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You and me both. I'm going to have to double my FR contribution next quarter. To be fair to elfman, he did grudgingly acknowledge that the Marines "helped train the Fallujah Brigade", but he absolutely refused to believe their withdrawal from Fallujah was also their own idea. I guess he assumes they were training the Brigade for the sole purpose of having them step into the middle of a nearly continuous firefight. Just between you and me, I think he knows he's wrong. But he'll never admit it publicly. In fact, he is currently sitting on the floor with his fingers in his ears and his face turning blue ignoring this post, because its easier to throw a tantrum than admit to being wrong.

Let me publicly say that, sad to say, the FR ranters on thesee threads put the extremist Mullahs to shame! So much carping, whining, personal attacks and people more interested nitpicking to the nth degree or trying to justify some prejudice or preconceived notions.

Enough!

I went to a Republican club meeting today. 100 people in a room... 2 US Congressional candidates, one who will be the next Congressman from central Tx. Lots of other candidates and important people. But one guest who was introduced got the only standing ovation of heartfelt applause at the event: an Army Sargeant wounded and returned from Iraq.

I was gratified to see we had our priorities in honoring people straight.

The only real issue in Iraq is whether these decisions the coalition leader make will work or not, whether the execution of the plans by our soldiers and diplomats matches our goals, and whether we will see success. We dont know. The soldiers dont know. Bush doesnt know. We have resolve, we are trying to make the right calls, and we have faith in the success of our mission.

I've concluded after wading through many of these back-biting discussions from pessimist defeatists and "MOAB 'em" angry armchair gen'ls, that all we are contributing is noise.

RE the Fallujah Brigade: On 040420 a dozen local Sheiks/tribal leaders led by Gen. Saleh asked to speak with Col.Toolan, Chief of Staff to Gen. Conway, 1MEF. They offered to recruit locals, and ICDC and local police defectors to form the Falluja Protection Army (for $). War has been hard on their smuggling businesses. The Iraqi Provisional Authority and ICDC had a fit. The Marines saw an opportunity to severely deplete the rebels by getting the 200 or so ICDC defectors (with their weapons) to redefect. Gen. Saleh was too inept to do it and would have been shot on sight by the Kurds working for the Marines. So Gen. Latif was brought in to head the Fallujah Brigade consisting of three battalions. Two of which are Army/Marine trained, while Gen. Saleh heads one of its battalions with his people, working the SE part of town away from the fighting. Yes, this was an ongoing Marine effort, supplanted of late by Gen. Saleh's posse.

Gen. Saleh's group will be disbanded when Fallujah is pacified, the other two battalions will integrate into the ICDC. By the way, Gen. Saleh's first cousin is #54 on the most wanted list.