I haven’t heard some of the Fallujahn stories that you mention. If you come across something else that's public, I’d appreciate being copied.
We’re not likely to get good intelligence on insurgents from areas we’ve never patrolled. It doesn’t look like the Fallujah Brigade as currently led will be sufficiently on the side of the upcoming Iraqi Government for their intell to be any good either. I think Al-Jawlan’s looking like a future safe-haven for bomb making plants and people like al-Zawahiri.
I don’t believe people are really fearful of the martyr factor in Fallujah. It’s just too convenient an excuse for politicians being unwilling to pay the price of victory, instead leaving them wringing their hands about how to “manage” that last 10%.
I don’t see how an image of an Alamo can be created after the images the world saw of charred civilian bodies suspended from a bridge. We briefly had justification to do whatever necessary to defeat the insurgents there and elsewhere. It’s over. Can’t attack a “quiet” city. If I lost a leg or an eye for that, I’d feel betrayed.
I think Fallujahn may be quiet for years, but not Iraq. Perhaps we’ll get to leave in a year or two, but because there will still be places like Al-Jawlan, there’ll continue to be frequent incidents like the killing of Saleem today dominating the news. This of course limits us in effectively holding Iraq up as an example for reform in the region.
What do you think of the latest Latif statements that seem very enlightened and progressive? I agree the Alamo scenario is bogus to us, the problem is we have so many "sensitive" types pushing policy that we worry too much about giving traction to the martyr concept. Why didn't the media publish the charred body hanging from the bridge, that didn't go any where.
I can't seem to get any notice of my Black Death post and the statements by the very fundamentalist Sunnis recognizing the Shia's founding martyr Hussein. I think it's a major phase shift and no one sees the sizzle.