I'm sure there is some brass in need of a good knocking, but the "Pollyanna" strategy of trying to make friends, during a war, with our enemies cames right from the top.
I took so much flaming over pointing this out over the last few years, I stopped posting for quite a while...BUT DAMNIT NOW LOOK WHAT HAS HAPPENED !!
We should have leaflet bombed, town by town..."Leave your weapons at ----- collection point by 5th of never. Anyone caught with any type of weapon after this date will be considered an enemy combatant and shot on sight."
Following this, each and every door should have been kicked in to search for weapons...Every single door, every single mosque (also known as picking a fight). Anyone who so much as throws a rock in protest considered a combatant and shot.
Instead President Pollyanna thought it would be wise to allow guys like Al Sadr to have militias armed with heavy machine guns, RPGs and explosives. It doesn't really take a genius to forsee people getting shot and blown up when we start off on that foot.
Bush lost this war...Because he didn't let our troops fight it. They weren't allowed to fight it like our troops fought our very first foreign war...When we invaded Tripoli and utterly wiped out the Barbary Pirates and all who supported them. Now with congress lost we will never be allowed to finish this war. May God forgive us as a nation for denying our troops thier rightful victory...
The first campaign was a very successful military victory. The second phase was a brutually difficult task that failed.
We now need a third campaign to get the job done. We need the stomach to truly let loose the dogs of war. The Iraqis have to fear us again. Without fear, we'll never begin to gain control.