Demosophia

Beware the Bunnies

Yah see? What'd I tell yah?

It's Kerry with a fake beard.

"The upcoming offensive is getting more and more press, more and more frequently. My initial focus was on Fallujah, but now on second thought I think it a certainty that Ramadi is going to be hit too. Look for 5th Marines to hit Ramadi, 1st Marines to assault Fallujah, and 7th Marines to continue guarding the Syrian border in the West, and possibly act as an operational reserve. They've probably shifted a good bit of the armor that is normally a part of 7th Marines (like 1st Tank Battalion) over to either 1st or 5th. Bet on it."

Read the whole thing. The magnitude is impressive. Around 10,000 men, on the allies' side. You aren't going to see this in the mainstream media. If Zarqawi is within the cordon now, he's not getting out.

"Fallujah watchers will have noticed that the Marines are closing out a last round of negotiations for surrender while they have been progressively shutting down insurgent checkpoints within the city by hitting them with smart munitions. My own speculation is that the negotiations were launched, not in the expectation of getting Zarqawi to lay down his arms, but in order to negotiate a separate peace with the different factions in town. The impending assault has been used as a negotiating lever to create gaps in the enemy ranks. This process is calculated to blind the enemy by shutting down his pickets and poison his intelligence channels -- not to mention introducing mutual suspicion and internecine fighting.

The main event next week will doubtless be the Presidential elections but for Marines in Anbar, their minds may well be on matters closer at hand."

The significant difference between this war, and Vietnam, is that there's a direct conduit between the fighting men on the line, and the "people." The press is superfluious. Unnecessary. We're not only in a different war, we're in a different age.

Posted by Demosophist at October 30, 2004 09:35 PM | TrackBack