On the heels of a post in which I highlighted key points from Mike Davis’ account of urban slums as the new face of global poverty, Davis has a new article about the ways in which the US Military sees Iraq as a test case in the upcoming battle against the world’s urban poor:
The occupation of Iraq has, of course, been portrayed by Bush ideologues as a “laboratory for democracy” in the Middle East. To MOUT [Militarized Operations on Urbanized Terrain] geeks, on the other hand, it is a laboratory of a different kind, where Marine snipers and Air Force pilots test out new killing techniques in an emergent world war against the urban poor.
He draws on two military reports to justify his argument. The first is by the RAND organization and is called: “The Urbanization of Insurgency.” The second is by Air Force theorist Captain Troy Thomas, and is entitled: “Slumlords: Aerospace Power in Urban Fights.”
