so did the INSURGENTS sucker the Pentagon again?

[grasswire]

The thousands of insurgents that were thought to be holed up in Falujah have disappeared? Melted away? And now we hear that Zahrqawi isn't there?

Didn't this happen before? Has this ragtag bunch drawn Americans into a trap?

What's really going on?

And what about that story of kidnapped GIs?

[prodigal_green]

1. That's been the strategy since the beginning of the war

Remember our "catastrophic success?"

Fool him once...won't, er, uh, will get fooled again.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. Remember the White House announced in October that they were waiting

until after the election to act on Falluja since Bush's re-election wasmore important than getting Iraq under control...a person's gotta have their priorities...it's probably not hard for insurgents to get word of electronic media. Odds are..they left while Bush was busy campaigning and worrying that a bloodbath and dead troops might bring his incompetence to light even more

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. To cover for this they have been claiming that they have

engaged the enemy in fierce fighting, and they are rounding up the insurgents. Not very likely.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Well, it's simple math...

Thousands of terrorists that no longer exist where they should be means that either there was not thousands of terrorists or they dragged up and out.

If a lot of them made their way out, then look for a strike somewhere else in a matter of days.

[Divernan]

5. US wouldn't let men under 45 or so leave with their families.

Now, all those guys can be labeled as terrorists, so US can claim to have captured hundreds.

[toddaa]

6. Military Strategy 101

We're not fighting an army. Armies hold ground. Position is very important in war as you need to maintain your supply lines. Guerrillas don't have supply lines. They don't need to hold any ground. "Fallujah gets invaded by an army? Fine, we'll just go somewhere else."

You'd think after Algeria, Vietnam, and Afghanistan we'd all recognize a guerrilla war when we see it, but we don't. Guerilla wars are political. The insurgents in Iraq don't have to win a single battle. The Vietnamese didn't. All they have to do is keep the body count going up and they win.

[idiosyncratic]

7. It's like Afghanistan all over again. Give them time to get away.

That seems to be the strategy of the Administration, and the military has to follow orders.

I heard an interesting program on the radio this morning where the one guest would not refer to * as the "president." He would only use the term "commander in chief."