[victoryatallcosts]

U.S. Marines have postponed plans to mount an attack against insurgents in Fallujah and instead will attempt to regain control of the violence-wracked city without a full-scale offensive... Concerned about the repercussions an attack could generate across Iraq and the Arab world, senior U.S. military and civilian officials have decided to try to confront a band of hard-core Sunni Muslim insurgents by having Marines conduct patrols in the city alongside Iraqi security forces... Developing...

[Sender]

I hope they're right. Pity.

[DCBryan1]

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

[victoryatallcosts]

As much as I hate to say it, it's probably the right call. The only real reason to bother fighting for the city street-by-street would be, well, I can't think of a very good reason to do so if they're contained within. After all, there doesn't sound like there's much reason to give a damn about the civilians in that particular city. Let them rot.

In a better time, we'd simply raze the city: but now isn't such a time.

[fortcollins]

Its sunday night on Drudge again

[Mamzelle]

But how will this be perceived by the Fallujah insurgents?

[Mr. Mojo]

Concerned about the repercussions an attack could generate across Iraq and the Arab world........

Yep, we must not antogonize our Arab/Islamic brothers and sisters, else "millions of more bin Ladens" will pop up all over the place. We must show them our abudant compassion, win their "hearts and minds," and then they'll return the favor tenfold later. You see, they're "just like us," .....a bunch of freedom-loving folks.

Islam is indeed a "religion of peace" and quite capable of coexisting peacefully with the Western world and adopting Western values. Islamists just need a little compassionate and patient guidance, that's all. And killing these poor misguided "insurgents" indiscrimminately is NOT the way to do it. These terr....errr.... militants might very well respond favorably to negotiations. I mean, who are we to judge?

</ monthly dose of sarcasm out of my system>

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[Concerned about the repercussions an attack could generate across Iraq and the Arab world, senior U.S. military and civilian officials have decided to try to confront a band of hard-core Sunni Muslim insurgents by having Marines conduct patrols act as targets in the city alongside Iraqi security forces...]

This is crazy.

[CyberAnt]

Well .. if the Iraqi guys perform the way they did when the insurgent mess started, I sure don't want my soldier's back protected by those guys.

And .. if our soldiers get ambushed because the Iraqi guys won't shoot other muslims - they the jig is up. Maybe then the people who have told the President we have to back off can go on TV and publically apologize to the families of the dead soldiers for giving the President such STUPID advice!!

I know this group is specially trained to handle this type of warfare .. but it's still the most dangerous.

[pointsal]

Phooey...is the only word that probably won't be censored
This is a bad idea......kill'em all

[wasp69]

Looks like we just blinked. Hope I'm wrong.

[Godfollow]

Wrong damn thing to do... talk about a setup...

[Jim Noble]

Concerned about the repercussions an attack could generate across Iraq and the Arab world

Bad call.

IMO, Bush has to crush Fallujah, or he goes home in January.

[DiscoStu1979]

senior U.S. military and civilian officials have decided to try to confront a band of hard-core Sunni Muslim insurgents by having Marines conduct patrols in the city alongside Iraqi security forces... Developing...

This pretty much says that we've decided to place greater importance on the lives of Iraqis than on the lives of our Marines. I can't fathom how the President can make this decision given that it is likely to lead to the deaths of many more Marines than would be killed from an all-out attack which is pre-ceded by a massive arial bombardment of Falujah.

This is akin to arguing it would have been better to invade Japan instead of nuking it so as not to upset the local population.

[mbraynard]

In preparation for OCS, I've been reading the USMC manual from 1940, Small Wars. Given my understanding of what works and what doesn't, I think this will probably be the best one.

I also think a lot of right winger types freaking out over this should read the manual (free pdf on the web) and have a little more respect for the decisions of the US military leadership.

[Taliesan]

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

[Liberal Classic]

Concerned about the repercussions is what stalled the Gulf War the first time. What did that get us?

[Cooter]

Head Fake!!!