Okay, lets explore the solution in that context. A raft of generals over the last two weeks have gone on the record as saying (paraphrasing) "the war in Iraq cannot be won." It sums up to the fact that when you kill one 'insurgent' it creates three. (seems they are finally recognising the tribal law of revenge at work). Let's say the number of insurgents is somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000, the numbers given. How do you imagine you would take these people out? (a practical solution would be nice to hear).langeweile said:use all the force necessary to get rid of the insurgency.
There might be some innocent people dying in the process, but they are dying now already.
i get the feeling that after the media stunt of "mission accomplished' one hand of the army was tied behind their back, because we are afraid of perception.
My question is...how much more can they hate us?
If we are not willing to pay the poltical price, we should get the hell out of there.
Just as I suspected - you are not informed. Oh well..langeweile said:First, I don't believe ther are 20000 to 40000 insurgents. Second, most of the "insurgents" (I prefer the word terrorists) are foreigners. an assembly of whatever extremists are left from al Quaeda, Hezbollah etc..
Third, this mission can't be accomplished by without the support of the Iraqi army, impossible. judging by the last two military actions the Iraqis are playing a much larger role now.
the term carpet bombing was coined by you...i was referring to being overly cautious once a target had been identified.Guy Lafleuer said:This war is not going to be won anytime soon.
But there is no out without absolute disgrace for America and it's Allies. There between a rock and a hard spot.
Lange feels we should carpet bomb the place.
Well Lange, the last I heard there were over 100,000 Iraqi's killed in this campaign. And the only thing it's done is destroy the entire Iraq infrastructure.
The day that this war get's "won" is likely ten or more years off. There never going to stop fighting the Allies, and each other. At least Sadaam was so ruthless that he kept the population in check. Now it's absolute chaos.
No this war is already lost. And by the time it's over this Administration will be long gone. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's will be dead. We'll continue to read about daily bombings and kidnappings in Iraq. Thousands of US soldier's will be killed. The US will be seriously crippled economically. The US will not have the resources to fight China, Russia, Korea...or whatever despot arises in this world and threatens US interests. The economy will plummet and likely never really recover....And the worst part about it, the people that started it will be really rich, and they'll be long gone and forgotten, and there's no way out !
Maybe this Administration should bring back there " boy in Bagdhad ". He seemed to know how to keep things in check.
Guy
Lange, i'm not going to do your reading for you. Over the last three weeks a plethora of articles have come out quoting US generals in the field. Read them and you will be informed. The number of foreign 'terrorists' fighting in Iraq is about 1%. The intel data published puts the armed resistance at between 20K and 40K.langeweile said:So that is your answer?
This issue had been discussed here before. For any of your sources I can find a source to dispute that?
So I guess the conclusion is we start the name calling again? Just because i don't agree with your assesment... I am stupid and ill informed now?
Unless you are sitting in some camp in Iraq, you and i have to rely on second information. Unfortunately these days, information is tainted by political bias. There are vey few, if any, clearly unbias people out there.
I just don't believe that there is that many insurgents..period. That is my opinion. let's say you are right, what % does 40000 represent out of 26 MM??
Just my stupid and uneducated opinion.
If you assume that the number of insurgents (or insurgent man hours) per kill has remained constant since the beginning of the insurgency, the steady increase in the number of Iraqi's being slaughtered is a pretty safe indicator that the number of insurgents is increasing quite dramatically. This is from your excellent CS Monitor article:Mcluhan said:Last Thros? Maybe in the Land of Make Believe...but not in Iraq.
US strategy in Iraq: Is it working? Major sweeps show results in western Iraq. But insurgents keep adapting and attacking