Hearty congratulations to the new government of Iraq, and to the Coalition for their creativity in executing a speedy transition ahead of schedule. I had thought all along that announcing the precise moment that power would be transferred, months in advance, presented too big and too obvious a target for the jihadifascists to pass up making some sort of vile demonstration. From this moment onwards, they are fighting the UN-recognized officially sovereign government of Iraq, and will be less able to earn a pass from ambivanlent Iraqis by virtue of fighting the occupying power. Callers to an Iraqi news radio station today gushed over the reestablishment of their sovereignty, and issue a warning of their own to the foreign terrorists that their continuing presence and activities are regarded as murder. Foxnews quotes one caller, identified only as Ali in Baghdad, as saying "I send all the Iraqi people my blessings. But I warn these terrorists, all the Iraqis will rise up and strike them with steel." Kudos, and kudos again.
This recent business of beheadings of Nick Berg, and Dennis Johnson, and Kim Il-Sun, and the claimed recent execution of fellow Ohioan, Army Spc Matt Maupin, is beginning to make me really angry, however. As is the threat to behead a US Marine, and three Turkish civilians. I don't mean this in a "why do they hate us" or "let's bring our soldiers home right now" sort of pusillanimy. I mean it by asking whether we may be dealing too gently with a bunch of 12th century bloodthirsty barbarians, making perhaps the same mistake that Rome made when its eastern fronteirs began to be overrun.
It may be time to start regarding the foreign terrorists in Iraq as less a combat enemy, and more a wasp nest lurking under the back porch which needs to be cleaned out. Such activities do not involve discussion, negotiation, or the nicer distinctions among parties who are specifically guilty and those who may be only guilty by association. Exterminating a wasp nest requires lots and lots of wasp killer, applied severely and with extreme prejudice. The kidnapped Marine in particular is an Arab Muslim, so it seems spurious to consider these animals to be religiously motivated in anything like what we understand the phrase to mean. If the bloodthirsty animals actually follow through with their threat--and I pray they don't, or are prevented--neither the US public nor the US military will be inclined to be gentle with the perpetrators of such an atrocity against a uniformed Marine.
To that end, I was pleased to note that we have resumed using our heavy weaponry in Fallujah. Last Saturday, US strike fighters dropped precision bombs on a terrorist safehouse in Fallujah, and the extent of the secondary explosions--lasting for twenty minutes--testifies to the huge cache of illegal weapons and explosives which were consumed along with 18 terrorists. Another terrorist safehouse was destroyed Tuesday with precision bombs, and a third strike on Friday evidently hit a safehouse just as al-Zaquari was pulling up to the door--but he escaped unhurt. The same cannot be said of the 20-25 terrorists holed up inside plotting their next atroctity, who have now been themselves exterminated.
This points both to a renewed willingness to break some things and kill large numbers of bad men, now that the Sadr uprising has been quelled, and to our ability to develop quality intelligence even inside Fallujah. Coupled with the smooth transfer of power, I am more optimistic now than I have been for months that this thing can be brought finally under control.
Posted by JKS at June 29, 2004 06:40 AM