Recently, in the town of Fulluja, roughly bout 32 miles west of Baghdad, a small two vehical convoy was attacked by insurgent forces resulting in the death of four individuals. The victims were civilian contractors working for Blackwater Security Consulting, one of several private companies hired to provide security for food shipments among other jobs and its been reported they were enroute to provide security of one such shipment when they were attacked. Now...while the attack itself was sickening, what transpired after was enough to piss me and I'm sure others off Jobu style (obscure ref to Major League). In an act very reminiscent of the infamous " Blackhawk Down" incident in Mogadishu, Somalia in '93, crowds gathered around the SUV's setting them ablaze, proceeding to drag the bodies down the streets, reigniting the bodies with gasoline and ultimately ending up handging the bodies off of a bridge, left to rot.
As for the acts done by the crowds (only a few hundred by some estimates in a town of bout 200,000 to 300,000 ...estimates vary on civilian population) one needs to remember that just like in '93, the main goal was not the death of Americans even though that was the initial result...what was the goal by insurgents and the crowd (no doubt with insurgent agitators among them) was to get the graphic video of what was done to the bodies post -attack splatered across world wide TV's...key of which was American TV's in an effort to influence world opinion and erode resolve over Iraq. This was a miscaculation for several reasons.
First off, the only comparison's to the Somalia incident were the treatment of the dead bodies and the fact that it was an Al-Queda playbook special...(Al-Queda had a hand in the planing/training in Somalia and I'm damm sure they had a hand in Fulluja's planning). Also..regarding resolve...while in '93 the images shown shocked the American psyche (which quite frankly have always been bit skittish since Vietnam's end) and drove down then President Clintons poll numbers...he decided to pull out first Task Force Ranger then all US forces which ultimately led to the UN forces "bugging out" as well. The difference now is that Bush is by no means a mirror image of Clinton... whether or not you like the president or not...whether you agree over the Iraq issue or not....in the end Bush will albeit with a few bumps stay the course and wont cut and run as did many other US admins (Reagan in Beruit and Clinton in Somalia).
As to the world opinion on Iraq... whether we should be there or not...in the end the only opinion that matters is US opinion and more over the president (whoever it is) doesnt have the luxury of factoring in US/World public opinions when concerning National Defense intrests. History has shown that while public opinion may be against many choices made in the National defense intrests of the US in the end the choices were right. If say the world..ala Coalition Member Nations public opin takes a turn for the worst and we see some if not all members pulling troops out of Iraq..well than the US still can undertake it alone...of course this would entail major re-deployments from other deployment zones...but it could be done....although the only moaning wont be the US military but rather the host nations where our troops are currently deployed...for their benefit. Fact is we will be in Iraq for quite some time..hell its only been slightly over a year since hostilities began...time will show that Iraq will be a better place in the end...although it aint gonna be smooth sailing.
" War is simple. It's the simple things that are hard! "...Famous military tactician ( forget the name )
P.S.
I did little surfing among both left/right leaning blogs...talk bout 2 diametriclly opposed ideals ...the posts on the right listed some serious destruction being required for Fulluja while the left sites listed among other things posted "serves them right" regarding the four dead...granted both posts were the general extreme but geez
The marines i believe will most likely be instituting a cordon/sweep operation with the Iraq police/civil defense in that town rather quickly..though thats just my opinion...rather middle of the road opinion if i do say so