[Atlantic Friend]

Get rid of Fallujah, and you'll have another city rioting, to which "Remember Fallujah" will have the same effect as "Remember the Alamo".

Since we were speaking guerrilla war here, you know guerrilla/terrorist groups just love to operate in urban areas, luring their enemy into massive retaliation. That gives them plenty of support, plenty of good propaganda. They know they can't defeat the Coalition, so they bleed it slowly until Western leaders either pull out or lash out. They did it in Indochina, in Algeria, in Vietnam. It's only logical they do it in Iraq.

According to Coalition intel reports, many insurgents currently operating in Iraq are probably not Iraqi-born. What would be the leveling of Fallujah to them ? Juicy propaganda, that's all.

I'm not into going soft with terrorists, mind you. In a related thread someone posted interesting facts about how General Pershing pacified a Filipino region where Islamists had rioted. He did not order the bombing of nearby villages, but he mercilessly killed the insurgents, in a way sure to make Islamist copycats wannabes shiver : they were shot with bullets rubbed in pork fat, and pork was put into their tombs. After that, according to the Freeper who posted it, the insurgency collapsed.

If someone plants a bomb or fire a RPG, let's shoot him. If people desecrate tombs or mutilate bodies, let's punish them according to martial rule. If someone thinks about helping the terrorists, let's make him think twice about it.

[null and void]

Perhaps we should surrender, no?

[txhurl]

they were shot with bullets rubbed in pork fat, and pork was put into their tombs. After that, according to the Freeper who posted it, the insurgency collapsed.

I've read of the efficacy of this several times.

[claudiustg]

---Get rid of Fallujah, and you'll have another city rioting, to which "Remember Fallujah" will have the same effect as "Remember the Alamo".---

And our enemies on the left would get more ammunition. I suggest just quietly bypassing Fallujah, when for any aid or improvement. Let the Iraqis then deal with their own ghetto town in their own fashion.