On 8/16/05, Robert Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You all still seem to be missing the point. That's all the insurgents have. > Let's talk about what they don't have: > > 1. a government
Depending on the group they want a Caliphate, like they had with the 9th century Fatimids > 2. control of territory They do control a lot of the Sunni Triangle. > 3. a unifying ideology Get the Americans out seems to be the unifying ideology > 4. broad local support from the population > > Insurgents have support from at least some Sunnis, but Sunnis only make up > 20% of the country. > > Why is there so little insurgent activity in the Kurdish north and the Shiite > south? Because the Kurds and the Shiites are ferreting out the insurgents and > killing them. Mosul, in the Kurdish north seems to be hit regularly by the insurgents. > I propose we help the Shiites and Kurds strengthen the north and south, and > then we set a deadline for insurgents to lay down their arms and join the > political process. If they don't join by the deadline, we go in and start > levelling towns along the Syrian border where the insurgents are hiding. Then > we bomb anything coming across the border. We can do the same thing over on > the Iranian border, too. Then we can move toward Baghdad, flattening towns > along the way, and hell, we can flatten Baghdad while we're at it. It worked > in WWII. That tactic would only drive more people to the insurgents. And as a point the US was only the third or fourth largest allied military after the Chinese, Russian and British Empire forces. Moreover the European theater was most likely decided by the Russians more than anything done on the eastern front. Also the tactics you described, especially the strategic bombing did not work very well then. And how many civilians are you willing to kill in doing it? How many children are you willing to see dismembered, crippled etc. That is something you need to consider. > > What does everyone think? Isn't it a lovely plan? The Sunnis are the problem, > right? So we just bomb everywhere they live until they surrender. Um lets see, the Irish fought for over 500 years before getting their independence from Britian, the Iraqis fought for about 30 years before getting the British to leave, do you think that they will be any different? Are you prepared for another 30 or 40 year war with all of its costs? > > If you object to my plan, please, feel free to put forward your own ideas for > how to resolve the situation. Oh, no one has any ideas? I didn't think so. Unfortunately what is being done is not working. Occupation cannot be done on the cheap. You will need to at least triple the number of occupying forces and that is not going to happen. Colin POwell was right "You broke it now you fix it." was a very good description of what is happening in Iraq. As for an approach, the Provincial Reconstruction Teams that IFOR is using seems to be working in Afghanistan. Very slowly but it is working. Perhaps such an approach is needed here. larry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:169681 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
