A Former Marine's Perspective on the War

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by mheisig

With respect to the first point, I'll agree I'm not totally convinced myself. I do find it very odd, however, that we can completely conquer and dominate (in every facet) a country in a matter of a few weeks during the invasion, yet somehow we're at a loss as to how to handle a "pesky" insurgency? Strikes me as a little odd at the very least. I don't think he was really suggesting a conspiracy really, just that the regular military (not the reserves or guard) was not being allowed to do it's job. It's like they got 95% of the way there, and left before the job was finished.

Our military can kick the crap out of any regular army. Fighting insurgencies is a tricky matter, just ask the French, British, etc. I have no doubt we could wipe out the insurgency overnight if we wanted to, but I don't think we could do so without compromising our values. We could do what Saddam did and simply wipe out entire cities/villages sympathetic to the insurgency, but it's not going to happen.