[ChinaThreat]

Exactly. When your opponent is on his heels it is the perfect time to strike harder. As he begins to doubt himself and questions his cuase, up the levy and make the cost even higher. The only way to quell a guerilla opponent is to demoralize him.

I think you have to systematically remove his reasons for fighting. Make it very costly to excercise his options. By having the elections, we made their cause functionally obsolete. We need to make it clear now more than ever that we are coming to kill you if you continue to resist. The AKs will go back in the mud huts and they will integrate into society once again. That is the Baathists anyway. The Islamists are rabid killers, monsters who saw heads off in the name of their god. These vermin should simply be exterminated.

[pissant]

Yep, they did a darn good job over the last week or so of stacking up terror-scum corpses.

[lOKKI]

An article I read earlier today quoted an American Military official as saying that the average insurgency during the 20th century lasted nine years. All things considered, I think it's a little too early to believe that the kids on the other team are ready to put down all their guns and play nice from now on.

They're due for one more strong peak a year or so from now, and then they'll gradually start fading away.