Wednesday, May 23, 2007

"The Total Blurring of Crime and War":

The Small Wars Journal describes 3rd Generation Gang Warfare. Iraq may lead, but Latin America and parts of the USA are following hard behind.


This brings us some measure of concern with regard to the future prospects vis-à-vis the gang situation in the Americas. As more and more 3 GEN Gangs begin to emerge, thrive, and expands their networks in the Western Hemisphere the long term prospects for large regions of the Americas may very well, at some point, also come into question. Currently, 3 GEN Gangs have already take control in slums and other urban no-go zones, prisons, and some provinces and territories of various states including Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. That such gangs are now starting to emerge within the United States should also give pause for concern. These developments in global context may ultimately cause us to re-examine our policies in the Americas and elevate our concerns over the “Gangs of the Americas” to the same level as that currently afforded the “Gangs of Iraq.”

Whether or not the Small Wars Journal article is overstating the case, the fact remains that traditional tools of statecraft such as the United Nations, foreign aid, diplomacy and even armies have proven very ineffective against this mode of warfare -- if warfare it is. But given the potency of subnational groups like Hezbollah which squared off against the IDF, or Hamas which threatens to take over Gaza, or al-Qaeda which aims to devour the world and actually attacked Manhattan or even Ansar al-Islam which is rampaging in the Lebanese refugee camps it would be Jesuitic to split semantic hairs.

It is this fact: the discovery of a disease without an apparent cure, which makes the debate over the withdrawal from Iraq somewhat beside the point. It makes as much sense as finding an incurable, virulent plague in a Middle Eastern city and saying, "oh well, time to go back to Topeka. I won't read about it there." If nations have no counter to 3rd Generation warfare then what to do when it spreads to Kurdistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan and elsewhere? Keep withdrawing? Maybe Murtha was right after all. Best to fall back all the way to Okinawa from Iraq if we're going to wind up there anyway. What is germane is to ask in the face of a plague is what does our dearly bought experience tell us about how to confront it? What have we learned about fighting 3rd Generation warfare or whatever you want to call it? Can we mobilize all the elements of national power to effectively fight it in its many settings?

One good place to start counterattacking is to achieve bipartisan consensus that a threat exists so the focus can shift to finding solutions rather than imagining that everything is imaginary. That awakening will come eventually. The enemy itself will see to that. But if there is any statesmanship left in the West then its leaders should anticipate its public by a little. Better to sound the warning themselves then wait until al-Qaeda -- or some other outfit -- announces it with blood and mayhem.

Update

In this respect the interview between Robert Wright and Gershom Gorenberg on what to do, if anything, about the dogfight in Gaza may be interesting. Short take: ain't got it figured out yet.

11 Comments:

Blogger Annoy Mouse said...

Should a regional war breakout in the Middle East, the laws pertaining to civil order will not liberalize, to the contrary, youth, such as these, will be shot without much more than a cursory check of their affiliation tattoos. There is a reason that death squads are so popular in South America.

5/23/2007 03:45:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

Chertoff confirms after being questioned at least 6 times by Hewitt that virtually NO NEW FENCE has been completed, with all the reasons why.

Are you guys SURE we really went to the moon in ten years, or was that some kind of ICE Hoax film?
---
Warhol could never have concocted a "POTUS" as bizzare as one that would be sending out agents that could not talk straight about why there has been no real improvement in security on the border 5 years after 9-11.

5/23/2007 04:18:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

The new immigration bill being pimped on us by the Bush-Kennedy Klan is a lot like Barbra Streisand and Cher.

One day, despite the plastic surgery, Barbra Streisand and Cher will truly retire and/or die. And their tours will end.

Unfortunately, "comprehensive immigration reform" will not. It can and will go through infinite make-overs and plastic surgery operations from new generations of Congress.

This version won't be the last one.

Yup, unfortunately, while the two loudmouthed, chintzy singers from the '70s will someday actually end their tours of America, immigration amnesty is a bad concert tour that will plague America forever . . . or until there is no America left.

It used to be only two things were for certain: death and taxes. Now, it's death, taxes, and "comprehensive immigration reform" a/k/a illegal alien amnesty.

