Posted on 10/27/2004 9:49:25 AM PDT by thebiggestdog
October 26, 2004 - Are we fighting a smart war in Iraq?
Normally I do not read the LA Times. They are tremendously biased, especially on the war in Iraq. The first few weeks after the fighting started, they begrudginly had to admit that the US and Britain had done a masterful job of taking over Saddam's country. Since that time, it has been difficult to find any good news coming from Iraq. That is not to say that the war is going wonderfully, because war is never hugs and puppies.
The front page of the LA Times on Sunday was not something I wanted to see, but knew it was coming sooner or later. The title was "Why America has waged a losing battle on Fallouja". It is certainly a well documented piece, and while many Bush supporters will say that this is liberal Monday morning quarterbacking, I tend to agree with some of their opinions.
After the four US civilian workers were killed and set ablaze, our first reaction was to extract revenge. But revenge on who? I don't think that we knew who exactly did this, and for us to take action meant a full scale assault on the city, which is what we did. The problem with that is that not only did we lose US soldiers, but we also killed civilians. The Muslims are masters of turning one civilian death into twenty, ten into two hundred. Al Sleezera eats it up. It it not our intent to kill innocent people, but we had to know that there would be a backlash when the inevitable civilian casualties started mounting.
Several days after the initial assault on Fallouja, the Marines had taken over about a third of the city. The interim Iraqi government was threatening to go AWOL if we didn't stop the fighting, and the Marines negotiated a cease fire. After a tense period in which attacks continued, the job of policing the city was handed over to the Fallouja Brigade, which turned out to be a miserable failure
Was the attack on Fallouja the best thing to do? In my opinion, no. Marines are like a top fuel dragster, there are only two states of being-idle or full throttle. It is very hard to take your foot off the gas one they have started down the track. The Marines were well on their way to laying waste to everything in the city when the plug was pulled. They did not accomplish their objective, and actually left equipment in Fallouja for the Brigade that was later used against US soldiers.
In fact, Rumsfeld should have listened to Lt. Gen. James Conway, who, according to the article thought that cooler heads should have prevailed. This is war, and horrible things happen in war, but if we plan on ever leaving Iraq, we are going to have to understand that their are people who will do everything in their power to kill anyone who helps out the Iraqi government or the US.
Furthermore, it is my assertion that Muslims and non-Muslims do not think alike. As westerners we have trouble grasping the concept of seventy-two virgins and a bushel of figs as being a decent trade for blowing yourself up. We do not understand how millions of intelligent people could believe Baghdad Bob's claim that there were no American troops in Baghdad when CNN was showing pictures of US tanks on the other side of the river. We are just wired differently.
I doubt this article will influence the Pentagon or Rumsfeld at all. The war in Iraq will grind on with military and civilian casualties until the Iraqi's themselves have had enough and take over the security of their country.
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