As U.S. forces started to pound Faloujah, Iraq, www.juancole.com is right on point again. This time, though, it’s Juan Cole’s guest editorialist who weighs in with the correct opinion–that the U.S. is limited to only three options in Iraq: ’stay the course,’ ‘train a puppet regime, or get out before we are forced out.
The problem is that none of the three available options are practicable. If we stay the course, people will die in large numbers. If we train a puppet regime, it will surely fall one day. And if we get out, Iraq will be a center of chaos for centuries. All this from the one place that was once the only country in the Middle East without terrorists.
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They have retaken most of city back with minimum American and Iraqi casualties. Last I heard, the count was 10 Americans and 2 Iraqis killed. That’s an improvement from the Vietnam era when it was predicted that 30% of the forces entering urban combat would be killed.
I wonder, though, why they stopped short of taking the city months ago?
The New York Times has excerpts from letter from fallen soldiers who fought in Iraq. It’s pretty poignant to read them assuring their wives and children that they will be OK and will be back soon.
I think we all need to remember the real cost of this war on the men and women who actually fight it. I think it sad that their fate is decided by so many men who never once saw combat or ran from it.
Rich