To: cnyndwllr who wrote (446619 ) 8/23/2003 4:01:39 PM From: tejek Respond to Tejek, the most important phrase in that article is that: If we cannot identify the guerrillas and therefor cannot effectively fight against them, we can assume two things. First, we can assume that we are NOT getting the necessary cooperation from the Iraqi "grateful" population. The guerrillas have to live, travel, eat and operate within the population and there are clearly plenty of Iraqis that know and suspect those that are involved. If we are still trying to develop effective "intelligence" then we know that they are generally not volunteering information. The second thing we can assume is that there is no strategic plan that we can put into place that will neutralize the effectiveness of the guerrillas. By this I mean that we cannot create "safe" enclaves from which we can operate and still achieve whatever goals it is that the Bush people have. So the bottom line is that unless we can somehow become, once again, the darlings of the average Iraqi citizen, we are stuck with a strategy that leaves our troops and our necessary defensible properties at risk for deadly guerrilla attacks, and we have no effective fallback plan that will reduce the risks.
