Reply #1: But at the same time we can't leave Iraq because that would make [View All]

[HereSince1628]

their sacrifice valueless.

Of course this is an attempt to control public reaction. The point is not that the value of any sacrifice is more or less important. The point is that the bloody deaths are adding up (the psychological value of which is apparant from the US military starting to report counts of dead insurgents). Americans can't see any sign of progress advancing in parallel with the deaths of our servicemen.

As Sec. of State Rice recently restated, the strategy of the military's anti-insurgency campaign is to clean insurgents out of an area, hold that area, and integrate that area into NeoIraqi-administrative control.

None of the strategy is really working. It's another grand plan by strategic thinking paper-pushers that doesn't work.

Cleaning out insurgent nests with patrols and sweeps is a joke. Insurgents operate freely within several city blocks of American outposts. Insurgents vanish in the presence of patrols and just as quickly reappear after the patrols have passed. That is the same dreadful experience we had in Vietnam (and it is also the experience of Israel in the territory it has occupied).

The hold of American and NeoIraqi forces on territory is primarily limited to their bases and barracks. Attacks on American patrols and convoys have almost doubled in the past year. The initial suppression of insurgents was due to the shock of an over-running invasion. The invasion has been replaced by shoddy occupation and larger and more effective insurgent operations.

The Iraqi people are still turning to their religious and tribal leaders for leadership. Administrative control of Iraq is not simply the perogative of the government.