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Fallajuah May Mark the Turning Point in the War on Terrorism
EFL and the conclusion.Read the whole thing. So has this battle been a waste of time and American blood? Not at all. It is as important in its way as was the routing of the Taliban from Kabul in 2001 or the taking of Baghdad in 2003. First of all, it is an act of liberation. Fallujah's roughly 300,000 residents had been living under the thumb of gangsters such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Now, if the Iraqi military can keep the terrorists from creeping back, the city will rejoin Iraq's wider political life and be able to participate in the nation's emerging democracy. Second, the insurgency has lost a key asset that will be hard to replace. Fallujah was one big safe house, complete with dens for making car bombs and killing hostages. The people living there were, in effect, human shields. Now the terrorists will have to try to re-create this infrastructure somewhere else. That may not be easy. They might look for shelter in other Sunni triangle towns, such as Ramadi, Tikrit, Baiji and Baquba. But if they couldn't stand up to U.S. and Iraqi forces in Fallujah, they won't be able to do so in those spots, either. They can run and they can even hide for a while, but not indefinitely. Posted by: badanov 2004-11-14 |
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