[McGavin999]

In a town of 500,000 there are probably 5,000 insurgents. You have to figure out some way to kill the 5,000 and leveling the town would be unjust. I would imagine the Marines are taking a good look at the pictures that were taken and those men will be rounded up in the next couple of days. There won't be much chance for them, but the rest of the people will be able to enjoy freedom for the first time since the liberation.

[LisaMalia]

In a town of 500,000 there are probably 5,000 insurgents

I'm just wondering, where did you get those statistics?

[Publius6961]

In a town of 500,000 there are probably 5,000 insurgents. You have to figure out some way to kill the 5,000 and leveling the town would be unjust.

Why?
You would think that the other 495,000 people could deal with the baddies themselves. Or at the very least drop a dime on them (or most of them) anonymously, if they chose to do so through fear.

That they don't, speaks volumes for the naivete, or ignorance, of your assumption.

There is no question in my mind that if they are given 12 hours to start delivering the killers and the arms caches, or random bombing begins, they will either deliver them, or verify their complicity.

[SauronOfMordor]

In a town of 500,000 there are probably 5,000 insurgents. You have to figure out some way to kill the 5,000 and leveling the town would be unjust.

The town is full of Sadaam's tribesmen. Their standard of living as Sadaam's henchmen was pretty good. Now it's not so good, and under a Shiite-controlled government it will probably be pretty bad. They are pissed, and they are taking it out on us. Plus probably the radical Wahabbists are tossing money around to broke people in exchange for making trouble.

The place needs to be dispursed, and repopulated by Kurds