Gunships Level Minaret As US Cancels Assault

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 4-27-2004 | David Rennie

[arjay]

Excellent. I think you are exactly right.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Abazid understands the culture.

Maybe that's the problem. It's a lot easier to blow away one you don't understand.

[neutrino]

the marines called in helicopter gunships to level a 60-ft mosque minaret

Best news I've heard this week!

[TheBattman]

The only thing that Islam understands is decisive strength. Our inaction (comparatively) in Fallujah is views as weakness by those thugs.

Unfortunately,as I and many other have said here on FR - not even GW has the guts to do what it REALLY will take to clean house in Iraq.

And yes, in a way the Iraq experience is starting to look like Vietnam, although I don't believe it's totally fair to compare the two. Any such comparison only reinforces the left's view and goals.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Everybody knows that. But you are focusing on something that is not part of the analogy.

[ChinaThreat]

You are not alone. Read this excerpt from Lt. Col. Steve Russell with the 4th ID and his experience in Tikrit.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1125018/posts

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Once the minarets are gone they are no longer good sniping or lookout positions. Monte Casino remained viable to the Germans because it was on a hilltop. Any mosque on a hilltop I will grant your objection.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Iraqi tewwowists must suwwender o we shall taunt them again!

[KingofQue]

And how is that different?

[Iberian]

Good point, the dichotomy is different but the point is the same. The politicians are driving it and our fighting machine is idling.

[epigone73]

Agreed:

Makes me glad to see my tax dollars doing some good.

[Boot Hill]

"One Marine/Soldier is not worth 1,000 ragheads."

And if that were the alternatives we faced in Fallujah, you'd be right.

But the choice isn't Iraqi lives versus American lives. The choice is whether we want to expend the lives of our Marines and Soldiers doing such a half-assed job, that every five or ten years, when each new crop of terrorists comes of age, that we suffer an additional and commensurate loss of Marines and Soldiers lives each time we have to go back.

Or do we want to get the job done right the first time with the lowest long-term cost in the lives of our Marines and Soldiers?

The only way to ensure the latter choice is to do one of two things: Either kill everything that walks or crawls throughout the entire middle east, no exceptions, or else be prepared to roll up your sleeves and partake in the hard work, alongside the Iraqi's, to see that Iraq becomes a place where terrorism can never flourish again.

In terms of the current battle at Fallujah, that translates to this: If you're actively engaged in terrorism, whether you are from Iraq, Syria or Iran, or even if you're just willingly providing material support or sanctuary to the terrorists, then you die. If terrorists hide men or equipment in mosques or other buildings, the same rule applies. For all other inhabitants, buildings and infrastructure, we do our damndest to avoid killing or destroying them.

That approach may appear to some to unnecessarily hazard the lives of our Marines and Soldiers, but in the long term, it saves lives....American lives.

--Boot Hill

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Maybe.

But Plan A guarantees it.

And demonstrating the willingness to do Plan A is the best, if not only, way to make Plan B work.

[Boot Hill]

"But Plan A guarantees it."

It sure does! It guarantees that we will end up with a problem far worse than middle eastern terrorism ever was. Do you honestly believe that there would be no repercussions or blow-back, were we to employ the "Genghis Khan strategy", here in the 21st Century?

--Boot Hill

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Tell me. What are the French going to do?

[ovrtaxt]

The ACLU and NBC, ABC, PBS and CBS are looking over our shoulders, and they want Kerry to win.

First-- the old media is IRRELEVANT. Kerry's recent poll numbers have dropped, while Bush's have gone up, this after a coordinated smear campaign that lasted weeks with the 911 commission.

Second-- the WH is apparently still thinking in the outdated paradigm of political correctness. These political panners need to get up to speed and actually trust the American people, that we understand what's at stake, that we understand what Islam is, that we want the world's respect more than their affection.

We could have been the lone superpower in the fifties, had we not fallen into the deception of the left wing media. The Soviets never could stand up to us, (Compare our experience in Afghanistan with theirs), but the communists in the media had a stranglehold on info.

No more. Bush, wake up!!

[ovrtaxt]

LOL! Good analysis--we could get Cheech & Chong as Secretary of State.

[Blood of Tyrants]

43 Jihadis killed in Najaf.

Feel better? We aren't letting them get away, we are whittling them down.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Where have I heard 'patience' before,

Your mother? ;^)

[oceanview]

if we have a real uprising of the iraqi populace, with millions in open revolt in the streets, we lose the war, period. we can't handle that, we can't massacre them all, especially since the war was fought to liberate them.

the media wants people to believe the populace is in open revolt now, its not true, the numbers are small.