[John Jorsett]

For an interesting treatise on the concept of hudna (which I had never heard of until this piece) go here.

[McGavin999]

Belmont Club has really become an asset. I go there daily to get a good, clearsighted analysis. It really helps after reading the hand wringing threads.

[DrDeb]

I just posted the link to this EXCELLENT blog on another thread: It's heartening to finally read an intelligent, REASONED analysis of our current actions in Fallujah!!

[GoLightly]

The child has been handed the switch it selected & will now be taught it's correct application.

[PokeyJoe]

In honor of the man who made the phrase famous . . . .

"Retreat, Hell! I'm just advancing in the opposite direction!" he told a reporter when asked about his reversal of direction when surrounded by Chinese forces in Korea.

[michaelt]

Bump for wretchard. Thanks for posting this.

[don'tbedenied]

Yes, the USMC and the Iraq command is invovled in a complex and difficult situation. The mainstream press is unable to report very well on the situation because they only report through a single prism--BUSH BAD. To make Fallujah fit this concept the situation can only be reported one of two ways:
US losing or US commits war crimes. The situation on the ground is much more complex and we may be succeeding, only time will tell. More depressing than the elite media is the chicken littles on this site who should know better.

[Nov3]

Once the Marines get the momentum of processing going, the tribal leaders will lose control and the whole structure will start to crumble. The Marines can exploit their physical domination by offering clemency or even rewards to those who rat out on other perps. The inner bastion of Fallujah will collapse like a termite-eaten post as each man looks out for himself.

I just pray this goes this way and doesn't degenerate into a wink-wink nod-nod by the Iraqi's. These terrorists cowards had the good manners to gather in one place and let the Marines at them in a stand up fight. If they melt away into the population they will be bombing Humvees and killing people by the roadside all over the triangle till we give up and leave.

[MEG33]

FYI

[Light Speed]

We can Micro analyse Fallujah..yet the main ident in Iraq is seeing that it does not collapse into a terror proxy ..become Lebanon on the Euphrates.

Even if the U.S. tactically withdrew from Iraq ..standing like Colossus with one foot in the Persian Gulf..the other in the Med...all would be fine,
for the Spice [*oil] would flow..the Corporate synergy of the Orient prospering multitudes.

Keeping Iran in check,and its proxy terror orgs is the key.
In time...from TV/Satillite exposure..to direct business/privitization...Americas Freedom ident would move thru Islam...call it a Good Virus.

We just have to stay in the region..ensure Caspian pipelines flow to the inter*Stan trans system to the new terminals..onto the Orient.

Eventually..Jihadi will try for shipping bottlenecks...Hormuz,Suez..Indonesian waters.
Much of the worlds security will fall to the United States Navy.

2 More refurbished Carrier battle/strike groups now move into place...USS Dwight D Eisenhower is scheduled out from yard availabity which began in 2002.

The Navy has the resource base ..several carriers are good till 2025.

Iraq has been an experiment..yes..some of the idents occuring were seen in U.S. Thinktank..but shunted aside.

So..in the end..tactically remaining in the Persian Gulf is key..ensuring shipping trans and oil/gas pipline trans.

Islam is a rotted house......eventually it collapses.

[NoClones]

interesting analysis

[alexandria]

Now THIS part is very interesting...
"The coalition authorities in Iraq this week appointed the leadership of Iraq's new army. A Kurdish general who organized the Kurdish fighters since 1973 will head them, with a Sunni Arab as the chief of staff and a Shia as his deputy."

I remember when the Marines initially went into Fallujah there being something said about the US bringing the Kurds into Fallujah to help against the insurgents. I was wondering where they had gotten off to...

[LS]

1) All this was driven by the Marines' careful study of how the RUSSIANS screwed up in Grozny, as per one Marine Lt. Col. He said this is going right by the book.

2) You will see reports where idiot Iraqis in town wave the old Saddam-era flags or shout "victory over the Americans." Let 'em shout what they want. It's sort of like paying taxes---you can shout, "I love taxes" or "I hate taxes," but you still have to pay them, and the reality of THIS is going to set in on these a-holes pretty quick. They lost, and they did so in such a way that they didn't even get their stupid faces on Al-Jazeera.

3) The Iraqi army/cops will learn a lot, esp. if this general is in our pay, as I bet he is.

4) Don't know if anyone has been keeping up with the death toll, but in just the published #s, we have lost a handful of Marines to several HUNDRED of these terrorists. The fact is, this is war, and any general alive will take that ratio.

[in the Arena]

bttt

[Judith Anne]

Thanks very much for posting this analysis. I was trying to figure it out from some of the other threads, and it just was such a mish-mash of hysteria and handwringing...

This may work out very well. If not, we're still around.