Peace and numbers
Posted by Peter W. Schramm
How many boots should we have on the ground in Iraq? James Quinlivan of RAND has a short and clear article entitled, "Burden of Victory: The Pianful Arithmetic of Stability Operations," which claims that it should be about 500,000. Never mind whether or not this is true for the moment, just note how the calculations are made. This is the sort of stuff that many people in government (not excluding Department of Defense) love.
10:43 AM / August 26, 2003
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read Quinlivan’s article in US Army War College parameters Quarterly winter 1995
Looks like the reason rummy won’t send more guys to Iraq is there isn’t enough soldiers. Remember that the UK stationed about 32,000 thousand tommys in N.Ireland for 25 years to keep an estimated 1500 (one thousand five hundred insurgent) from having a go at it. A similar ratio of forces to civilian population would mean at least a halfmillion in Iraq. If the DOD were to place the required number of troops in Iraq it is very possible it could destroy the proffesional army we now enjoy and bring back conscription. (political death never to happen) I gotta think that the plan is to destabilize the country while sucking out the oil during the next 20 years or so. i don’t think the US will ever make Iraq a bastion of democracy and safe for Wal-Mart.