This is in quick response to this searing, disturbing paragraph from the AP report about the abduction and search for 3 U.S. soldiers:
Troops surrounded the town of Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, residents said. They then methodically searched the houses, focusing on possible secret chambers under the floors where the soldiers might be hidden, residents said. The soldiers marked each searched house with a white piece of cloth. Soldiers also searched cars entering and leaving the town, writing "searched" on the side of each vehicle they had inspected. Several people were arrested, witnesses said.
While we've all become understandably cynical about the often brutal treatment of Iraqis under U.S. occupation, this still seems like something qualitatively new. Sealing an entire town and "methodically search[ing]" every house? It would be hard to come up with a more clear example of collective punishment. Is there any way that this "search" could take place without violence? Without causing more damage, trauma and unrest? Doesn't this kind of action go against our essential ideas of a free society -- and how a free society can conduct war?
The phrase reminds me of this famous passage from Heart of Darkness:
"Do you," said I, looking at the shore, "call it 'unsound method?'"
"Without doubt," he exclaimed hotly. "Don't you?"
"No method at all," I murmured after a while.
Some other questions which arise from this article: Who are the witnesses quoted in the article? Did the reporter witness any of this directly -- or talk to people who did? What is the population of Youssifiyah -- and was the U.S. response to this abduction centered only on this town? Who ordered the sealing of the entire town -- and, particularly since the soldiers haven't actually been found, how can this decision be justified? Does this remind other readers of the initial crisis in Fallujah, where the U.S. laid siege to that entire city in response to the murder of four individuals?