[shortstop]

The problem is that, amazingly, these people don’t respect or fear us. They have contempt for us. They think we are spineless. And I’m not sure they’re wrong.

[MEG33]

Have you been there and done that or just frustrated?I know I wouldn't be making such a harsh judgement.

[eyespysomething]

This is what I've been saying for weeks now. We are just being too friendly. Get the job done. We can't even begin to rebuild anything until these constant hostilities end. Geesh. Give our guys some leeway to take matters into their own hands.

[Snuffington]

The problem is that, amazingly, these people don?t respect or fear us. They have contempt for us. They think we are spineless.

Victor Davis Hanson made the point, shortly after we took Baghdad, that we might have a problem because the campaign had been too successful. He said Western armies typically pacify countries they conquer by the sheer brutality of their style of war. The conquered country has no doubt they are utterly defeated.

But this war was so quick and almost painless to the Iraqis that they don't have that same sense of suffering and defeat, like the Japanese and Germans did post WW II.

[wideawake]

We need to find and kill every Ba'ath party member - not necessarily the guy who signed up because they told him he'd lose his job working for the Bureau of Public Works unless he joined: I'm talking about the guys whose full-time job was being a Ba'ath Party functionary.

Kill all of those guys by firing squad in the streets.

[MalcolmS]

Yes, that strategy is working so well for the Russians in Chechnya </sarcasm>

It's not very Sun Tzu either.

[boris]

DAMN right!

[milan]

As brutal as this may sound...we should have carpet bombed Baghdad and Tikrit. These precision munitions are great, but the honestly leave the populace without a feeling of what war is like. The Japanese haven't been a problem in over 50 years...they knew the horror of war. Without the cold brutal reality of war, we will have difficulties controlling the hardliners.

[hemogoblin]

The PC approach is frustrating, but this reads a little hysterical. The casualty numbers don't approach those of Vietnam.

You can't go wobbly after a few months.

Stay the course; watch what happens in Iran (and subsequently Iraq); let the Muslim fanatic world concentrate on something other than the U.S. mainland.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Short, simplistic, stupid answer to a long term, complex problem.

[SAMWolf]

There's no "maybe" about it.

The entire middle east isn't worth one American soldier.

[SevenDaysInMay]

The leftists are cheerfully reporting that Bush announced that the War was over. So why are our guys still being killed by "civilian" dress soldiers, aka war criminals?

The "battle" for Iraq, the Sodamn campaign, is far from complete. Iran and Syria are funneling in jihadies as well as their own pan-Islamist special forces, under various aliases. $audi support aids and comforts those who want murderous dictators stealing national economies blind, in the blasphemed name of their god, as interpreted by a murdering thief turned invader. See 'Mein Koran' and Haddith, their battle plan.

I pray that this police action, in the face of a slow paced murder rate of our guys, is buying our war effort time to R&R and rearm.

Far beyond our righteous hot pursuits, Syria and Iran are vying for "next". A move over Syria will require a large force on Iran's frontier as those millions of Persian pair of dice seekers want their post-mortem virgins and rivers of wine.

With or without "democracy", we may be creating the needed predicate for a united Pan-Islam union under religious leaders to war perpetually against us and our children's children. Our values makes a mockery of busy little wahabbees interpretation of Islam, and they are both militant and fighting for control of The Mob in the Arab Street. MAD may not work.

At our war success, the UN and Old Europe are vexed. Our world socialist Dems are vexed.

The Western World will be hexed if we Americans fail to destroy our mortal enemies where they breed future jihadies faster than we are willing to kill them.

[Coop]

Sixty Americans dead since we pulled down the statues and hardly a day passes that more names aren’t added to that tally.

Two-thirds of those deaths are from accidents. Shall we blow up cars and trucks to show those nasty vehicles we mean business? Or maybe hit the factories in Detroit and Japan?

Please put "Vanity" in the title of such a nonsensical post.

[Coop]

My mistake. Not a vanity (your writing). Someone actually made an article out of this. Amazing.

[MosesKnows]

Sixty Americans dead since we pulled down the statues

This is a true statement, but very misleading.

Considering the "down on points" theme, some perspective is required to give your suggestion the attention it deserves. Sixty Americans have died since we pulled down the statues but only twenty died at the hands of the enemy. That indicates a hugh success.

[americanSoul]

If a grenade comes out of a crowd, kill the crowd.

Yes! Rummy is dropping the ball on this.

[Lazamataz]

Bob Lonsberry is the King of the sentence fragment.

I lived in Rochester, NY. A more pompous, arrogantly idiotic person, you will not find. Lonsberry is a blight on Rochester.

[Captain Kirk]

The problem with the "get tougher" policy is that it will undermine the "hearts and minds" policy and attract more Iraqis to the guerrillas. Whether it is "get tougher" or "win their hearts and minds," the policers are have a "wolf by the ears" as long as they keep holding on. The most logical way out of this "police action" is to declare victory, hand over authority to an interim govenment, and get out.

[LarryM]

The problem is that, amazingly, these people don’t respect or fear us. They have contempt for us. They think we are spineless. And I’m not sure they’re wrong.

This is exactly right. You win wars by killing your enemy. There is no other way. Letting them escape with their weapons was only seen by them as weakness. Bush's negotiations with Hamas and appeasement of PLO terrorists is only seen in the ME as a lack of guts. They just have to outlast us to win the war on terror. The signs are not encouraging.

[tm22721]

You're dead wrong.

Americans know and accept the cost of avoiding another 9/11.

BUMP

[Greenpees]

The poster's writing is born out of frustration. It's a bit more difficult to mow down a crowd where a shot may have eminated from (although, a grenade is quite different) and the author probably wouldn't do it.

I always felt that Somalia was a perfect case of "officer friendly" tactics. Every soldier/grunt/seabee knew that the crap could hit the fan at any time, but the official word was always "it's an operational success". Meanwhile, guys were dying. (not to the Iraq extent, but occasionally)

Nobody asked us. CNN was busy with the HQ tent, only reporting the good news (After all, Clinton was President)but not talking to the ground pounder. They're are two entirely different realities in situations like Somalia when it come to HQ and the troops. Communication is important between the ranks, and the troops need to know that HQ hears the real deal, not the politically expedient answer.

I digress. Iraq is as different as different can be. We must succeed, withdrawal is not an option. Therefore "killing the population to save the village" won't work. We simply have to strengthen force protection, hunt the culprits, and kill them. Only them if possible. I wish our guys luck.