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Che said:right, but we should either do the job right, or get out. When KIAs are coming in everyday, you know you need to fix the stradegy. I guess since we've "gotten so far" in Iraq, we should stay in there until they've got a beter government but we should put more troops in so as to swamp and overload the insurgency.
There are arguments to both sides with that idea.
When the Marines took Fallujah at the end of 2004, we began the strategically important process of interdicting the insurgents' infiltration routes from the Syrian border into the heart of Iraq. One ratline followed the Euphrates River corridor — running from Syria to Husayba on the Syrian border and then through Qaim, Rawa, Haditha, Asad, Hit, and Fallujah to Baghdad. The other followed the course of the Tigris — from the north through Mosul-Tel Afar to Tikrit and on to Baghdad. Operations followed throughout the spring and summer of 2005. While the earlier operations succeeded in keeping the pressure on the insurgents in Al-Anbar province we could not prevent the insurgents from abandoning one town and moving to another not threatened by allied forces.
That had begun to change last fall and one of the reasons is that our forces are able to apply simultaneous force against the insurgent strongholds and, more important, to stay in the area because many Iraqi units started to be able to conduct combat operations with minimal U.S. support.
The problem is not the insurgency. If you pull out a map and look at Fallujah - Haditha - Hit - you can follow where the insurgent bases of operations have been destroyed and walked to the Syrian border. They have been unable to establish any more "rat" lines. The problem is the local Sunni rebels who long for the days of old when Saddam gave them favor over Shi'ites and Kurds. The problems are "civil." This is something we as a military can do little about. Where they engage the Iraqi military, we can assist. However, the Iraqi military is made up of Sunnis and Shi'ites. If their military falls apart, it will be "civil war."