So. It wasn't the Surge after all.

[SlowwHand]

An Iraq Veteran has a personal message for Barak Obama

[Darius871]

Would've been nice without Lee Greenwood ruining it.

[Kirnwaffen]

Yay. Another "you're unpatriotic and you don't support the troops because you think the war was a mistake" ad. Never gets old, I guess.

[Darius871]

Dammit, now that stupid song's stuck in my head!

[Riesstiu IV]

Surge is a terrible drink.

[Sirotnikov]

Originally posted by Kirnwaffen
Woodward's claim is a joke. We've long had the intelligence networks in place in Iraq to identify terrorist leaders, just like we've had the ability to track and kill/capture them. All killing one of them does is throw the movement off for a bit.

Well you guys could have developed new methods or sources for getting much more exact information much more quickly.

If the level of precision of your troops goes up 3 or 5 times, then the terrorists feel it.

It's one thing to be able to nab someone important every couple of weeks. It's another if you can arrest dozens every day.

[Kirnwaffen]

True, but what are you doing? Mind reading? Using an orbiting terrorist incinerator? Technological solutions have serious limitations in penetrating terrorist networks, particularly when the population is willing to hide them. The most plausible scenario remains that the Iraqis turned on the insurgency and the militias and started diming them out to US forces.

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Kirnwaffen
Yay. Another "you're unpatriotic and you don't support the troops because you think the war was a mistake" ad. Never gets old, I guess.

News Flash, dickweed. I 'll take his words over yours.

[Kirnwaffen]

You do that. But the basic argument is still stupid, and the fact that it's coming from a wounded veteran doesn't make it any more valid.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Kirnwaffen
True, but what are you doing? Mind reading? Using an orbiting terrorist incinerator? Technological solutions have serious limitations in penetrating terrorist networks, particularly when the population is willing to hide them. The most plausible scenario remains that the Iraqis turned on the insurgency and the militias and started diming them out to US forces.

My bet is that it is tribal and religious leaders. Those leaders probably said, "Okay we will co-operate when you get the extra troops over here if you 1.) won't kill us, and 2.) kill our rivals"

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by Kirnwaffen
You do that. But the basic argument is still stupid, and the fact that it's coming from a wounded veteran doesn't make it any more valid.

The hell you say.

[DaShi]

So Sloww, how about all those vets who are against the war? Do you lick their heels too?

[Kirnwaffen]

My bet is that it is tribal and religious leaders. Those leaders probably said, "Okay we will co-operate when you get the extra troops over here if you 1.) won't kill us, and 2.) kill our rivals"

That could be true as well, but it doesn't, at least in my mind, constitute a 'new method of gathering intelligence'. I'm just kinda struggling to imagine what kind of new technique he could be talking about.

[SlowwHand]

DaShi, just so we're clear, I would have withdrawn the troops the day after Hussein was hung. Ok? THIS soldier wants to give them a better life. I say they don't care enough to take the offer. The point of it is, we're sitting here with nothing to lose. Here's someone that did lose. Should we take a vote among the people that matter? The people that are there? Maybe that's a good idea; but like I said, I would have left Iraq to ****andfall back in it long ago. At least Viet Nam was consistent in what they asked. Iraq is bull****, to me.

[Aeson]

Originally posted by Kirnwaffen
That could be true as well, but it doesn't, at least in my mind, constitute a 'new method of gathering intelligence'. I'm just kinda struggling to imagine what kind of new technique he could be talking about.

Maybe it's a special technique called actually reading the intelligence reports instead of relying on imagination to figure out who is tied to Al-Qaeda?