I have stated from the get-go that I disagree with the policy of disarming the general Iraqi population. We should let those citizens stay armed to defend themselves and help clean up the mess...but it would be difficult for our forces, going into an Iraqi on Iraqi firefight to distinguish the bad from the good if it got to the point where their own people could not handle it...and that is likely to still happen.
When we find ba'athists and former Hussein loyalists, I have no problem with them going in there and kicking the doors down. we shoould focus on that IMHO.
As to the number of personnel we have lost. Every single one of the losses is a tragedy to the families, loved ones, friends and this nation. But realistically, in invading and occupying a country as large and as ethnically fractured as Iraq..the losses are small by any comparison to any major war effort. We lose more citizens on our own streets in the major cities in the same time frame.
I do not say that to minimize or trivialize it...just to set the perspective.
I understand your statements. I too think the same way. Yes- 400 Dead is a tragic figure. And I don't want to lesson their deaths. But it is hardly indicative of a military "quagmire".
On the the other hand it is a political, diplomatic, and financial quagmire that this country was darn fool to engage in.
But the image of our troops kicking in doors of entire blocks of neighborhoods that they think might harbor rebels? I thought the majority loved us? Wasn't that what we were told?
That brings up images that are not good. And that fact . . . that we have to do such indiscrimante raids- tells this amatuer that our intel is soft and weak and they do more harm than good.
Just an opinion.