At least in Nam, we bombed the enemy sanctuaries of Cambodia Laos and N. Vietnam, and that was with a democratic President! This President Bush, won't even shoot a spit ball at Iran or Syria. WHY IN THE WORLD NOT!!!!
THE situation is much worse than Nam, because....Vietnam wasn't trying to attain nukes
Iran may just buy a few from N. Korea any day now....stick them in the trunk of a car and have someone drive and park it next to the Green Zone in Baghdad.
Lets just -
Split Iraq in three, Declare Iraqi Freedom Attained, send the ground forces against Syria and send the nukes against Iran.....
or we can just wait for another 9/11....and while the President waits....we see that only for the 2nd time in the war has the coalition lost over 70 dead, for 3 consecutive months.
We can't afford to stand by and let our troops be treated this way. Let them loose to fight or get them out before they are nuked.
These numbers do not include the Taliban, Syrians, Fedayeen, Sadr's thugs, Ba'athists, and Iranians in Iraq. It does not include the terrorists crushed in cave collapses in Afghanistan.
This does not include Al Qaeda in other countries who are KIA.
When you add those, the total dead for the enemy skyrocket. What we really need is to get our own government (both parties) to untie the military's hands and let us do our jobs. It will not be pretty, it will not be 'PC', but it will work and it will end in victory.
Example: Go to Sadr City or any terrorist area in Anbar and surround it. Announce that the population has 12 hours to vacate though checkpoints. Anyone not going through a checkpoint will be shot. After the 12 Hours, commence bombing with B-52s, MOABs, Daisy-Cutters, and Fuel-Air Explosives. Add to this a few cannon and rocket artillery battalions with HE and WP.
After the fires have gone down, send in the tanks and IFVs at night with thermal sensors online. Orbit UAVs with thermals and Hellfire missiles. Include several wings of bombers and attack aircraft for CAS. If anything is "hot" on the thermals, shoot it. Level the town to its lower sewers. Leave the smoldering hole as a warning. Only THEN do we start 'talking' with the terrorists. We do this once or twice and the 'insurgency' will end.
Contrary to popular myth, the USA has never lost an insurgency. Our military defeated each one. Our politicians, however, lose sight of the need for victory. "Insurgencies" are ugly wars and are fought in violent, ugly ways. Some will say the above example makes us no better than Saddam. They are dead wrong. Saddam did level towns. He never gave the people warning or time to evacuate noncombatants. We do. That is the difference.
Or else we can keep fighting the EU/UN/PC way and lose. And when we lose, we will have these terrorists in our backyards. The hundreds of reported and unreported terror attacks under Clinton's 'watch' will seem like nothing.
Yeah, I'm mean but I am leaving for Iraq in a few weeks. According to my wife's "useful idiot" aunt, I'll be dead anyways so why should I care if I come off 'insensitive'.