tscottme wrote:
"Raptor" wrote in message
It's an insurgency. You don't win by killing the enemy. You win by cutting
off their reinforcements.

--

That's why I envoked the General Sherman reference. The American Civil War
wasn't won because the Union killed all the Southern soldiers. Sherman
waged war on the plantation owners and war-making abilility of the South.
The Salafists and the Twelvers will fight until the last future cab driver
is dead in the street. They won't fight 1 month after their butt is set
ablaze.

The Civil War wasn't an insurgency.

The Iraqi insurgency isn't "winning" by blowing up our tanks or shooting
down our aircraft. Their weapons are small arms, IEDs and RPGs. No
amount of destroying their "warmaking ability" will stop such attacks.
They're winning by picking off our soldiers in ones and twos, and by
fighting each other with small arms. By committing violence of any
significant kind, they show that we have not achieved our objective and
thereby win.

You win an insurgency by winning the hearts & minds of the people who
might otherwise become insurgents. Most of the violence in Iraq now
occurs because no one is keeping the streets safe. Keep the streets
safe, and the violence ends quickly, except for those determined to die.
Most Iraqis are not determined to die. We can deal with the dead-enders
if we choose to.

The alternative is nuking the whole place.

--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall

If FDR fought fascism the way Bush fights terrorism, we'd all be
speaking German now.