No More Mr. Nice Iranian Guy - We Killed Him

Why He Never Closed the Straits

Ever since I got my hands on a secret study conducted by an Operational Intelligence Cell attached to U.S. Army headquarters in Baghdad in 2007, I’ve been reporting that assassinating enemy leadership figures is an entirely counterproductive exercise. Based on data attendant on several hundred killings of Iraqi insurgent leaders by the U.S., the study found that such eliminations, offically known as the “HVI (High Value Individual) Strategy” immediately generated an escalation of attacks on American occupation forces - by an average of 40 percent in the immediate neighborhood, and by still significant percentages further away. Furthermore, the new leadership that inevitably and swiftly took over was invariably more aggressive and motivated. Briefing the high command, the study’s principal author offered a bleak conclusion: “HVI Strategy, our principal strategy in Iraq, is counterproductive and needs to be reevaluated.”