[oceanview]

well, we've been attacking. AC130s, snipers killing hundreds of insurgents, bombs, helicopters, tanks, etc.

we had what, 2-3 days of that? what I would like to know (dis-information from the media aside), what happened after that 2 day flurry, there must have been something that caused a fundamental shift in the thought process for how this was going to be handled. We could just as well had another few days of that level of attack, considering there were (and I used the past tense here purposefully) about 2000 insurgents, it seemed to be an appropriate level of firepower. What caused the shift? I think its some piece of information we don't yet understand.

[jpsb]

My guess is that the commander in the field doesn't have the forces he conciders necesary to take and hold Fallujah. So he is making the best of a bad situation.

[Blood of Tyrants]

IMHO, it is Bush's desire to not raise the US body count any higher than it already is for this month. Tomorrow begins a new month and the casulty count is reset. Also, after the complete failure of the Iraqi army and civil defense, they had to be "culled" of cowards and infiltrators. The past few days softened the terrorists up. The next few will finish them off.