OK Billy, I'm going to weigh in on this one too! I've been greiving for my BOTL's loss all day and really didn't feel up to answering this earlier. First, we have to go back and examine what used to work and compare it to what's going on now. When we were dealing with the Japanese prior to Pearl Harbor, we used all possible diplomatic means to resolve the issues. When diplomacy failed, we ACCEPTED that it failed, and sent in the guys in green and khakis to clean that mess up! Beyond choosing a target for the atom bomb, the folks in Washington stayed the hell out of the fracas! They stepped back in when Douglas MacArthur brought them a signed surrender. That was his JOB, to make our enemy capitulate. They LET him do his job! They did NOT tell him to do his job, then tell him HOW to do his job, then tell him WHERE to do his job, then tell him three dozen different ways he DEFINITLY COULD NOT do his job. In four years, Ike gave them Europe, and Bic Mac gave them the Pacific!
Specifically what needs to be done? First, announce a showdown, and tell all innocent residents of Fallujah to evacuate within 72 hours. Second cordon off the city, and search every man woman and child leaving for weapons, and other evidence of insurgency, detain those found in possesion of weapons or communications for the rebels for further questioning. Three, once we have made an effort to ensure all innocents are out of the combat zone, call in an arclight! A B-52 delivered saturation carpet-bombing of the entire city, 500 lb bombs one on top of the other! Fourth, go in and take a body count, and gather up the weapons, and burn the insurgents bodies with the carcasses of swine, and scatter the ashes, ensure there are witnesses to this. Fifth, ensure word gets out, that if you harbor insurgents, your homes will be totally destroyed, and if you ARE an insurgent, your body will be defiled with the remains of pigs, and you will be forever denied access to Paradise.
Thought should be given to a ressuection of sorts to the old policy of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) The Moslems in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, and all the other Moslem countries talk out of both sides of their faces. Yasser Arafat was decrying the acts on 9/11, even as his people were dancing in the streets, the Saudis say they are against Islamic Extremeists even as they put on telethons to support the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. OK, how about this, pilgimage to Mecca is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, if you allow terorists to dwell among you, and plot and plan in your midst, and do not turn them in, and they attack us again, we'll turn Mecca into a radioactive glass-factory that no one will be able to approach for oh, say 500 years! If you want to continue pilgimages to your holy sites. police your own ranks! Finally, say what we'll do, then do what we say! After eight years of Slick Willie, Osama Bin Laden called his family (at least those who would still talk to him) and said he would be lying low for awhile because things were going to heat up (this was right before 9/11) He figured another 400 missle barrage of Tomahawks, maybe even twice as much, and we would call it good! He never thought we would have the stomach for a long and protracted war. As soon as we quit, he could come out of his hole, and carry on as before. I doubt he ever thought he'ld be ducking from hole to hole for three years and still hiding! We WILL get him!
That's how you beat guerillas, be MORE ruthless than they are!
