I said in an earlier post that one of the most unforgiveable things a country could do was commit its citizens to war, then just fool around with it instead of trying to win it as quickly as possible. Now comes this:
American and Iraqi forces have killed 104 insurgents in 452 raids nationwide since al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed last week, the U.S. military said.
Arrests, weapons seizures and money shortages are taking a heavy toll on al-Qaida's insurgency in Iraq, according to the three-page transcript released Thursday by the Iraqi government.
I think a fair question is: If we can make this big effort now, why in the world haven't we before?
Comments
It appears Al-Zarqawi's safe house was full of actionable information about insurgents, their movements, their plans, as I'm sure you know.
I imagine this bumper crop of simultaneous raids was quickly planned from the new intelligence windfall and carried out all at once to prevent a lot of insurgents from disappearing when the raids began.
But I'd also say that 452 raids suggests a lot of Iraqi troops are now trained well enough to take over the point from Americans on tougher missions, thereby making these raids far less likely to result in U.S. casualties and prompt an outcry from some quarters back home.
Oh yeah, great question. I have the same thoughts about D-Day. If we could do it when we did, why didn't we do it earlier? Much earlier. Or that man on the moon thing. The fact that we did it when we did means, to the average newsman, that we could have done it at any moment (earlier) that we wanted and the failure to do so must be the result of misfeasance or malfeasance, right?
Now, as to your particular "good question," here's the scoop: As everyone now knows, immediately after the fall of Baghdad, hundreds of thousands of well-trained Iraqi military and police personnel, highly experienceded and fortuitously and amply equipped with up-armored humvees and body armor (imagine the envy of our boys), volunteered for duty. Even more fortuitously, all of these inspiring patriots had been fully vetted and trained in secret by our good friends the French and the Germans, so all of them were loyal to the then non-existent new government and highly trained in fighting a then non-existent insurgency. You have to love European foresight and German efficiency! Someone, I think it might have been the Canadians, even equipped them with those unmanned spy planes and those robot crawlly things to blow up IEDS. Soviet intelligence kicked in big briefing books, with color pictures, identifying the 2000 or so worst insurgents who would enter Iraq in the next year or two and their likely future favorite restaurants.
Well, somehow these guys got caught up in the military bureaucracy. The critical excerpt from the now infamous 'Baghdad Bungle' memo is as follows:
"After listening to the representatives of this alleged army of loyal Iraqis for 2 hours, including extensive discussions of claimed Al-queda attacks in the future, future beheadings of reporters and NGO's operating in theatre, predictions of a quick career change for Ambassador Bremer, etc., we thanked them for their concern and sent them on their way with assurances that "we will call if something opens up" and, as a courtesy, we did take down a cell phone number for Mohammed no. 1.
Of note, both subjects claimed no knowledge of WMD and asserted with certainty that no WMD will be found in Iraq. Speaking charitably, the incredible information provided may be the result of the effects of the intense Iraqi sun combined with the oppressive amount of body armor worn by our visitors, even though we were far from any area of recent combat activity. Of further note, the subjects departed in what appeared to be a US humvee, although virtually every surface (even the underside!) had been covered with kevlar and/or steel panels. No further inquiry was made as the vehicle no longer had any military utility."
Well, of course the number got misplaced, then somebody blew up some cell phone towers, and there was a lot of phone tag involved. Talk about egg on our face! But thank God we have journalists asking the tough questions.
PS As for the D-Day Delay, the whole story will probably never come out, but there is a good reason why 1943 was the last year for the "All Allied Forces Duplicate Bridge Tournament."