’). Result? The 3-year Korean War 
débacle. The Geneva Convention had now become a hindrance and would have 
to be bypassed.

This called for an up-dating of America’s political/military strategy in 
order to ensure that capitalism would prevail on a global scale. This 
would now be known as ‘The counter insurgency Strategy’. Simply put: 
this meant that America would now embark on the dangerous tactic of 
interfering, militarily if necessary, in the affairs of a foreign 
country. Implementation of such strategy called for the re-training of 
certain troops – in conjunction with Intelligence Services - and in the 
early sixties the Special Warfare School was set up at Fort Bragg, in 
North Carolina. This was soon followed by the setting up of similar 
subsidiary schools (the following is not a comprehensive list) at Elgin 
Air Force Base (Florida), Fort Gutrick and the Inter-American Police 
Academy at Fort Davis - the last two in the US-controlled Panama Canal 
Zone. This last-named was moved to Washington in 1963 under a new title, 
‘The International Police Academy’ (IPA), where it was subsequently 
revealed that methods of torture were both taught and learned. The scale 
of this counterinsurgency schooling is best illustrated by the fact 
that, until 1984, when Fort Gutrick was ‘handed over’ to Panama, “45000 
Latin-Americans - including the leaders of many subsequent military 
governments - would graduate”. To sum up: in all, a total of 41 special 
organisations (psychological warfare units; sea-air-land unconventional 
teams; counterinsurgency aviation forces; naval technical assistance 
teams - et al.) were created expressly for this counterinsurgency task. 
Not only Americans would be trained here - military personnel, 
intelligence officers and police from chosen foreign countries would 
also attend. It should be noted that this new strategy did not initially 
please the established military at home - which is understandable 
inasmuch as it inevitably meant an impingement on their authority.
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