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The problem is this is not a traditional war that the US or any other military force for that matter is designed for.
This is an urban war. The US military's structure was built to attack and defend against large military forces.
We did that successfully in the first few weeks. All Saddam's heavy duty military forces were destroyed. However his Republican Guards then went into civilian mode and just blended into the general population. These are the folks causing the problems and insurgent attacks now.
How do you successfully engage an enemey blended in with and operating from a civilian formation. Its impossible without also taking out civilians and civilian infrastructures like the Mosques.
This creates a political dilema, because now it looks like the US is a bully army bombing people's houses, businesses and places of worship instead of military fortifications.
Saddam was indeed brilliant in this respect. He knew the worst thing that could happen to the US was to have to engage Iraq into a long term protracted battle that ultimately really can't be won because the enemy stays invisible. There are no bases, no armament depots, no planes, no boats. Nothing the US could easily attack against the insurgents is visible as a traditional military target.
The best strategy right now is for the US to hand over full control to the next Iraqi government and provide secondary military power to help support that government. Anything else will ultimately prove to be a futile effort.
Basically we're fucked right now. We're trying to fight a war against the invisible man. And that is impossible to do.
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