[68skylark]

Thanks for the ping -- it came just as I was posting my comment. This is amazing writing.

Did you read the part about the "catch and release" policy for terrorists? I should be really pissed off about this -- it leads to death of our people and of good Iraqis who would like a better country. But I think I'm starting to resign myself to the fact that we're simply not serious about winning in Iraq, so things like that are bugging me less and less.

[NonValueAdded]

It is bugging me more and more. I think this is a good example of why some on the right would say "not satisfied with the war effort" when responding to a poll. If it turns out that it is the US doing the release part of catch and release, then I want a full Hochstedder to occur.

[Mr. Silverback]

But I think I'm starting to resign myself to the fact that we're simply not serious about winning in Iraq, so things like that are bugging me less and less.

How bizarre that you'd write that in here, of all threads. If Yon's reporting from the front reflects anything, it is that we here at home know close to zero about what's actually going on there, and that we are winning.

[TomasUSMC]

But I think I'm starting to resign myself to the fact that we're simply not serious about winning in Iraq,

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You too? Its bugging me more and more. What the heck is wrong with this President Bush that we all busted are butts for to get elected and get him a house and senate too?

How can he allow this crap to go on? I need my President to get rid of these stupid Vietnam combat rules. Michael Yon even states that if an American trooper commands someone to stop and they don't we are not allowed to shoot. What are we supposed to do, change into running shorts and Reeboks and run after them tooting on a whistle?

Is this war or bible study? Heck, might as well arm our guys with spitballs if they can't kill the enemy. Oh and just in case someone says "what if they are just scared", I say this is war, kill them and continue on, its not police work - its WAR.

[Tunehead54]

Kind of a long snip but worth noting:

That December day, Khalid Jasim Nohe and two compatriots tried to evade US soldiers from 2-8 FA, but the soldiers managed to stop the fleeing car. Then one of the suspects tried to wrestle a weapon from a soldier before all three were detained. They were armed with a sniper rifle, an AK, pistols, a silencer, explosives and other weapons, and had in their possession photographs of US bases, including a map of this base.

That was in December.

About two weeks ago, word came that Nohe's case had been dismissed by a judge on 7 August. The Coalition was livid. According to American officers, solid cases are continually dismissed without apparent cause. Whatever the reason, the result was that less than two weeks after his release from Abu Ghraib, Nohe was back in Mosul shooting at American soldiers.

LTC Kurilla repeatedly told me of--and I repeatedly wrote about--terrorists who get released only to cause more trouble. Kurilla talked about it almost daily. Apparently, the vigor of his protests had made him an opponent of some in the Army's Detention Facilities chain of command, but had otherwise not changed the policy. And now Kurilla lay shot and in surgery in the same operating room with one of the catch-and-release-terrorists he and other soldiers had been warning everyone about.

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Army's Detention Facilities: Maybe these guys need a FReeping! They should lean on the Iraqi judiciary to hold on to these bad guys! "They were armed with a sniper rifle, an AK, pistols, a silencer, explosives and other weapons, and had in their possession photographs of US bases, including a map of this base." What more do they need? :-(