Khight Ridder Wrings Its Collective Hands, Begs for Mercy

The St. Paul Pioneer Press ran this story on their Sunday front page today

U.S. can't win war without change

The United States is steadily losing ground to the Iraqi
insurgency, according to every key military yardstick

Let's dig into this hardened stable floor. The US military,(God bless and preserve them) is fighting a war of maneuver not a war of attrition. Just what is this ground Mr.'s Lassater and Landay are seeing? "... according to every key military yardstick."

Says who? Every key military yardstick? Like what? The "arrest of Saddam Hussein...", and "...the handover of sovereignty at the end of June...", that "...raised hopes of peace." Raised whose hopes? Who says we are fighting for peace? I want us to fight to win. Then we'll have peace. Quoting Tolkien though Theoden" "Yes, we will have peace, when you and all your works have perished-and the works of your dark master to whom you would deliver us." Knight-Ridder will deliver us to the dark master of fear and failure whose voice speaks in this story. And story it is. "Deadlier..." (for whom) is equated with "more effective." More effective in killing Iraqi's. Have the terrorists taken the initiative from the Marines? From the 4th ID? What? No mention of that "key military yardstick". After the Battle of Midway in June of 1942, the initiative in the Pacific War changed hands. The Japanese never regained it. Despite the seeming ease with which terrorists detonate cars in crowds of civilians, the results, a terrible and bloody carnage, are marks of desperation, not effectiveness. Polls elsewhere in the blogosphere show high supporting numbers for the January 30th elections. If the "insurgency" (spit! spit!) were "effective", those numbers should be going down.

The analysis suggests that unless something dramatic changes — such as a
newfound will by Iraqis to reject the insurgency or a large escalation of U.S. troop strength — the United States won't win the war. It's axiomatic among
military thinkers that insurgencies are especially hard to defeat because
the insurgents' goal isn't to win in a conventional sense but merely to
survive until the will of the occupying power is sapped. Recent polls already suggest an
erosion of support among Americans for the war.

This is nonsense. To the extent that Americans' polled about the "war" get their opinions from stories like this one, of course outlooks appear bleak. When journalists don't know a brigade from a bagel, it shows in the reporting. And again, Iraqi polls show high support for voting in the comng elections. A willingness to risk being blown to bloody shreds for the cause of voting seems damned dramatic enough. And always with the more troops trope. It is for the sake of the people of Iraq, with whom we are not at war, we have not switched to that war of attrition and bombed and blasted "till all the towns lie beaten flat" to achieve that for which fools believe "more troops" are required. Care is required to glean the tares from the wheat. Careful, lethal, best ever in all history, US Armed forces gleaners. Yes, insurgencies are hard to defeat,and this particular insurgency is making war on Knight-Ridder, and AP, and all the rest. And they do not see it. The will of the US military cannot be "sapped". Sapping the will of Mr.'s Lasseter and Landay seems like a done deal. And our soldiers are not occupiers. Occupiers indiscriminately murder civilians, saw off heads, burn people with blowtorches, drill their eyes out. And that not Goya's Spain, but Zarqawi's Fallajuh.

The unfavorable trends of the war are clear:

What trends pray tell? Ah, the ever popular, will sapping fatalities per month. Major combat operations end, the long strides towards some normalcy in a country which suffered under an Iraqi Stalin and his Vlad the Impaler sons begins. This strategic bit of middle eastern earth upon which we are taking the war to the Islamofascists. They oblige us by switching their flight plans from Detroit to Baghdad, taking the overland passage from Syria and Iran. They kill 50 Marines,(God bless and preserve the United States Marines, and all the families, relatives and friends of the fallen), we kill 1500, capture 1500, and we're losing? I can see the recruiting posters now: Osama wants You! Suffer casulties 30,40, and 50 to one. Experience the Power of the Infidels for yourself. See Paradise!

It is late. Past my bedtime. Read the whole thing. It is a mix of conclusions drawn from data for which those conclusions cannot be drawn. Blackfive and Iraq Now are much smarter about me on things military.