IRAQ

islamonline: French Diplomat Criticizes 'Brutal' US Army In Iraq
BAGHDAD (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As the U.S. forces pursued for the third consecutive day their get-tough tactics against Iraqi resistance fighters, a French politician described on Tuesday, November 18, the U.S. army as "brutal", saying that such more aggressive operations would do little to end mounting anti-U.S. attacks.

"These are just the type of operations which encourage people to think they are dealing with a brutal army of occupation," Francois Gere, director of France's Institute for Diplomacy and Defense, told the BBC News Online.

"These are operations of the 'search and destroy' type which are very spectacular and designed primarily to occupy television airtime for the U.S. public back home.

"This is like using sledgehammers to swat flies. This is not how you fight guerrillas," he added.
Gere's statements came as Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov further criticized the "excessive" tendency of the United States to use military force, saying that the level of violence in Iraq showed Moscow was right to oppose the U.S.-led invasion.