Horrific? Yes. But....

There's much blogging to-do today regarding the release of a video from Iraq featuring the two American soldiers captured and mutilated a few weeks ago. Much of it dwells upon the inhumanity of 'the enemy' - a valid point, especially for Western audiences. But if we look at it from the view of insurgency/counterinsurgency, the insurgents responsible for the attack and the release of the video clearly gain more than the US within that particular neighborhood - especially when we take a look at this:

"A message introducing the video states that this video is presented as “revenge for our sister who was dishonored by a soldier of the same brigade,” referencing the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and her family by a group of American soldiers in al-Mahmoudiya"

There was a great deal of speculation immediately after the soldiers' disappearance that this was a 'revenge' attack following the death of Zarqawi. Why? Because we still often fail to view insurgencies for what they are. For those individual insurgents who carried out this attack, it was in retaliation for something much closer to home and more personal - the death of that family and the rape of the young girl by American troops from the same unit. Within the Mahmudiyah neighborhood, who do you think looks like the hero/protector and who do you think looks like the villain receiving his just desserts?

And that's the difficulty in counterinsurgency campaigns. Every move that alienates the populace (intentional or not...the rape was clearly not an intentional military manuever...intentional terror and torture are much more in the realm of the insurgency) makes it that much harder to suppress the insurgency. And when the insurgents mount a substantial 'publicity stunt' like this, they gain a great deal within their own support base.

The 'battle' for Mahmudiyah just got tougher.