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altered the British position in Palestine, while U.S. forces had nearly lost control of
Anbar province to Sunni insurgents in 2006. Both occupation forces employed local
militias successfully to reduce violent attacks and increase stability of local
neighborhoods. The Jewish Settlement Police and the Anbar Awakening each increased
local
stability, forestalling a need to increase occupation troop levels for a long duration.
In both cases, this policy reversal was facilitated by a renaming of militias. Sunni
militias became the Anbar Awakening, Concerned Local Citizens, and the Critical
Infrastructure Guard Force, while Jewish militias became Special Night Squads,
Jewish
Settlement Police, and the Supernumerary force. The organizations, sanctioned by the
occupation forces, were staffed by the very militias they had refused to recognize
previously.
The fourth similarity involves the employment of militias during conventional
operations. In both cases, militias became an important element in the overall military
plan. In Iraq, the Kurdish Peshmerga was paramount in United States ability to defeat
Saddam Hussein’s forces in Northern Iraq. Alongside U.S.
Special Forces troops, the
Peshmerga was the main (indeed the only force) employed by U.S. military planners.
The successful engagement of the Kurdish Peshmerga not only led to the defeat of Iraqi
forces in the north but also contributed to the initial destruction of Ansar al Islam, a
powerful insurgency that later would regroup and attempt to impact U.S. military
operations during the occupation. The evidence clearly suggests that Ansar al Islam
would have had a much greater impact on the U.S. military occupation of Iraq if the
Special Forces and Peshmerga had not eliminated their initial base of operation during
the invasion of Iraq. British forces had similarly turned to Jewish militias in Palestine
when faced with the threat of invasion from Axis powers during World War II. Already
facing
a shortage of troops, the British were unable to successfully defend Palestine from
a German invasion unassisted. Therefore, they sanctioned the Palmach (elite Jewish
militia force) derived from the “technically illegal” Haganah. Supported by British
training and funding, the Palmach would later serve as guides for allied armies and
perform secret missions behind enemy lines. However, the clearest example of British
need for militia support was the planned defense of Palestine
by Jewish militias against
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an invading Axis army, which would have allowed British occupation forces to retreat
safely. If Palestine had been occupied by an Axis military, Britain’s plan called for
Jewish militias to continue their resistance through the use of unconventional, guerilla
tactics until the British military was capable of reinforcing them.
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