Body counts as a metric of success?
This headline caught my eye:
"US says 700 insurgents killed in Iraq since Sept"
Wait a minute... are we now using body counts as a metric of success?
I thought we stopped doing that during a certain war approximately 30 years ago. I thought it had been determined that there isn't a correlation between the number of folks we kill and the success of counterinsurgency operations. Hearts and minds are what matter, right? Apparently not.
Apparently, I am a bit behind on this one. This Washington Post article from last month examines the resurgence in releasing body count numbers to the press. The article contains an interesting quote:
"We don't do body counts on other people," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in November 2003, when asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether the number of enemy dead exceeded the U.S. toll.
"US says 700 insurgents killed in Iraq since Sept"
Wait a minute... are we now using body counts as a metric of success?
I thought we stopped doing that during a certain war approximately 30 years ago. I thought it had been determined that there isn't a correlation between the number of folks we kill and the success of counterinsurgency operations. Hearts and minds are what matter, right? Apparently not.
Apparently, I am a bit behind on this one. This Washington Post article from last month examines the resurgence in releasing body count numbers to the press. The article contains an interesting quote:
"We don't do body counts on other people," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in November 2003, when asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether the number of enemy dead exceeded the U.S. toll.
posted by bp at
7:47 AM
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