I didn’t get to finish my rant last night because my sister called in the middle of it looking for car advice. Somebody hit her a few weeks ago and the insurance company decided to total the car since it’s too old to be worth fixing. It looks like she’s going to get a Protege. I’ve been pretty happy with the two that I’ve had over the last 10 years. One of them was cursed, but I’m pretty sure that’s not something they do at the factory.
Anyway, back to the rant… One of the consensus opinions among military leaders on the ground is that the Bush administration totally screwed up Fallujah earlier this year. If you’ll remember, some civilian contractors were killed and then dragged through the streets, prompting justifiable outrage from many here in the U.S. and abroad. The military leaders on the ground wanted to take a measured response, but were pressured from the White House into the large scale seige on Fallujah. Then, just as they were about to go in and it was clear that there would be a lot of civilian casualties, the White House ordered them to pull back. The feeling is that they shouldn’t have reacted with so much force in the first place, but once they did, they should’ve followed through. The waffling made them look weak, which was exactly the wrong message to send, especially in the Middle East.
There a rumors now that a large scale assault on Fallujah is scheduled for just after the elections. Just as with the production of a “high value target” from Pakistan during the democratic convention, if there is, in fact, an assault just after the election, we can chalk this up to one more cynical play by the Bush administration.
One more thing, if you haven’t read Christopher Albritton’s blog from Iraq, you should. He’s got a lot of good stuff there, especially this recent post.
Ooo. Ooo. And then there’s this.