> -----Original Message-----
> Having had a career as a Military Policeman I can tell you that you are a
> certain degree off mark on this - they have frequently been used "in support
> of the civil powers" in a full support role

But how can MPs support "civil powers" if there are few to no civil powers to
begin with?

With all the emphasis put on differing views, and this is the last I'll say on
the subject, I haven't heard anything extensive from the perspective of the
troops that were there.

Yes, more could have been done but we don't know the full story and probably
won't until the war has been over for a while.

For example:

- Were troops deliberately not getting involved in stopping individual looters
because they were concerned they might be resistance fighters trying to attack
them?

- Were they concerned that stopping the looting would lead to rioting and more
civilian casualities doing more harm than good?

- Did they just not care?

- Were they completely overwhelmed in the situation as troops were spread out
all over the city which encompasses many square miles and millions of people?
(20,000 military assault vehicles v. a few million people doesn't sound like
very good odds to me, especially when the troops were trying to minimize
civilian casualities)

- What other intelligence about the situation had been gathered that
couldn't/wasn't being shared with the media?

To give you an example, I work with a bunch of retired military types with
various combat experience. Their reaction to the story about the journalist
getting shot by US troops from the top of the hotel was much different than the
reaction of the mainstream press which painted the situation largely as an
innocent journalist getting vindictively shot by US troops with little cause.
My co-workers' first reaction was, "From that distance and the troop's
perspective on the ground, that camera probably looked like an anti-tank weapon
(they used some technical term for it that I can't remember), especially with
the glare of the sun. The tank commander probably ordered his men to fire on it
before he thought he was going to be fired upon."  Quite a different
perspective.

So it's easy to point fingers but what's done is done. Hopefully everyone has
learned from the situation and recovery efforts will be successful.

deb

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