[heye2monn]

You're absolutely right about the need to tackle Fallujah and Sadr City. It has been our biggest mistake in the war so far, reverting to squishy State Department diplomacy and nicey-nicey gun buy-backs.

Why on earth are we giving these thugs a safe haven for making bombs and cutting off heads instead of allowing the Marines to crush them?

[elfman2]

" You're absolutely right about the need to tackle Fallujah and Sadr City. It has been our biggest mistake in the war so far, reverting to squishy State Department diplomacy and nicey-nicey gun buy-backs."

I think it started before the Fallujah compromise. Our biggest mistake was attempting to rebuild a nation before defeating it. That was tried in Vietnam, Somalia and Lebanon, all with identical results. You’d think all the “brilliant” people at the pentagon would have learned that by now.

[elfman2]

"Why on earth are we giving these thugs a safe haven for making bombs and cutting off heads instead of allowing the Marines to crush them?"

Probably because a bloodbath right before the elections would put the moderates out of power in three months. It needed to be done in April.

[Jim Noble]

Why on earth are we giving these thugs a safe haven for making bombs and cutting off heads instead of allowing the Marines to crush them?

There are two possibilities:

1) Bush's political people are convinced that overwhelming force and destruction of the enemy will be unpopular enough to lose the election.

2) Bush's national security and warfighting team is incompetent.