Kinetic War

A glimmer of hope for an alternative to kinetic war comes in the story of an American warfighting officer in Mahmoudiyah, Iraq -- otherwise known as “the bloody triangle”. In 2007, in this most violent region, a frightening apocalyptic contagion of suicide attacks, kidnappings, and killings had created pressure for even more violence. Instead, a unique peace was built and it held. War didn’t break out again there, as it did elsewhere in Iraq. How was this peace achieved and what are the critical lessons when, as one combat commander put it: we can’t kill our way out of this. And where does the fault lie in our failure to develop practical civilian expertise in this kind of peacebuilding? Our guest, David Wood, has the story.