Quote:

the G-man said:
Agreed. The administration's first big mistake was letting there be looting during the early days of the war. A lot of the weapons being used against us right now came from that looting.



Nah, I think mistakes were made earlier than that, mostly when it came to long-term planning and making assumptions about what would happen (and also, I think there was too much ideology and machismo and not enough practical strategy in play.)

Quote:

The second big mistake was allowing insurgents to murder Americans and drag their bodies through the streets of Fallujah. Fallujah should have been reduced to a crater the next day. That would have nipped a lot of this shit in the bud right then and there.



Or it would have made things a lot worse for our troops, and inspired the insurgents to avenge Fallujah.

You can't intimidate a fanatic with death, either his own or his countryman's. If they're willing to martyr themselves and make heroes out of fellow martyrs to encourage others to do the same, wholesale slaughter and destruction is probably the biggest mistake you could make. The battle-cry will be "Avenge Fallujah!"

ANyway, if we're fighting to protect the Iraqis, isn't blowing whole cities to bejeezus kinda the opposite reason of why we're over there?

Beware the advice of successful people. They do not seek company.