February 6, 2008: The U.S. experience
in Iraq has led to a renewed interest, among its NATO allies, in urban warfare.
U.S. veterans of that kind of war, have
developed new weapons, equipment and tactics. Urban warfare is nothing new, but
in peacetime this deadly specialty tends to get less attention. Avoiding the
unpleasant, so to speak. But Iraq, and to a lesser extent, Afghanistan, made it
clear that the more proficient you were at urban combat, the more quickly you
could accomplish your mission, and with fewer losses. The Americans actually
got a lot of good advice from the Israelis, but in most NATO countries, the
Palestinians are considered victims of Israeli aggression. So learning anything
from Israeli military experience is considered politically incorrect.
But U.S. and other NATO troops train
together regularly, so these Israeli techniques, and many new ones the
Americans have developed in the past five years, have become sought after
knowledge in NATO armies.
