We have no choice but to adopt the last option with more bombing and taking the war to the enemy, even if that means the dreadful level of casualties that will go with it. We will still be hated, but we will also be held in awe. That is now a consequence of any further action we take.
Fear and respect is not as good as friendship and understanding but it is better than being despised.
I agree with half of this: now that we're in this, we have to finish it, whatever the price.
I don't think we will be held in awe, no matter what we do at this point. Quite the contrary: it's becoming clear that while we may have the best military force in the world, they are still human. They bleed, they die, they need fuel for their vehicles and bullets for their guns. They can be resisted by a determined force, and most of all they are vulnerable to bad decision making by leaders who think they know more than their generals.
If our forces were marching through Baghdad now, we'd be held in awe. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
We still have to confront, among all the assumptions that turned out to be wrong, the possibility that the biggest assumption of all - that resistance will end with the death or capture of Saddam - might be flawed as well. If it is, we will have a real problem. |
