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2007-06-19 Iraq
MIchael Yon reports from Baqubah
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Posted by Mike 2007-06-19 08:34|| || Front Page|| [5 views ]  Top
 File under: Iraqi Insurgency 

#1 I get this feeling that this thing is coming to a boil. Petraeus has been overly cautious in his assessments and is giving out the "long play" strategy which may be self-fulfilling but may also be the "expect the worst, be pleasantly surprised" kind of attitude he wants to project. In any event, we are out of the barracks and back to the business at hand. That can only be positive.
Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back!  2007-06-19 09:47||   2007-06-19 09:47|| Front Page Top

#2 Any time terrorists are dying, it is positive. Keep the pressure up. Never let off. Hunt them. Kill them. No quarter.
Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader  2007-06-19 10:06||   2007-06-19 10:06|| Front Page Top

#3 This is Diyala Province and the supply lines from Iran to the Sunni 'insurgents' almost certainly run through the area. Areas north and south are Kurd and Shiia dominated.
Posted by phil_b 2007-06-19 11:23||   2007-06-19 11:23|| Front Page Top

#4 I have read Michaels Yon’s entire dispatch and I have to say I am disappointed. He infers that Anbar Province was restive but manageable until we went into Fallujah and Ramadi “Ham Handed”. He seems to think there was no AQ in Anbar in general and Fallujah in particular. Maybe if Michael hasn’t read Bing West’s book “No True Glory” he should. Michael’s description of Baqubah on the eve of the battle sounds like Fallujah Redux.

The Marines have spent four long years pacifying Anbar.
They have lost hundreds of good men with thousands wounded. They had no small part in driving Zarqawi out of Anbar and into Diyala (Baqubah) where he earned his raisins.

General Petraeus is good and probably the right man for the job, but the sun does not rise and set on the 1-24th and the good General.

See Early Anbar Campaign at: http://billroggio.com/flashplayer.php?media=anbarcampaign&w=800&h=600
Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2007-06-19 13:16||   2007-06-19 13:16|| Front Page Top

#5 He infers that Anbar Province was restive but manageable until we went into Fallujah and Ramadi “Ham Handed”

I thought that too when I read his article. Apparently he doesn't remember the torture rooms, bomb factories and other AQ hallmarks. That is why we went in the first place. Unfortunately, between assault I and assault II, most of AQ hightailed it out of there. Otherwise I think Iraq would be almost pacified.
Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader  2007-06-19 14:14||   2007-06-19 14:14|| Front Page Top

#6  Mark Steyn visited Fallujah shortly after Saddam's regime was overthrown. He was neither molested, burned alive, nor killed by any other method. That was the closest Fallujah ever came to being manageable. The torture rooms & bomb factories of Fallujah were constructed after the US occupied Iraq. The US allowed Fallujah to go to hell. AQ sprung up in the Iraqi vacuum the US created & then fostered by neglect. Catch-and-release, occupy-and-leave tactics have gained little besides casualties.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2007-06-19 14:48||   2007-06-19 14:48|| Front Page Top

#7 My sense of things in Fallujah was that after the conquest of Baghdad, we allowed Fallujah a form of self govt and during this time Al Q bribed their way in during the next few months.
Posted by mhw 2007-06-19 15:03|| http://hypocrisy-incorporated.blogspot.com/]">[http://hypocrisy-incorporated.blogspot.com/]  2007-06-19 15:03|| Front Page Top

#8 Anguper: Please note the Blue Boxes as they appear in the site below. They are the Clear & Hold.

http://billroggio.com/flashplayer.php?media=anbarcampaign&w=800&h=600
Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2007-06-19 15:19||   2007-06-19 15:19|| Front Page Top

#9 I sure hope everyone is reading the full dispatch from Michael Yon...and forwarding the link on. Truly amazing.

Godspeed to Michael, and of course to our fighting men & women.
Posted by Justrand 2007-06-19 15:51||   2007-06-19 15:51|| Front Page Top

#10 the tail end contains:

The idea this time is not to chase al Qaeda out, but to trap and kill them head-on, or in ambushes, or while they sleep. When they are wounded, they will be unable to go to hospitals without being captured, and so their wounds will fester and they will die painfully sometimes. It will be horrible for al Qaeda. Horror and terrorism is what they sow, and tonight they will reap their harvest. They will get no rest. They can only fight and die, or run and try to get away. Nobody is asking for surrender, but if they surrender, they will be taken.
Posted by 3dc 2007-06-19 18:20||   2007-06-19 18:20|| Front Page Top

23:41 Gary and the Samoyeds
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