[lancer]

This is what it takes to win. Bush still has time, if he has the cojones. The rebuilding can come later, like it did in Germany and Japan.

[csmusaret]

Let's get Saddam dead then see what happens.

[Frenetic]

Enough of all this PC baloney. I'm all in favor of beating the crap out of our enemies. Bring back the B52's and lay waste to all. Lets see how much the Palestinians want to kill the Jews after there is nothing left of their country but rotting flesh and rubble.

[humint]

Or are we not following Sherman’s advice because our current military leaders have forgotten it, or never learned it in the first place?

We have changed but war has not. Technological advantages lead our society to believe we can win wars by surgically extracting enemy life as opposed to crushing its host society.

Mao Zedong has a famous maxim "The insurgent must move amongst the people as a fish swims in a pond". Some might conclude that his is a proportional analogy and suggest the pond be drained. But the “people to pond” analogy is really about ideology. The combatant that offers a more palatable ideology to the people can walk among them. My point is that WE must be able to move amongst the people as a fish swims in a pond if we want to succeed with our current tactics. WE are the freedom fighters! We have to express our ideology in a way that wins real allies in Iraq. Putting a friendly Iraqi Government uniform on an enemy to meet a bullshit quota only makes it harder for our soldiers to sort out friendlies from foes. I sincerely hope that there is a plan to deal with today’s terrorists and tomorrow’s ideological foes.