New blog to check out...

My old buddy Angel has a new blog too...

I can't tell you how weird it feels to be disagreeing with my friend on his first political post with MY first political post. But... here goes...

Re: The impending attack on Fallujah

• Okay, I could have told anyone who was willing to listen that this would happen. Once W was back in the White House, we went on the offensive. He's still under the impression that we can win this war with traditional tactics.

The enemy cannot win any kind of war against the U.S. Traditional or otherwise. There is simply no way in hell that they could match us gun for gun, man for man, jet for jet. Guerrilla warfare won't do it either. The very best they can hope for is to weaken our will at home though heinous acts of terrorism (helpfully rebroadcast by the western media.) That is what they have been trying to do in the days leading up to our recent election with the hope of affecting our elections the way they affected Spain's. End result? Didn't work. Turns out that the majority American people support W and his plan.

• Now, let me just say one thing here: I was against the war. I am still against the war. I was against W. I'm still against W. BUT, now that we're over there, we need to fight the good fight and get our boys out alive.
• What the administration either doesn't, or doesn't want to understand, is that the insurgents are fighting a different kind of war than we are. They're fighting just like our militia would fight if another country came up on our shores.

The "insurgents" are a distinct minority among Iraqi citizens. "Iraqis consistently say in nationwide polls that the situation in their country is improving. In polls over the course of the summer, for example, more than half of Iraqis said their country was on the right track. The vast majority of Iraqis 72% see the same benefits in democracy as Americans do: the hope for peace, stability and a better life. Most polls show that 75% of Iraqis want to vote for their leaders rather than have clerics appoint them. " This confirms what I've repeated over and over since my return from Iraq: i.e. "I was invited to dinner a hundred times for every instance I was shot at." I am for the war, for the president, and fervently believe in the good work we are doing there. And I've got the pictures of Iraqi childeren we released from political prison to back up that belief. I, too, had my doubts about whether it was worth military involvement. Well, the answer, it turns out, is yes.

• The "hearts and minds" argument seems to hold weight, in that if you can get the people to like the US enough, they'll turn in the insurgents.

They are doing just that in Fallujah:

"In Fallujah, where Zarqawi himself is thought to be hiding, there are currently negotiations underway, not with Zarqawi, but with the elders and leaders of Fallujah. The very people I stated earlier that were tiring of the foreigner and his thuggish gang. It seems as though either the city elders/leaders can not or will not hand over Zarqawi. But, when we have to act militarily, it can not be said that we did not attempt to stave off the incursion peacefully.

Additionally, by working with the locals, we are gaining valuable intelligence from those evacuating the city. As soon as we get this intelligence, we are acting immediately."

• What we need is a good spy network. People who can get on the inside. A LOT of people who can get inside, to give us information on who the insurgents are.

We've got that. Intel teams are working their asses off in conjunction with the thousands of Iraqi citizens who have come forward to volunteer information. That's how we found Saddam. That's how I came to be riding along with Army Special Forces in raiding a house suspected of containing incriminating documents. (It did.) Citizen tips.

In conclusion, 25,000 "insurgents" surrounded by a sea of 25,000,000 Iraqi citizens (who support the U.S. presence 3 to 1) don't have a chance... maybe a snowball's chance.