Friday, June 09, 2006

Atomized

I've written in the past that our military can best help to win in Iraq by atomizing the enemy so that they cannot operate in larger groups. If the enemy can operate in company strength, they can pick off patrols and isolated police posts, providing enemy victories and making it more difficult for the good guys to spread out and patrol to protect people from the enemy.

We have succeeded in atomizing the enemy in Iraq:

The war in Iraq is becoming more of a police operation. Although there are six times as many armed men fighting in Iraq, versus Afghanistan, there have been more air strikes in Afghanistan over the last few months, than in Iraq. Each month, more of the combat operations are all, or mostly, carried out by Iraqi troops and police.


And in Afghanistan, too, this is happening:

In Afghanistan, the bad guys sometimes go hide in caves. JDAMs can do caves. Afghanistan is a rough place for fleeing gunmen, because there is less vegetation. Those treeless hills are not only a bitch to run up, but there's no place to hide. The current "Spring Offensive" by the Taliban has not turned out well, largely because of American air power. The Taliban in some areas are already changing their tactics, and giving up on the large scale attacks. This means relying on small scale terrorism, with two or three Taliban coming by at night to make threats, or to murder anyone who ignored them earlier. For this, the cure is more police, not smart bombs.


Keep them atomized and the Iraq and Afghanistan government won't need the sophisticated weapons and military capabilities that only we can provide. Keep the enemy atomized and police and light infantry can mop them up without our intrusive help.

We're getting to the point rapidly where it won't matter what the Left back here manages to do to undermine the war effort. South Vietnam had no oil to sell and buy weapons. So when our Congress cut off all aid, Saigon fell. Iraq can sell oil and buy weapons even if our Left gets their wet dream come true of an American retreat from Iraq and an enemy victory.