"Take the fight to the enemy"
Published November 08, 2003
Shoulder-fired rockets, a missile, and heavy machine gun fire slammed into an abandoned warehouse. Soldiers yelled, "Knock, knock," and "Good morning" in celebration as the structure crumbled amid clouds of dust and smoke. [AP] Symbolically, strategically, and for the sake of our own morale, our forces need to become the ruthlessly efficient fighting machine they were in taking Iraq in the first place, the enemy is no less deadly just because its head is no longer visible.
There is no stasis: there is only moving forward or moving backward.
UPDATE
The offensive continued over the weekend:
- After a wave of increasingly bloody attacks that have killed 37 American soldiers this month, the military has said it will intensify operations against centers of resistance. On Saturday, U.S. warplanes twice dropped giant, 500-pound bombs on sites near Fallujah in a show of force.
Lt. Col. George Krivo said the military has "picked up the intensity of our offensive operations" - particularly concentrating troops in areas west of Baghdad where guerrillas operate.
The downing of a Chinook transport helicopter and the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter made the first week of November the bloodiest for American forces since President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1.
On Sunday, a senior Iraqi official warned that mounting violence may delay steps toward a new constitution, considered a major condition for returning the country to full Iraqi rule.
....Soldiers arrested 18 people in connection with a deadly missile barrage last month against Baghdad's Al-Rasheed hotel, where U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying at the time. Wolfowitz, an architect of the Iraq war, was not injured but a U.S. colonel was killed.
....Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, met over the weekend with mayors and tribal leaders of Anbar province - where the so-called "Sunni Triangle," scene of the heaviest anti-U.S. resistance is located - an Iraqi who attended the meeting said Monday.
Abizaid pointed to Fallujah, one of the main towns in the Sunni Triangle, as a "hot area" and warned that if the city refuses to cooperate "in the rebuilding process," there "might be another policy," Fallujah Mayor Taha Bedawi told The Associated Press.
The general did not specify the new measures, but told the local leaders in Saturday's meeting, "Irresponsible behavior such as explosions and strikes against coalition forces are prohibited and we will take measures. We have the capabilities and equipment," Bedawi said. [AP]
- "Take the fight to the enemy"
- Published: November 08, 2003
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- Section: Politics
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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CT, I hope and assume that neutralizing an abandoneded warehouse will not be the apex of American anti-"insurgent" action. This was a first step and an expression of a proactive attitude. Out of context, I agree it sounds pretty funny
And the point of posting the party line was?
Frankly, that's a pretty stupid thing to say. I say what I think when I think it because I think it. I am hardly a mouthpiece for the "party line," whatever that may be. If I see something being done I agree with, I will point it out and encourage more of the same. Obviously, you don't know me very well.
The U.S.'s more aggressive approach to dealing with terrorists/insurgents continued over the weekend. I want to see these warnings followed up with action - the more the terrorists get away with, the more bold they will be. They must be crushed using human intelligence and overwhelming force.
The prototypes for this approach being the never-ending fighting and thousands of deaths in Ireland and Palestine and Africa and the Indian subcontinent and ... ?
of the places mentioned I don't believe any of them represent a foreign power coming in and removing a murderous and totalitarian regime, and replacing it with democratic self-rule as quickly as feasible. Democratic self-rule cannot take root until the terrorists and insurgents are elmiminated or pacified - nothing endless about it.
Eric, don't be stupid. Can't you see that this Iraq situation is EXACTLY like Ireland and Palestine. And while you are at it, would you please stop with the party line?
Seriously though, being against the war is one thing, but at least make reasonable comparisons if you would like to draw parallels.
you are correct sir
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/9951)
After midnight, Russell's convoy of Humvees and Bradley fighting vehicles, their headlights turned off, set out across Tikrit toward the three buildings insurgents were suspected of using.
Shoulder-fired rockets, a missile, and heavy machine gun fire slammed into an abandoned warehouse. Soldiers yelled, "Knock, knock," and "Good morning" in celebration as the structure crumbled amid clouds of dust and smoke.
Although most houses had their lights on, nobody dared to look outside. When a woman was heard coughing from inside one house, soldiers trained their guns and the red laser night-sights on a second-floor window. The coughing quickly stopped.
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A-yeah, sure showed that abandoned warehouse their teeth and claws. Not to mention scaring the daylights out of that coughing woman.
This is going to forward the War in Iraq and the War on Terror how, exactly?