What a Lousy Message

Have you noticed that the insurgents tend to kill significantly more Iraqis than Americans? How idiotic is that? "Attention Iraqi people. We are killing you. We are going to kill lots of you. We will keep killing you until the Americans leave. Therefore, you should want very much for the Americans to leave."

Can they really expect to get strong support from the people with a message like that? It seems to me that the Iraqi people are more teed off now than they've ever been. Maybe that's why we see lines at the recruiting stations get longer each time a recruiting station gets bombed. I don't think that's the effect the insurgents were hoping for. Maybe I'm wrong.

Bribed and Coerced?

I remember there was some guy a while back who liked to suggest that our allies in Iraq were "bribed and coerced." I don't remember him ever presenting any evidence to support that claim. He certainly wouldn't have used South Korea as an example. When South Korea put out a call for volunteers to serve in Iraq, their service members jammed the system. There were 14 hard-charging Korean volunteers for every 1 slot available. Gaining a slot to Iraq became one of the most hotly contested prizes in Korean military history. I served for over 3 years in that great country, and their "race to fight Islamofascism" doesn't surprise me one bit. They are, in my humble opinion, our most overlooked and underappreciated allies. They deserve much better than to be called "bribed and coerced." Who called them that, anyway? Whoever it was, I'd like to apologize to our Korean friends and thank them for their service.

Night of Power

To nobody's surprise, violence broke out across the country yesterday. Early reports suggested that they were "diversionary strikes" aimed at taking the pressure off Fallujah. That may be partially true, but yesterday was also a significant part of the Ramadan Holiday. It was the dawn of the "Night of Power." 1 prayer is worth 1000 prayers, 1 American killed is worth 1000 Americans killed (better odds at getting a great deal in the afterlife), the gates of hell are closed (no chance for a "mix up"), and all sorts of other great things that would cause any well-meaning terrorist to beg for a good suicide mission.

Don't Forget About the Other Guys

Even if it were just a big "diversionary" ploy- how could the insurgents be so stoopid (don't answer that)? Sure, we may have 15,000 troops engaged in Fallujah, but what about the 120,000 or so other troops that we have in the Land Between the Rivers? Did those nutty insurgents forget about them? That's hard to believe. And yet, they saw fit to start things up in Mosul. Fortunately, the 25th ID's Stryker Brigade was ready for them:

Iraqi National Guard soldiers and soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division's Stryker Brigade Combat Team began offensive operations against known concentrations of insurgents in southeastern and southwestern Mosul, Iraq, today at the Ninevah province governor's request.

Those Iraqi cops in Mosul aren't ready for prime time. They are of the "old school" variety and they don't understand that if you're not playing offense, then you're on defense. There's no "halftime" in war. General Petraeus hasn't sent any of his "new" cops to Mosul yet, but they'll be coming soon enough. The hope is that the new guys will pursue the terrorists aggressively- not hide out in their station houses hoping they don't get bombed. In the mean time the 25th ID and some new ING troops went on the offensive yesterday in order to make things right. Mosul will be just fine for the elections. You can bet on it.