| ... American forces in Iraq cannot be defeated in standard military engagements. However, insurgents know the weak spot; the long main supply routes. If camps run short of ammo and spare parts, they must retreat toward Kuwait and hope that the Army's cash strapped logistics bureaucracy can meet the surging demand to save them from catastrophe. The Army must take five steps to prevent an embarrassing retreat: 1) Secure the main supply routes and establish emergency supply caches inside Iraq; 2) Develop plans to quickly abandon vulnerable camps in a crisis; 3) Avoid alienating the Arab world with offensive operations until the first two steps are accomplished; 4) Stop calling Iraqi insurgents thugs, terrorists, and criminals. That encourages poor treatment of all Iraqis by American soldiers and makes negotiations to end violence impossible; 5) Americans must not destroy Iraqi cities in order to save them, lest they find themselves overrun by irate Muslim laundrymen. |