Debbie Schlussel

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I was discussing immigration with a Christian Eritrean coworker today who is here legally, who said something that everyone should take note of. He said it is so difficult for Africans to get legal visas that many of them are now going first to Latin America and crossing the Mexican border because they know there is no enforcement.
- The Bruno

5/23/2007 04:32:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

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5/23/2007 04:39:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

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5/23/2007 04:43:00 PM  
Blogger Doug said...

One might ask if it is really a good idea for Business, as well as Federal and Local Govts to be formulating policy in consultation with Anti-American groups like MECHA and La Raza.

Unless one thinks Reconquista is a good thing.
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"General membership shall consist of any student who accepts, believes and works for the goals and objectives of MEChA, including the liberation of AZTLAN, meaning self-determination of our people in this occupied state and the physical liberation of our land."
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Doing a Job American Citizens tend not do.

5/23/2007 04:44:00 PM  
Blogger pabird said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

5/23/2007 05:26:00 PM  
Blogger Fat Man said...

"One good place to start counterattacking is to achieve bipartisan consensus that a threat exists so the focus can shift to finding solutions rather than imagining that everything is imaginary."

The Democrats are too far gone in Bush Derangement Syndrome to expect anything resembling reality from them.

5/23/2007 07:22:00 PM  
Blogger Cedarford said...

Gangs have now finally figured out that in a Jewish ACLU/Euroweenie setting, they can get considerable advantage by maximizing their knowledge and maximizing their "precious criminal rights".

We were able to handle previous generations of criminals because they more or less operated alone with the exception of the Mafia - which law enforcement had enormous difficulty "bringing to justice".

Nowadays, gangs have done the following:

1. They have members that sit in court to learn any new technique or trick of cops. Also to identify and kill or intimidate any witnesses listed in public documents.
2. They have efforts to infiltrate the military, police, FBI. Learn and deploy themselves the latest technology.
3. Gang members have an active pipeline to and from prison gang members, maintaining command and control.
4. The anti-snitch campaign has been an enormous success. Most citizens in the neighborhoods gangs rule in know it is death to inform - that their ID will be found by a police mole or court-watcher or through gang attorneys.
5. The gangs, not the State, now run the prisons and set up a separate set of rules and racial divisions all inmates are expected to obey.
6. Gang rule is so strong in HS and neighborhoods that kids selected now have little choice but to join if asked, or be targeted.
7. LIttle fear of the police or the law, as it is currently written, is present in gangs.
8. Same in Europe as gangs capitalizing on laws and "human rights" control crime and political power in much of several countries and have succeeded, as Brazil started, in making large chunks of underclass neighborhoods into "police no-go area".
9. Gangs have learned much from terrorists in methodology and use of terror.
10. Many terrorists have learned to fund themselves as gang members and as organized crime rings - which the law and courts have been relatively powerless to stop until "an actual crime, with witnesses willing to come forward" exist. Which now, they don't.

5/23/2007 07:57:00 PM  
Blogger Brother D-Day said...

3GEN gangs are primitive tribalist/racialist outfits discovering "the world is flat".

They are harnessing global networks to reach out to their compatriots the world over and developing cells in major cities and outlying areas.

The West's suicidal devotion to multiculturalism created the host environment for them.

Skin color and heritage now trump state-created rule sets and also common sense and decency.

North Carolina is banning the carrying of machetes, but they sure as hell won't cordon and clear the areas that machete carriers practice their illegality.

That would be "racist", you know.

5/24/2007 05:44:00 AM  
Blogger LarryD said...

One good place to start counterattacking is to achieve bipartisan consensus that a threat exists so the focus can shift to finding solutions rather than imagining that everything is imaginary. That awakening will come eventually. ...

Yes and no. The Democrats most vocal faction is made of largely of people who are in denial about this very point. Most of the Democratic MoC (Members of Congress) are pandering to this group, but don't actually belong to it. They can be turned around, but only when they fear either the sane voters, or the Islamofascists, more than their anti-war faction. However, that turn around will continue only as long as the pressure lasts. This is why their efforts to hobble the war funding is falling apart.

Those in denial will never come around, they will keep on denying reality because thae cannot cope with it.

5/24/2007 07:23:00 AM  

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