GTek
12-07-2003, 03:56 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/international/middleeast/07TACT.html?ex=1071378000&en=b9c5e965e018edf1&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
American officers here say their new hard-nosed approach reflects a more realistic appreciation of the military and political realities faced by soldiers in the so-called Sunni triangle, the area north and west of Baghdad that is generating the most violence against the Americans.
Underlying the new strategy, the Americans say, is the conviction that only a tougher approach will quell the insurgency and that the new strategy must punish not only the guerrillas but also make clear to ordinary Iraqis the cost of not cooperating.
"You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. "The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face."
This is what we are up against:http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,557044,00.html
Bolder, Better Organized – "They Could Succeed": Attacks against coalition forces have grown bolder, better organized and broader based. A double ambush last week in Samarra "was the biggest, most sophisticated so far," says a senior intelligence official in Washington. As a Pentagon official sees it: "They know they can’t beat us militarily, but they think they might be able to defeat us politically." The guerrillas are trying to drive U.S. casualties so high that the American public turns against the war, he says, adding, "They could succeed."
In my opinion, they have already succeeded in doing this with the help of the media. The more people hear about US soldiers losing thier lives over there, the more people in the states want them home and wonder what we are doing there in the first place. People forget about the real reasons we are there in the first place when all they hear is the negatives.....the media IS thier WMD.
American officers here say their new hard-nosed approach reflects a more realistic appreciation of the military and political realities faced by soldiers in the so-called Sunni triangle, the area north and west of Baghdad that is generating the most violence against the Americans.
Underlying the new strategy, the Americans say, is the conviction that only a tougher approach will quell the insurgency and that the new strategy must punish not only the guerrillas but also make clear to ordinary Iraqis the cost of not cooperating.
"You have to understand the Arab mind," Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. "The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face."
This is what we are up against:http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,557044,00.html
Bolder, Better Organized – "They Could Succeed": Attacks against coalition forces have grown bolder, better organized and broader based. A double ambush last week in Samarra "was the biggest, most sophisticated so far," says a senior intelligence official in Washington. As a Pentagon official sees it: "They know they can’t beat us militarily, but they think they might be able to defeat us politically." The guerrillas are trying to drive U.S. casualties so high that the American public turns against the war, he says, adding, "They could succeed."
In my opinion, they have already succeeded in doing this with the help of the media. The more people hear about US soldiers losing thier lives over there, the more people in the states want them home and wonder what we are doing there in the first place. People forget about the real reasons we are there in the first place when all they hear is the negatives.....the media IS thier WMD.