Replies

We are arrayed like this to avoid presenting high value targets like barracks or dorms would present. Remember Beirut and Khobar. To do this right, our guys need pin point and fast tactical support or they are dead in short order. You can't fire when you can't lift your head.

Yes, I agree. And that was my point, that caused a lot of disagreement on this thread. I was airing a worry that the tactical air support might have not been as "robust" or quick as it should have been. And I later speculated that the Fallujah operation might have distracted the Marines from other concerns. We don't know.

This dispersal of forces presents opportunities to the enemy, and if they're game, they can take advantage of vulnerable pockets of our troops. My point about the 70 attackers is that 70 guys armed with AKs and RPGs can cause a lot of hurt, especially if they get a little bit lucky, and have the element of surprise on their side.

That article about Bremer trying to incite these sort of battles is very interesting.

A while back this Administration made a conscious decision to save the West almost singlehandedly and this is the how and why of it.

Watching this Shiite paramiltary unit pop up got me thinking. These were people held in check by Saddam's ethnically kindred security force. What changed to cause the Administration to move on Iraq like it did.

What I now believe is we were in a race to get control of the region before a potent rival took up residence. I believe Saddam's rule was about up. As you can see, Iran had set up shop in the Shia neighborhoods of Iraq waiting patiently like the vulture to swoop. The sons were lightweights prone to squabbles and stupidity (aka Sonny and Fredo). When the old man took the hit or died naturally, these dirtbags were going to make their move.

So where does that leave you Uncle? Unwilling to cede 16% of the worlds proven reserves to a nation already sick with petro carbons, Iran. We moved before the Mullahs proxied a repeat of the Iranian revolution in 1976. We geopolitacally checkmated the farking mullahs. Remember the Iranian human wave attacks on Iraq in the 80's. They have had their designs on Mesopotamia for quite a while now.

I say good for us. We farked up their plan. Anyone who thinks having the Islamic Republic of Iran cornering a near monopoly on the oil and gas markets is a chump.

Iran is the historical enemy of the west. There are no other major regional battles that extend beyond the history of Persia and the west. Look it up. And grow a farking spine about your fate in this world.

I wasn't addressing you with the spine comment. I cut this from an argument I was presenting to some liberals and forgot to edit out the inappropriate parts. Sorry bout that.

But I believe the rest to be true. Afghanistan would have completed the fundamental Islamic Arc from Beirut to Islamabad. We blew that plan apart.