alternatehistory.com

Here's an idea I had at the gym this afternoon.

What if, in order to quell the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US resorted to population relocation?

I'm thinking mass deportations of pro-AQ Pashtuns to Iraq, pro-Sadr Shi'ites to Afghanistan, that sort of thing.

You could say that wouldn't happen in modern times, but it was done as recently as the 1940s in Eastern Europe and possibly the 1950s in Okinawa (supposedly the US rounded up anti-US Okinawans and deported them all to Bolivia, which strikes me as a really random solution to the situation).

Would this quell the insurgency (by putting enemy populations in an unfamiliar area where they must rely on the US in order to survive) or make it worse (deported Taliban working with Iraqi AQ)? I could imagine it would be a PR nightmare, but so was the alleged Koran-flushing at Gitmo...

And before anyone gets the notion to ban me, I am NOT advocating this.
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