"We win if we kill the terrorists. We DONT win if Iraqi cities are levelled."
Uh, the presumption is that we level cities where terrorists are.
How does establishing an Iraqi gov't help us "win", since their army is nowhere near ready to takeover?
And, I think some "moderate" terrorists might give up if they knew we weren't hesitant to unleash our full arsenal at any time, any where.
WE WAITED 9 MONTHS TO GO INTO FALLUJAH AFTER THE "BRIDGE" INCIDENT.
The presumption that levelling cities is an effective way to kill terrorists is wrong. Only a tiny fraction of the people are terrorists, and the terrorists are the first to escape a 'kill em all' approach. Anyway, we did the 'city levelling' thing in Fallujah in November, when we went in there and damaged the one city that they truly controlled. They dont control it now, but it is barely habitable, and many of the people are now refugees. It was necessary, but far better is how we retook Samarra: Combined Iraqi and U.S. operation, in 3 days we killed about 300 or so of the terrorists, captured about 150 of them. Collateral damage was much less than in Fallujah. In both Fallujah and Samarra some of the bad guys simply ran away. But at least with Samarra, there is a functioning city now held by Iraqi brigades, U.S. forces and a re-established police. That is a WIN for coalition. Fallujah is a win too, but only because the terrorists we found there are dead or captured; it looks like those cities after WWII and the residents marched asking to go back to the city.
How does establishing an Iraqi gov't help us "win", since their army is nowhere near ready to takeover? ON the contrary, the Iraqi army is already killing and capturing terrorists, patrolling and holding ground and engaging in a number of successful operations against the terrorists. Vast majority of Iraqis want democracy, support military / police action to defeat the terrorists. So an Iraqi govt will help us meet our goals.
And, I think some "moderate" terrorists might give up if they knew we weren't hesitant to unleash our full arsenal at any time, any where. If you run into a 'moderate' terrorist, let us know. I didnt say that terrorists shouldnt be killed, but killing civilians only helps fuel the AlJazeera media and helps their cause. Let us kill TERRORISTS not innocent bystanders who happen to be in the same neighborhood.
WE WAITED 9 MONTHS TO GO INTO FALLUJAH AFTER THE "BRIDGE" INCIDENT. Wrong. We (ie Marines) went in in April, killed almost a 1000 people and took parts of the city. then Al Jazeera made it sound like we were killing women and children and the IGC and others told us to stand down. So we went with the 'fallujah brigade' which failed to control the militants, and the city got taken over by terrorists and jihadists. All through the summer and into the fall, we were bombing fallujah, sometimes hitting our mark sometimes hitting collateral damage. ... the way we handled Najaf and Sadr city and the disbanding of the Madhi army, and Samarra worked out better.
The real limiting factor is our intelligence capability to know who and where the terrorists are, so we can go after them.
See Liberating Iraq