BUSH MAKES THE CALL: NO FULL SCALE FALLUJAH OFFENSIVE

The Drudge Report ^ | April 25, 2004 | Matt Drudge

[threat matrix]

developing tonight..header for now

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Good points. I appreciate your insight into the situation there. Sorry for my earlier swipe.

[Endeavor]

You're real good at talking out of both sides of your mouth. You're also new and fly a Canadian flag. I suspect a rat.

[af_vet_1981]

if our soldiers get ambushed because the Iraqi guys won't shoot other muslims

If ? If ? If ?

What do you mean "if ?"

I hope no Marine officer puts his/our men at the mercy of Iraqi Moslems taking up arms against other Moslems.

[LoudRepublicangirl]

Don't see what the big deal is, it looks all good for us.

I agree with you 100%.

[prairiebreeze]

Very good recap. The President has also said many times that we wouldn't know or hear of everything that is going on in the WOT and by extention, Iraq.

Based on the reaction of some here, it's a darned good thing we don't.

The adults are in charge, people. And our military is the finest on the planet. I will NOT besmirch them at any level by casting doubts. sheesh!!

Prairie

[Nam Vet]

You expressed my sentiments exactly. Either way we WILL 'pop' anybody who jumps up with a weapon.

Nam Vet

[ohioWfan]

BARNEY FIFE BRIGADE! LOL! I LOVE it!!

[wasp69]

Looks like we just blinked. Hope I'm wrong.

[prairiebreeze]

to former regime members looking to force a rewrite of the Kay report.

Whoa! And Bump to your insightful post.

Prairie

[Godfollow]

Wrong damn thing to do... talk about a setup...

[Stew Padasso]

America's new leader:

[swheats]

I'm wondering if we've finally made the transition. Instead of using the huge machinery we've found our ground game in moving about taking out those we've taken names and locations on.

I sure hope so, I've had enough of hearing our vehicles being blown up.

[yonif]

"The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!"

Sept. 2003:

"I don't care how it looks on TV in California. My consideration is to protect our forces and if we hadn't used tanks then we would have had greater number of casualties,"

IDF Officer

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/982441/posts

[McGavin999]

Point of clarification. Sadar is nowhere near Fallujah, Sadar is in Najef (clear on the other side of Baghdad) and is for all intents and purposes casterated.

Fallujah is Sunni, Najef is Shiia. Everyone keeps thinking Sadar has something to do with Fallujah. They are two seperate things.

[prairiebreeze]

I say relax and watch a brilliant military victory(

We are winning. No doubt about it.

Prairie

[section9]

Normally, I might have been somewhat disappointed. I am sure that the enemy will see this as a sign of weakness. However, I believe you are correct and I think the enemy will find out just how correct you are in short order.

What passes for a central command in Fallujah will begin to lose cohesion as units begin to disappear. Men, having lost contact with their fellows, will begin to attempt breakouts, both individually and in groups. I have to believe that the Marines have anticipated this. I believe that's what we've been reading in the news the past three nights.

The jihadi in Fallujah are a coalition of gangsters, thugs, Ba'athists, ex-Army, and Qaeda fanatics. They don't all agree. Some will find a seperate peace with the Americans more and more attractive. Others, such as Zarqawi and the local AQ, will want to stand and fight. But again, the nature of our opponents as a political coalition brings into strong relief the difference between this motley crew of thugs and, say, Sixth Army.

In short, I suspect you are right. The Marines have to know that the jihadists have scripted out a heroic Gottedammerung, produced and directed by Al-Jazeera. Instead, the Corps will give them little more than day after day of relentless sniping, raiding, and cordon and search operations.

No martyrdom. I see it now. Like Al-Sadr, they go out not with a bang, but with a whimper.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[livius]

I hope no Marine officer puts his/our men at the mercy of Iraqi Moslems taking up arms against other Moslems.

I'm sure they won't. There is only so much we can say when we have a hostile domestic press and an enemy that has its ear pressed to the direct phone from the NYT.

No other war has been fought this publicly, and in no other war have citizens expected up-to-the-minute reports and descriptions of battle plans.

If you want to support our troops, I would suggest getting together all of your arguments to defend them if this fails and they have to kill large numbers of Iraqi citizens.

This is not really a "truce," but a chance for the innocent to get out of the way. If it fails, it means more of them will be killed and the press will distort it to make us look like monsters.

We have to be ready to point out the great forebearance and concern that has gone into this arrangement in Falluja. We learned in Vietnam that wars are fought in public opinion as much as on the battlefield. We (the public) have got to be ready to fight fire with fire and call the press on every distortion they utter.

[Polybius]

See, I think that the military hung back for a while to let the goobers in who wanted to die with their rags on. Now, the trap is shut. Instead of a full scale assault, like the evisceration on von Paulus' Sixth Army by the Red Army's Don and Stalingrad Front Army Groups in January of 1943, we'll have a grinding, methodical attrition of the bad guys. Some of these people will, on their own, decide to break out of the ring. We'll spot them using thermal imagery, and they'll be dead. No terrorist is coming out of Fallujah alive.

I agree with you and I believe that the Roach Motel strategy is exactly what is going on.

There is no need to destroy the kitchen when you have other ways to kill the roaches.

[hoosiermama]

Was talking to a Vet o Gulf War yesterday.. Made some good points....There are basically three groups in town: A.Civilians (who want to live in peace)
B. Insurgents (who want to die) and
C. US soldiers (who are willing to oblige them).

The trick will be getting A to help C eliminate B without to much damage to A or C.

He said the mothers "Weak women" were very willing to point out where the enemy was hiding before and was certain they were doing the same thing now. We women will go to great lengths....;^)

[river rat]

Yes it does...

Have we now seen enough mission creep, where we are now engaged in a war that is politically incorrect to win?

Did we go to Iraq to destroy Militant Islamists - or to convert the lunatics to rational human beings?

This is beginning to stink --- a lot...

Neither Japan or Germany would "listen to reason" - until they had been UNCONDITIONALLY DEFEATED..

We need to defeat these bastards before anything else can be effective.
If that means destroying entire cities -- as we were willing to do in Europe and Asia -- leveling ALL their sanctuaries, including ANY Mosque they pollute with their presence...they so be it..
They brought this upon themselves...

Semper Fi