I, for the most part, have faith in Pres. Bush, V.P. Cheney, Sec. Rumsfeld and the Generals over in Iraq. In the last 3 years, more than once I have found myself saying "what are they doing/ not doing" in various situations only to be surprised a few days/weeks later when once again I thought they were excellent poker players.
Perhaps, in Fallujah and Najaf we are letting the terrorists think we are weak by calling a ceasefire. Yes, it gives them time to re-group and re-arm. It also gives us time to do the same. All the while our excellent Marine snipers are taking out up to 30 bad guys per day, per sniper.
The terrorists call in their comrades from surrounding areas. Everyone is more or less in one place. We tell them "turn in all your arms"; of course they don't. This gives us the "pass" to execute some massive air bombing raids basically taking out all the terrorists that have conveniently congregated in one town.
Al least I hope this is what the plan is. I'm just not ready to think that we have come this far to turn into PC wimps now. It just isn't consistent. It just doesn't make sense. I still think there is more of a plan to this ceasefire then we know.
I think Bush and team are trying to control the situation without spinning the rest of the country out of control. The Marines can do a surgically precise job of dealing with the terrorists without wiping out innocents. A bull in the china shop approach with bombs would set off trouble in other cities.