Were reports of Guerilla attacks muted?

[Stephanie]

Here's the link;

http://www.msnbc.com/news/891343_asp.htm

[Stephanie]

*bump*

it discusses how higher levels of the government (i.e. CIA) warned about the possibility of guerilla warfare by the Iraqis during "Operation Freedom", but as the war was planned, the idea had been discounted.

[mf_dolphin]

I think the military has admitted that they underestimated the strength of the non-traditional forces. They also misjudged the dispersment of these forces in the south which has prevented the popular uprising of the Shiite population. This is why the policy changed on Basra from "bypass and contain" to "military objective.

[JQ Public]

Yeh...maybe we were a bit complacent in thinking that we could just blow them to bits. Its pretty sad hearing what people thought we were gonna do in there when we got there. One lady said..."i thought we were gonna go in...blow it to bits and leave" I guess she thought a week was too long

[Stephanie]

To me, I would think that you would want to plan on the worst case scenerio. Like JQ said, it has only been a week and they're making their adjustments accordingly. I just read that another 100,000 troops will be sent over. They are coming from Texas, Colorado and Germany (Germans don't need them anyway ).

This article kind of supports what Streetsoldier has been saying since the war began.

[Aslkahuna]

we are sending more forces in is a clear indication that we seriously underestimated the enemy-something that can get you seriously whacked in a war. At least, that should bring us up to a level that will ensure that we will prevail but it also means that it's going to be a long haul.

Steve

[Stephanie]

I think so too Steve.

[mf_dolphin]

While we are sending in more troops keep in mind that one of the largest groups being sent over was intended to be there all along. The 4th Mechanized Infantry Division was supposed to be in Turkey for the northern front. The only reason they haven't been sent before now is that they would be of no use until the decision was made last week to divert their equipment to Kuwait. Besides the unexpected/underestimated strength of the unconventional forces, our forces right now don't have enough heavy armoured forces for the assault on Bagdad. It will be 2-3 weeks before the 4th is engaged in the fray so we had better settle down for the long run.

[streetsoldier]

These guys KNOW they have no future in a post-Saddam Iraq...so they fal back on the traditional Islamic teaching which exhorts the "faithful" to kill as many "infidels" as possible, in the "knowledge" that those they kill will serve them as slaves in Paradise.

For those of us who have cornered a wild animal...you know what to expect from these insane (to Western eyes) fedayeen. And remember who said it here, first.