Originally posted by TweetyBird
>>the logic makes [sense]. Least I fully understand what he [meant].
Nice try on the spin though <<
Its not spin at all. If the Baathists were retreating stategically (in order to form up for guerilla tactics), allowing them to do so by not modifying the attack (e.g., slow down and use more tactical forces to capture as many Baathists as possible), is a blunder and by no means a "victory."
It is my belief there weren't enough forces to to capture and hold the Baathists - thats why they were allowed to escape and reform to fight a guerilla war. Thats not spin. Claiming victory is spin.
Right. Thats what he meant so how is that logic convoluted?
OK and in a country where everyone is the same race and the enemy has taken off its uniforms and dresses like everyone else exactly how would you propose to identify the hard core Bathists from the rest of the population to capture and hold them?
Or would you just herd the entire Iraqi population into pens until you could sort each man woman and child out? After all its not like these guys were standing around with tattoos on their heads that say "Im a bad guy"
I may be wrong but I don't remember him claiming overall "victory" but rather the cessation of organized military action.
The current problem is hardly what anyone can call organized except perhaps on a very local level.
Certainly not on a national level and with no grand plan other then to harass and grab headlines
And the last I remember hearing, a great deal of these actions are being conducted (as much as 75%) not by the Iraqis but by insurgents from other countries.
Assuming for a moment you are right and the plan should have been modified, or done completely differently that would have been the call of the field commanders.
But then again this in retrospect nothing more then hindsight. And it far easier to look back and say this or that should have been done instead then to know the best course of action at the moment.
And its easy for you or I to second guess and say this or that should have been done instead. But then again we weren't there and in control of the forces were we. and we didn't then nor do we now have all the info that was available at the time.
And considering none of us was the man in charge there at the time we cant really say what we would have done or that you or I would not have blundered.
Hindsight is 20/20
Its a simple thing to be right in hindsight. Much harder to be right at the moment
