Monday, April 09, 2007

E-mail from the front...

Hugh Hewitt posts about an e-mail from a friend of his in Iraq.

Key quote from the e-mail:
Their attacks on the Coalition are down and they cannot stop the increase US force in Baghdad and the expansion in the Iraqi military. The sectarian murder rate is already down and while attacks are up the effectiveness is down. The terrorists are getting some spectacular attacks but again they are hitting the softest of targets and as of now are trying to incorporate chlorine gas canisters into their explosions. We are increasingly finding the IEDs and the weapons caches. Remember that we are just beginning the process and we still have only 50% of the troop increase. This is not an operation that gives instant gratification or quick results it will take time. We must have that time for success.

Will Congress let our troops succeed?

2 comments:

Nick said...

Yeah, victory is just around the corner. a cakewalk right?

Let us know when you find those WMDs.

Ken Prescott said...

Let us know when you find those WMDs.

Saddam Hussein went out of his way to convince the world that he had WMDs. He went out of his way to keep international inspectors from verifying his compliance, if any, with the terms of the Gulf War ceasefire (in other words, he was fair game under the original UN resolutions from 1990).

Victory is not "just around the corner." It will be a difficult process, because counterinsurgency work is an area of US structural weakness. But it is vitally necessary, because otherwise the future US response to acts of terrorism on American soil will be planned and executed by this command. And I submit that if that comes to pass, the world will be a far worse place in the aftermath than it has become in the wake of the September 11th, 2001 attacks.