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Iraq
21,500 Troop Surge Has Baghdad Terrorists "Cutting and Running"
2007-01-17
From the always superb Iraq the Model:
What? Already running away!?

Insurgents and terrorists are already abandoning some of their positions in Baghdad and moving to Diyala, al-Sabah said:

In Diyala, politicians, religious and tribal figures demanded that their province be included in the security plan of Baghdad. This came after dozens of foreign Arab militants ran away from Baghdad to areas across Diyala in order to avoid raids by the Iraqi and American forces during the incoming security plan to secure Baghdad.

Eyewitnesses told al-Sabah that areas such as New Baquba, Gatoon and al-Zour in Miqdadiya have become convenient bases for terrorists and foreign al-Qaeda members from Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.

This movement of terrorists forced most of the families in these areas to leave either to neighboring countries or to the southern provinces.

The people are asking the interior and defense ministries and the MNF to seal the entrances and exits in order to contain and capture those terrorists in order for Baghdad's plan to succeed. In the same regard a knowledgeable security source stressed that the success of Baghdad's plan depends on the stability of surrounding provinces, especially DiyalaÂ…

The U.S. 7th Cavalry buglers are sounding the charge!! Get after 'em boys!!
Posted by:Slinesh Angomock2573

#9  But, but, Billary wants our troops redeployed to Afganistan
Posted by: Captain America   2007-01-17 16:56  

#8  So they're democrats now?
Posted by: jds   2007-01-17 10:46  

#7  If they are running, I would assume the approriate cordons are already in place? Happy fishing!
Posted by: john   2007-01-17 09:22  

#6  Oops the two former posts were intended for "Insurgencies really win".
Posted by: JFM   2007-01-17 09:09  

#5  Also the French didn't lose in Algeria, the insurgency was on the ropes (1). But De Gaulle thought that Algeria was not an asset but a burden for France, that she should look to Europe instead of the Mediterranean, that her engineer should be doing high tech in France instead of roads and bridges in Algeria so he decided to cut and run.

(1) The successful French offensive was led by paratrooper officers who had known the Vietmink prisoner camps, had drawn lessons about French errors in Indochina and were determined to not make the same ones in Algeria. BTW, well after Dien Bien Phu had become a death trap there was no shortgae of volunteers to parachute in it. Many of these volunteers had never parachuted before.
Posted by: JFM   2007-01-17 09:07  

#4  The Boers was not an insurgency but state who fought with flexible units (called commandos) against the slow, rigid and stupid British Army (stupid enough to startthe war with those d...d red uniforms, so stupid they had managed to be crushed at Isandwalna by assegai wielding Zulus)

Boers had betterartillery than the British; their smokeless guns destroyed impunely their counterparts as teh Bristish artillery observers were unable to pinpoint them by the smoke of the Bruitih guns signalled them to the Boers observer

I don't know if the Boer had uniforms (but in history there have been examples of guerrilla campaigns led by uniformed units of regulmar armies). AFAIK they applied the (future?) Geneva conventions in their treatment of enemy prisoners, wounded and civilian populations. They also beat the British in set piece battles.
Posted by: JFM   2007-01-17 08:37  

#3  Let's not start celebrating our un-won victory yet.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2007-01-17 07:53  

#2  It's pretty bad when the common people know what the generals don't know.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-01-17 00:39  

#1  Yep - Baquba and the rest of Diyala are the obvious first hidey holes. I recall US forces coming across an actual "training camp" for bad guys in Diyala a few months back. Perhaps it's my lack of depth on military matters, but I thought that incident alone was a firing offense for Abizaid, Casey, Chiarelli - and perhaps the civilian bosses who indulged their costly experiment since early '05.

It's amusing - or is it depressing? - that the average Baghdadi is calling for some cordons and interception operations as the idiots flee Baghdad. I mean - do you think MNC-I thought of this too??

Reminds me of the first time I really got scared about how the civilians and military were handling Iraq - a wire service reporter quoted a street vendor as hailing the blockade of Fallujah that followed on the PSD incident, as it had of course interrupted the flow of car-bombs to B'dad, since everyone knew most of them came from Fallujah.

Posted by: Verlaine   2007-01-17 00:35  

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