BUSH MAKES THE CALL: NO FULL SCALE FALLUJAH OFFENSIVE

The Drudge Report ^ | April 25, 2004 | Matt Drudge

[threat matrix]

developing tonight..header for now

[gogov]

This is gonna get more Marines killed. I say to hell with opinion. They already hate us.

Hard to argue with you on this one. They definately do hate us and the course they apparantly are choosing is going to get more Marines killed.

We have two option: (1) hit them as hard as we can and get the job done or (2) pull in our sails and hide in our own country.

Perhaps they have found a way to get some cooperation.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Chris! I agree with you completely. Where did you get your smarts? I think there is much more to this then we know. Just going in and busting up things (that we all know that we can do) may be not what is really what may be the best thing. Listen, I am ready to give our President the support he needs. Thank God we are not the ones who have to make these life or death decisions, or have to live with them!

[rmmcdaniell]

On the other hand, if you think that it is a no brainer that our patrols will be attacked, that we will then respond with overwhelming force, and that the French and the UN will then have to grit their teeth and say that our response to the attacks on our patrols was justified (and say that President Bush was correct to try for a peace that the terrorists were too stupid to live with), then this agreement can only be viewed as utterly, totally, completely brilliant.

The UN will never allows us to defeat the to defeat the terrorists. Our leaders promised overwhelming force after the initial mutilations.

Now you think it is brilliant that they are going to send more brave soldiers to their deaths on these doomed patrolls so that they will have yet another excuse to the UN so that they can finally use overwhelming force!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Screw the UN and screw you. How many more have to die needlessly before the gloves come off? Do we need another 3000 inocents slaughtered on our soil?

[FreeReign]

Drudge says this decision was passed down from Bush, and not a military decision of how to wage war or eliminate the bad boys holed up in the city.

Oh the horror. Oh the scandal. Does Bush have no shame?

Pssst. Bush, is the commander in chief. Drudge is not the commander in chief. Drudge is however a drama queen.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Drama Queen you got that right LOL.

[Hop A Long Cassidy]

>>> See #218...

In Bush's last speech for TV he repeatedly said that it was our duty to set up a democracy in Iraq that would serve as a beacon for all of the MidEast.

How much of that vision can taxpayers afford?

I don't think this will happen for the next 30 years. The bad boys holed up in these cities are supported by the populace to some degree.

I don't think this is a wise military ploy to get the enemy to attack. The media are going to be blasting pictures of dead Iraqi babies any time we counter strike.

Particularly Al Jazera, and that gets picked up by the Euroweanie press and then the left wing press here.

The bright reason to not attack is that Bush realizes the power of the press, and that he has other plans that are not being discussed. Hopefully that would include PARTITIONING and a victorious EXIT.

Hoppy

[Taliesan]

This is a very bad moment. The first military decision in Iraq based on American domestic politics. NOW the quagmire begins.

[tm22721]

The 1920 revolt in Iraq was suppressed by the British via village-burning expeditions and other reprisals. Anyone think that could be gotten away with these days?

Throw out the media then you're back to 1920.

BUMP

[ZULU]

I think Bush is listening to Powell and his friends at the state department.

I agree with you. This IS a very bad moment and a bad decision.

We are putting American soldiers at unnecessary risk.

We are demonstrating to the Islamofascists that tactics of this nature can work.

We are reinforcing their belief that America is a paper tiger which lacks the fortitude and conviction to carry through with its threats.

We have fogotten WHY we are in Iraq in the first place, and WHY we are surounding Fallujah in the second place.

Can the Muslim world hate us any more than they do now?
I hardly think so.

Will the destruction of Fallujah generate any greater efforts by terrorists to blow up Americans? I hardly think so.

Will our pusillanimous attitude towards the thugs in Fallujah result in any greater support by Iraqis for us? I doubt it. It will just make those Iraqis who support us reassess that support in light of such behavior on our part.

I know some soldiers who served over there and were back on leave. They told me the same thing. Fallujah always a big problem and we should have levelled the place immediately.

I question Abouzaid's abilities and the reaction of Kimmitt on National T.V. after the attack on the American civilians and the mutiliation of their corpses was simply unbelieveable. HE said, and I quote "we want to find those people and TALK to them"!!???

Where is Patton when we need him??

[ohioWfan]

Whatever makes you feel good Andrew.

You can call your pessimistic prophesies of doom 'convictions' all you want, since it obviously justifies them in your own mind.

Nice talking to you, Eeyore.........

[ohioWfan]

I see that altura has corrected your erroneous assumption that because I haven't personally served that I don't know anything about troop morale.

My son has only been home from Iraq a few weeks, and I KNOW what hurts his morale.

People who badmouth his Commander in Chief, and who go around prophesying doom when they don't know what they're talking about......

That would be the leftist media, and people like you.

[sheik yerbouty]

In the arab world, forebearance leads to contempt. The ayatollahs' promises are the hope of fools.

[Sender]

I agree about the families in Fallujah and honoring our word to the Iraqis, but the really bad elements holed up in Fallujah are NOT Iraqis, they are Iranians, Syrians, Yemenis, Saudis, all of them there for one express reason; to keep us from peace in Fallujah.

It is these foreign mercenaries who are not afraid to become martyrs and with whom there is no negotiation. If you can think of a way to round up the bad guys while keeping families safe, please post it.

[gibonski]

It reminds me of some Jimmy Carters decision.I cannot believe this.

[BureaucratusMaximus]

Link

Note the snip:"The new strategy, reached in consultation with the White House over the weekend, represents an effort by U.S. officials to avoid a military incursion that could entail urban combat, civilian casualties and a wave of retributive strikes outside Fallujah, further poisoning relations between Iraqis and U.S. occupation forces."

[swheats]

Good morning ladies. Apparently our FRiend got the 411 on FR women. :) We're no weaklings.

[Joe Hadenuf]

This is gonna get more Marines killed. I say to hell with opinion. They already hate us.

This is exactly what I have been saying for weeks!

This bull sh*t is getting our people killed damn-it!

What happened to flattening this Fallujah? What happened to don't mess with Bush? What happened to all this BS?

Didn't we get enough of this political bull sh*t in Vietnam?

HEY BUSH!

BEING HUMANE AT THE COST OF MORE AMERICAN LIVES IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

[SoCal Pubbie]

If this was Vietnam, wouldn't we have to destroy the city in order to save it?

[Theo]

As I wrote, our snipers are doing what they dream of doing -- going into the city after curfew, finding people with weapons roaming the streets, coming out of mosques, collaborating with other bad guys, and our snipers are killing them. Their strategy is working.

That said, I love a good bombing of bad guys as much as anyone, but killing bad guys a dozen at a time is perhaps better than killing 100 people, 10 of which are not "bad" Iraqis....

[Theo]

Our snipers are killing dozens of bad guys every day/night. There's more going on now than just a "cease-fire." We are on the offensive, quietly.