I agree with all your points but I still think that if they had done everything you mention, it would still be a lost cause.
The shiah/suni dicotomy is interesting tho. Trying to think of a way to use that as a tool instead of as problem. On 8/8/06, Robert Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I am speaking in hyperbole, but we made lots of operational mistakes on > the > ground. The biggest mistake was sending in 150,000 troops instead of > 500,000 > troops, which is what the Army wanted to do. I know the argument that more > troops means more targets for suicide bombers, but I don't buy it. > > We could have put 100,000 troops in Baghdad alone, which IMHO would have > prevented a lot of the subsequent carnage. Keeping in mind that the north > and south of the country are mostly peaceful, we could have maintained an > iron grip on Baghdad. Ironically, that is exactly what is going on in > Fallujah right now, and it is working very well as far as I understand. > > There were other mistakes, but many of those mistakes were a result of > limitations imposed by troop strength (e.g. taking territory and not > leaving > a significant force in place to protect it). > > A big part of the mess has also been created by the Iraqis leadership. > Iraq > needed a national reconciliation program three years ago, and they only > just > got it this year. The Shias need to convince the Sunnis that Iraq will not > become a satellite of Iran. The Sunnis need to convince the Shias that > they > will not try to re-assert control over the country. And everyone needs to > learn how to have political dialogue without resorting to car bombs and > death squads. > > The other thing we have needed to do for a long time is to call Syria and > Iran on the carpet for feeding money and weapons into Iraq and fueling the > fight. There was an opportunity early on where we could have made a much > more forceful point about that and put the beat-down on either country for > opposing us, but I believe we have lost that opportunity now. > > > On 8/8/06, DRE wrote: > > > > On 8/8/06, Robert Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > ........ I just can't > > > believe the incompetence of the post-invasion force. We seem to have > > made > > > every possible mistake one could make in a fight like this one. > > > > > > > Robert, every possible mistake? Unbelievable incompetence? Can you > give > > me some examples. I'm just curious. > > > > It seems to me they were hozed from the get go. Of course, I'll freely > > admit, I'm not hugely knowledgeable in what you would do but I'm not > sure > > how you would do it so much more differently. > > > > You might need more people but realistically, You'd need 20x > more. You'd > > need basically someone living in every house to monitor that family and > > even > > then the results would be questionable. It certainly didnt work for the > > british in this country. I think they did their darndest to train the > > iraqi > > police. It seems clear to me they use technology amazingly well. I > dunno. > > But please, I've seen no ideas on how to do it better so let me know if > > you > > have any. > > > > Really, the only thing I can conceive is to have a multinational force > but > > as you can see, its about impossible to get anyone to help on the front > > either. Do you really think the french would commit any real help? the > > russians? The chinese? God knows the spanish turned tail pretty quick. > > People blame bush for not getting a multinational force but is that > > realistic? I think it was an impossible pursuit. > > > > Altho you certainly can blame Bush for doing it in the first place. > > > > Just curious on how to do it better and what the incompetence. > > > > > > -- > --------------- > Robert Munn > www.funkymojo.com > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:212821 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
