Anyone catch the debate last night?

[FOG]

Seahawk,

Appreciate the feedback while I was out of contact.

You are correct in that the individual grunt is far more in tune than his/her “betters” believes. They have fine tuned BS detectors.

1fastredsc,

There are two basic versions of Islam, Sunni and Shia, with the Sunni coming from North Africa. There are far more than three different groups. Just look at Anbar, the USMC effort there goes back to at least Mar 04 but was actively discouraged by both higher and the politicians. The different Sunni tribes had different agendas as did the AQ types, as a matter of fact there were splits in most tribes themselves. It was in fact mostly knuckle dragger types that id’d then tried to exploit the differences.

Dealing with all the different subsets is a challenge and requires different TTPs at different times. Trying to get the different results and TTPs into a PowerPoint brief is next to impossible, getting into a format that politicians and media would understand is not as easy as walking on the surface of the sun.

S/F, FOG

[1fastredsc]

Originally Posted by FOG

1fastredsc,

There are two basic versions of Islam, Sunni and Shia, with the Sunni coming from North Africa. There are far more than three different groups. Just look at Anbar, the USMC effort there goes back to at least Mar 04 but was actively discouraged by both higher and the politicians. The different Sunni tribes had different agendas as did the AQ types, as a matter of fact there were splits in most tribes themselves. It was in fact mostly knuckle dragger types that id’d then tried to exploit the differences.

Dealing with all the different subsets is a challenge and requires different TTPs at different times. Trying to get the different results and TTPs into a PowerPoint brief is next to impossible, getting into a format that politicians and media would understand is not as easy as walking on the surface of the sun.

S/F, FOG

You obviously know a hell of a lot more than i thought i knew about their culture. I guess the point i was trying to get across, as pessimistic as it is, is that unless we plan on staying there indefinitely to referee the inevitable than i think things will deteriorate back to chaos. In modern culture it seems like, with the exception of the few, that the broad sub categories of the muslim religion cannot get along without blood shed. This obviously doesn't even include the radical jihadist muslims that want to rid the world of christians and jews.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by techweenie

By definition, the insurgency stops when we leave. Many predict the insurgents will turn against the jihadists when we leave. IMO, the best course of action is to stop sacrificing American lives and let the Iraqis find their own equilibrium.

It will be painful to standby and watch them kill each other...............better them than us.

[FOG]

Kind of curious how an insurgency stops when we leave is definitional.

[kach22i]

UPDATE 09/14/07

When is the next debate?

[RoninLB]

Originally Posted by kach22i

UPDATE 09/14/07

When is the next debate?

Will positions of both sides morph?

[jyl]

Is Thompson going to participate in the upcoming debates?