Quote:
Originally posted by Not Me
Well, the devil is in the details. It really just depends on how free the marines would be to inflict civilian casualties if necessary to protect themselves. What about when the insurgents shroud themselves in a burka to look like a woman but they have an RPG under the burka? Under your scenario, the marine doesn't see the RPG, just what he thinks is an unarmed woman, and he doesn't shoot and gets an RPG lobbed at him and dies.
Something has to be done, I agree, but I am for more bombing. Tell the civilians to evacuate and then bomb the shit out of areas where the insurgents are known to be located. That won't do much for PR, but at least it will stop the dead marines.
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Yeah, I'm in favor of the type of bombing you advocate, and I stated this in my post (you said "where the insurgents are known to be located" and I said something about where they've given reason to be bombed without the need for close inspection).
That said, what the marines were doing before they pulled out was quite alright with me. They suffered 8 dead in one or two weeks while turning the edges of the city into a slaughterhouse for armed Iraqis. Last week, they suffered something like 7 dead in a single suicide bomb attack on a convoy in the region. I liked it better when the marines were at least inflicting a grossly disproportionate body count. As you say, they should tell the citizens to get out (again). And anybody coming and going should be thorougly screened, particularly the males. But its time to turn the place into a slaughterhouse again, because this experiment in political meddling has caused harm to the long term mission. At the end of the day, the Iraqis in places like Fallujah need to have a great motivation not to want to see the U.S. come back. A grossly disproportionate use of force resulting in the annihilation of armed factions in the town is probably the best motivation the marines can ever provide.
The only time this hasn't worked, is when politicians impose unreasonable restraints on the marines. Which is the general reason I can't stand Rummy today (you know, Rummy = McNamara). Just tell them to clean out the town by killing or capturing the greatest number of armed combatants while reasonably minimizing civilian casualties, and let them figure out how they want to do it.
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