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May 28, 2004
Pacifying Iraq
Many arm-chair generals (and a few real one's) have argued that the situation in Iraq today calls for more troops. Specifically, that the extra troop presence would help us to stifle the ongoing sabotage and secure the borders in a more effective manner, etc. This is no doubt one of the many issues surrounding Iraq that will continue to be argued about for years to come.
Well I am not a general, nor have I been trained in the arts of war. But I do have some intelligence and a bit of common sense. So when I mentioned to my wiseacre friend that Iraq has a population of roughly 23 million, and he then quipped that we should have sent 46 million troops, one for each Iraqi and working 12 hour shifts, I realized that determining the proper number of troops for the occupation is yet another of those classic economic scenarios where the Law of Diminishing Returns must apply. The logistical nightmare of tripling Iraq's population via an occupation force is not a practical or reasonable approach to the problem.
So my clever idea was to compare the ratio of Coalition soldiers to Iraqi citizens versus the ratio of U.S. police officers to U.S. citizens. A quick search of the internet turned up the following:
U.S. Population: 293,000,000
U.S. Police Officers: 941,000
Ratio of police officers to residents: 1 to 311.
Iraqi Population: 23,000,000
Coalition Soldiers in Iraq: 150,000
Ratio of Coalition soldiers to Iraqis: 1 to 153.
Sources:
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/popclock
http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/polstruct.htm
Conclusions:
The comparison is instructive, but not necessarily definitive. Even though there are twice as many Coalition soldiers per Iraqi as there are police officers per U.S. resident, one has to admit that the United States is not an occupied nation. On the other hand, these ratios by themselves do not lend support to the arguments of the arm-chair generals.
What is clear is that there exists in Iraq today a formidable Coalition troop presence which should be more than capable of taking out insurgents... if the damnable politicians don't tie their hands.
Posted by crandal at May 28, 2004 01:39 PM