The current uprising is really a last stand, so to speak, for the
insurgents.
Despise the numbers of US soldiers being killed, the ratio to insurgents is
very high. The methodology of roadside bombs was expensive, and not very
effective. To kill enough soldiers to truly demoralize the army is
logistically tough if not impossible. Even at a rate of 5 dead soldier a
day will only kill 2000 soldiers in the next year. With 100,000 soldiers,
there is a 2% chance of being killed by a roadside bomb in the next year.
Hardly demoralizing.
So the strategy of the insurgents changed recently. They formed a larger
group, hoping to use sniping as a new method of attack. They draw in troops
into cities, then attack from the windows and eves of homes.
The fallacy of this strategy is that the insurgent leadership has no goddamn
stomach to really fight this war. Without strong leadership, it is unlikely
that the insurgents will be successful in the near future. The leaders run
before battles are even decided, letting the faithful insurgents to battle
to the death or be captured. The rate in which the insurgents are being
killed or captured does not allow the insurgency uprising much longer. It
cannot be sustained.
Everyone in Iraq that plans on being an insurgent is already an insurgent.
With the borders heavily guarded, this will place no additional resources
into the hands of the insurgents.
Even now, US solders are busting down doors to search for weapons... And
finding them. The populace are willing to hoard the weapons, but are not
willing to use them.
The war is about over. 6 months from now, it will be Iraqi soldier shooting
at Iraqi insurgents. There is not enough time for the insurgents to possibly
gain anything except for heroic martyrs.
So, despite an apparent near victory for the allies, I get irked when news
media reports that 100 soldiers have been killed this month, the most since
the campaign began, and 800 *civilians* killed this month a long with them.
Is not the definition of a civilian someone who is civil, and not combative?
Civilian:
A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is
not an active member of the military or police.
A specialist in Roman or civil law.
adj.
Of or relating to civilians or civil life; nonmilitary: civilian
clothes; a civilian career.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
[Middle English, civil law judge, from Old French civilien, from
civil, civil, from Latin cvlis. See civil.]
Yet the press somehow skews the reporting to somehow indicate that many
Iraqi civilians are dying at the hands of US troops.
So we are in trouble, but its not from the Iraqis. To use a metaphor I have
been closely relating to, the enemy is a cancer within our own body, working
at odds to diminish and destroy the works of brave and honorable people. The
enemy is within us. If this is what Viet Nam was like, we are suffering from
a recurrence of this disease.
Nerd From Hell
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
