Mike, speaking of "thinking caps," do you remember when we "cleaned out" Sammara a couple of months ago? Just like we cleaned out Fallujah? Any idea how that worked out?
Fresh from the AP:
abcnews.go.com
"BAGHDAD, Iraq Dec 8, 2004 — Insurgents launched a string of assaults around the city of Samarra on Wednesday, trading gunfire with U.S. forces, attacking a U.S. convoy, and blowing up a police station after looting its armory, officials said. The violence came as Britain's defense minister visited British troops in Basra, to the south."
There is no magical thinking that will "defeat" the insurgency. It's here to stay. The question is whether the war of ideas in Iraq plays off the bodies of our dead or not. It will certainly be resolved through bloodshed, but whose blood?
Once again, what are we gaining, what are we losing and how much success are we having in imposing OUR will on a nation of 25 million (less however many of them we and the insurgents have killed)? Before we ask what we "should" do, we should have asked what we are capable of doing. In Iraq the answer is, in terms of positive outcomes, "not much." Ed |
