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I know it's natural to want to see Fallujah levelled. But a bloody reprisal is probably exactly what our opponents WANT us to do. It would be a golden opportunity for them to portray the US as a brutal, Nazi-like occupying force. It would help them recruit more fanatics to carry out more suicide attacks.

I think the smart way to strike down these rats is to use intel, Iraqi agents, and special forces to selectively eliminate the perps. Preferably in the dead of night. Night after night, one, two, or three perps are quietly killed as they sleep, by having their throats cut. A perp leaves his neighborhood to go to the store to buy a loaf of bread; he's found three days later with his head cut off, dumped in a rubbish heap. A ringleader surrounds himself with bodyguards, day and night, and holes up in his house; the next night, a JDAM bomb levels the place without damaging the neighboring houses.

This goes on for weeks. When the US command spokesman is asked if the US is responsible, he says, with a stony face, "No comment."

This would get the message across in unmistakable terms, but without handing the Islamic fanatics a propaganda bonanza.

I do think it's very, very, very tricky to have a

DRAMATIC, VIVID, EMPHATIC, OVERWHELMING RESPONSE

WHICH IS REALLY, REALLY REQUIRED IN VIEW OF THE CAPACITY TO 'HEAR' ANYTHING LESS BEING SO RELATIVELY NONEXISTENT . . .

WITHOUT handing to the enemy an overwhelming propaganda event.

However, we will not likely pacify many in that city.

And the stakes are too high in too many respects to avoid an emphatic, vivid, dramatic, overwhelming response.

I agree with you.

It's FAR too easy for us all to get emotional (rightfully so) over this horrific act, but to wipe out an entire city............or to have gone rushing to the scene with armor to recover the long-dead bodies........would have been foolish, at best.

No, I have to say I like the way the Marines are handling this. Cool........collected..........icy resolve...........and no doubt PISSED. They're professionals, and they will handle this professionally. The little pissant bastards that did this, and those who egged them on or otherwise abetted them, are dead men; they just don't know it yet. The word WILL get out: don't f**k with the Marines. After you dance and prance and wave your blood-soaked hands into the cameras, you have to go home sometime.

.............and we own the night.