It is the Vietnam code name for a conventional B-52 strike. Supposedly it was chosen by computer, but it was very apt.
While that idea would slake our thirst for vengeance a bit, it wouldn't solve the problem. What is needed is separating the sheep from the goats. Pros are working that issue. It takes time and patience, and right now, it's hard to ask Americans for patience after this.
Remember the period after 9/11? "Patience," an officer I knew counseled me when I expressed frustration. He knew, but could not reveal, that our guys were already on the way. I am not privy to anything in Iraq but I do know how our forces work.
Months after a scumbag shot Nate Chapman in Afghanistan, a team from 2nd Battalion, 19th SF Group, following up intel that had taken almost a year to develop, bagged the shooter. Sometimes we get lucky -- moments after a terrorist threw two grenades into a jeep with American soldiers, the terrorist was in custody. Some of those Muslims that some of you think are so bad beat the snot out of him and handed him over to the next Americans on the scene (the wounded Americans lived, and the terrorist -- a mentally slow boy -- was released after helping roll up his network). It took me weeks and weeks to get the picture of where a bad guy was holding prisoners, working with locals who either lied or told me what they thought I'd want to hear, but once we were sure, we used that info and sprang 'em.
This action in Fallujah didn't just happen. It took time for the terrorists to set up. They had to coordinate it. They had to warn the locals to stay home. They had to have organizers to get the mob of kids out (look at the pictures. See the older men? They are in effect the Hitler-Youth organizers of this city. They are now marked men). Most significantly, they had to get their allies in the press in position to film. (It looks like AFP and Al-Jazeera were in position, and AP's film crew arrived shortly afterwards). This publicity-seeking is going to cost them their lives (or, if somebody screws up, their liberty).
But just as it took the terrorists time to make their big strike today, it will take us time to make ours. There are Iraqi women sleeping fitfully tonight who are one day closer to sudeen widowhood.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F