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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (122427)	6/28/2005 1:26:03 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793939

and when you are at war and such an enemy either hides among the population or is able to move relatively freely in the sunni area, how can you defeat them? The old 'swim like fishes among the people meme', Mao's advice. The Iraqi insurgents are not swimming, mike. They are VERY unpopular and have very limited areas where they can operate freely. Even in those spots, they usually get the support of 1 tribe and terrorize the others; this is why red-on-red incidents are on the rise. As for non-Sunni areas, forget about it, nothing doing - when's the last report you heard from Najaf or Basra? Counter-insurgencies are like other wars, mike. They can be won, lost or negotiated. They just tend to go on for longer and be more dependent on intelligence networks. This counsel of despair - 'it's an insurgency, gotta give up now' is bullshit. The answer is more Iraqi police. The answer is better intelligence. The answer is closing off the ratlines to Syria and killing the officer corps, who cannot be replaced easily. The answer is accomodating Sunni interests where possible and getting Sunnis into the political process. It is all happening, but it all takes time and cannot run on a schedule.

To: michael97123 who wrote (122427)	6/28/2005 3:01:59 PM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793939

The trick is to train iraqi forces all over the world by us and our allies. The trick for the iraqis is to use force where and when needed and to move along quickly with their own timetable for constitution and elections. The trick is not to be tricky. Saying what you mean and doing what you say may be confusing to liberals (their leaders are totally confusing, yet they thrive on them) but the rest of the world respects those traits. US open ended committment or what was called by threaders as "stay the course" does not give us a better chance imho Does not give us a better chance at what? I hope you don't believe that pulling out even as the militant extremists pour in to do their terrorist deeds gives us a better chance at anything but defeat.