Back in the late 60s, as a middle-schooler, I got a rush of righteous pride marching against the Vietnam War with a crowd of thousands in Chicago's Daley Plaza. Vice-President Spiro Agnew had recently made headlines blasting anti-war student protestors as "bums." So, clever kid I, fashioned a sign reading "Bums For Peace." It was a big hit.

Years later, what bugged me most though, was our lack of resolve in defeating the North Vietnamese Communists who control South Vietnam today. Go spend some time among the South Vietnamese of Orange County, California - or Seattle for that matter, and ask them if we did right in pulling out.

The jihadists and hoodlums of the Iraqi "insurgency" must have their heads handed to them.

We need more troops and firepower, analysts say in this Newhouse News Service piece.

The Iraqi uprising against U.S. military authority, stretching across Iraq's major cities and towns, signals an abrupt shift in the conflict that requires a corresponding shift in occupation strategy: Win the war -- then worry about winning friends.

That means the enemy must be defeated in combat before the work of developing the country can go on, U.S. military officers and analysts say. ..."'Hearts and minds' is not applicable during a military campaign; that's a long-term solution," said Army Lt. Col. Ray Millen, a West Point infantry officer and a fellow at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.

...U.S. military forces can win -- but the war will be long and bloody, requiring more U.S. troops than have been thrown into battle, the military officers and analysts say.

"It's going to be a hard thing, but not, I think, impossible," said Robert Scales Jr., a retired Army major general and former commandant of the U.S. Army War College.

"You need to break the back of the terrorist cells," said Scales, author of several books on combat, including a history of the first phase of the war in Iraq. "You'll never be able to destroy them, but you find those in charge and kill or capture them, and that lowers the level of violence when the cities can return to some semblance of order."

He added, "There are situations where you want to apply overwhelming firepower with tanks and artillery, A-10 (strike fighters) overhead, and situations where you want to be more surgical, kicking the door down."

In Fallujah, Marines ordered the airstrike on the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque compound after their fire teams came under attack from several dozen insurgents firing from inside....."If they use the mosque as a military machine, then it's no longer a house of worship, and we strike," Marine Col. Brennan Byrne told The Associated Press.

Although such tactics may anger Iraqis and dismay the global audience, military officers said they are absolutely necessary.

"We cannot afford to be weak," retired Army Col. Robert Killebrew said. "This is not a part of the world that understands turning the other cheek."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signaled resolve. "The stakes are high," he acknowledged Wednesday in a news briefing. "The United States will stay the course."

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at April 8, 2004 10:41 AM

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