Now I ask you to imagine that city under fire. Imagine troops moving house to house and building to building. Supported by tanks, attack helicopters and close air support they pacify neighborhood after neighborhood leaving a wake of broken homes and shops behind. The city is cordoned off with road blocks and check points. No one except women, children and old men is allowed to leave. Little in the way of food or medical supply is allowed in. In the city center the hospitals are filled with injured, maimed and dying people. Imagine streams of people like you, fleeing from the destruction, are reaching your hometown with only the few belongings that they could carry in their cars. Will you feel kindly toward the troops besieging that neighboring city no matter what the reason for the action? Would you greet them with flowers and sweets or with fearful, sullen stares? Would you smile at the occupying troops or would you do all that you could to defend your home and family?

From thousands of miles away it is not easy to separate the combatants from the ordinary people caught in the middle of combat. The majority of them never fired a gun and would not know how to operate a rocket propelled grenade launcher. Before the onslaught they were just trying to feed their families, raise their kids and get through another difficult day. Today it is Fallujah or Najaf that fits that description but it could just as well be Bloomington or Crossville, Columbus or Pittsville. There is no such thing as a benign war.

Now, I ask you to imagine that you are in charge of that body of occupying troops. How do you keep your troops secure and avoid turning those ordinary citizens; that sea of the population through which insurgents swim; into dedicated enemies? Can you pacify that city without destroying it? It is a conundrum that no commander has solved. It is a problem without a military solution. You don’t make friends with brute force.

Yet that is the very problem that faces the policy makers in Iraq. For a year the United States has been building a structure in Iraq. It seems that the architects forgot to install a door.