Why on earth should they fight a war on our terms, in a way that would assure their death and defeat? Their only hope was the kind of war that is being fought right now.
You're missing the rather salient point that on whatever terms they chose to fight (and believe me, making all those promises of Stalingrad-on-the-Tigris then just melting away did not do much for Saddam's honor in the Arab world), they could have had their own men to fight with, and so could have controlled the fight. Right now, Al Qaeda is doing the fighting and Al Qaeda is calling the shots.
It only will take a steady drip for them to succeed.
That assumes that this is like Mogadishu, the Americans will pull out after a drip and not wait for a flood. I don't believe that, too much is at stake. It also assumes that the Americans aren't making any headway in return, and I don't think that's a correct assumption either. Lots of Iraqis are willing to drop a dime on these characters.
this war isn't just a haphazard operation, IMHO, just people lashing out indiscriminately. I think they know what they're doing, even when they "melted away like butter."
Agreed it's not just random - however that leaves a lot of room for really stupid decisions. From what I've seen, and the US Army hasn't realized much, the melting away of the Iraqi forces was not an intentional decision, certainly for Saddam & the top leadership. Moreover, I think blowing up Riyadh and now the Ali Mosque do not count as bright decisions for Al Qaeda, who can now count the Saudi Royal Family and the Shi'a as active enemies. |
