Article

2005-12-19 Iraq

Iraqis in Tal Afar cheer American soldiers

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Posted by Steve White 2005-12-19 00:48|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 whoo hoo
march on, semper fis,and merry xmas to all
mef rulz

Posted by SCPatriot 2005-12-19 01:32|| 2005-12-19 01:32|| Front Page Top

#2 These moronic journalists keep on harping on a supposedly new strategy. This isn't a new strategy. It's just another stage of the old strategy. This stage was made possible by the previous stage, as well as concurrent operations in other parts of Iraq, where large enemy formations are destroyed, to eliminate their ability to attack in groups of several hundred terrorists at once. If this current stage, which involves the deployment of units of several dozen men had been tried earlier, American units would have suffered major casualties. Now that the enemy's ability to mount company-sized attacks has been degraded, it is now possible to do the kinds of penny-packet deployments necessary to do the hearts-and-minds thing.

Even when building a house, you need to first establish the foundations before you put the walls up. Journalists assume that modern military technology means you can just press a button and get immediate results. The reality is that even putting up a building can take years, and it's not even shooting back at the builders - and a case in point is the World Trade Center, which remains a hole in the ground four years after September 11.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2005-12-19 02:07|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2005-12-19 02:07|| Front Page Top

#3 But... Ray Nagin already said that we can fly an aircraft carrier around the world in 24 hours!

Posted by Phil 2005-12-19 02:10|| 2005-12-19 02:10|| Front Page Top

#4 well said zf! I for one am tired of the "journalists". They aren't really journalists at all, but self-appointed preachers preaching doom, gloom and the evils of our western culture from a soap box. They are the holy, the righteous, the pure. They are becoming as obnoxious and cartoonish as the guy who stands on the street corner with a placard that says, "repent, the end is near" and screeches at everyone who walks by as being full of the devil and in need of repentance. Bleah.

Posted by 2b 2005-12-19 04:13|| 2005-12-19 04:13|| Front Page Top

#5 We have the troops. They're Iraqi.

'nuff said.

/by Snotle Snailing1773..hey nice name eh

Posted by Snotle Snailing1773 2005-12-19 04:14|| 2005-12-19 04:14|| Front Page Top

#6 There are legitimately competing facets to reconstruction.

The first is the "Santa Claus" approach, in which you dazzle the locals by improving their lives immensely. However, the downside to this is they become both dependent and beholden to you, which can have serious drawbacks.

So the other side of the coin is that you want their local government to be strong and effective, to provide continual improvement to their lives. But the downside to that is it takes longer, and they are less competant and more prone to corruption.

Therefore, every task to be accomplished has to be seen in the light of, "Can they do this themselves?", vs. "Can they do this in a timely manner?"

Finally, every project that the US does has an "opportunity cost" (a term from economics), of both time and money. This means that every dime and every minute spent doing something here means that you cannot use them somewhere else.

The plus side to that is gradualism. Every town that is self-sustaining, where the US can leave, is essentially "taken ground". This frees up more and more resources for the progressively fewer trouble spots.

Eventually, you have more people than jobs to do, which means a phased withdrawl of the excess personnel, which is where we are right now.

Ironically, this is obvious to those who know what is going on, and so there is a fight to claim credit for the phased withdrawl.

Posted by Anonymoose 2005-12-19 09:32|| 2005-12-19 09:32|| Front Page Top

#7 Whatever their new "stage" is, I'm glad they can label it and pass that knowledge to the next joe in the next town. I don't really care how new it is, as long as it's working and easy to understand.

Posted by Thomoling Glaviting5368 2005-12-19 11:46|| 2005-12-19 11:46|| Front Page Top

#8 A sobering thought: notwithstanding instances of political stability among Arab collectives, Islamofascists alway enter the picture. Ergo: do not project status quo antes. The so-called "Iraq inclusive democracy" is one big political pinata.

Posted by CaziFarkus">CaziFarkus 2005-12-19 22:43|| deleted]">[deleted] 2005-12-19 22:43|| Front Page Top

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