Readers interested in how American technology is put to use on the battlefield will find these two reports here and here from Bing West at Slate very interesting.
Thanks to Chester for the tip.
Bill Roggio at The Fourth Rail also has some good commentary on the last couple of days in Fallujah as does The Strategy Page.
Three items especially worth noting are these. First from The Strategy Page:
Very few civilians have been encountered in Fallujah. Those that claim to be civilians are given a "residue test" to see if their hands have fired a gun or handled explosives recently. Very few young men in Fallujah come away clean.
We wondered how our troops were able to distinguish civilians from fighters in the exodus from the city.
And these two from The Fourth Rail:
Violence has flared up in Mosul, and a Stryker battalion is being diverted from Fallujah to the northern city. Four battalions of the Iraqi National Guard, which were patrolling the Syrian and Iranian borders, have also been dispatched to Mosul to restore order. The commander of the local police has been relieved from duty and the chief of the anti-crime unit was assassinated.
The move of the Stryker battalion from Fallujah to Mosul indicates the Coalition is confident in the situation in Fallujah. Fallujah is a high priority and a significant amount of time, planning and resources has been devoted to success. The move, along with the redeployment of the four Iraqi National Guard battalions from the borders, also underscores a lack of resources in Iraq. There does not appear to be a strategic reserve of troops available to conduct an operation the size of Fallujah without pinching units from other areas. This problem will subside as additional Iraq Army and National Guard units come on line, but the current operations being conducted in the Sunni Triangle will expose this weakness.
Perhaps the biggest mistake of the post-war was not having more troops available, and we have been paying for the apparent misjudgment for over a year. We are not military experts and we fear asking a foolish question, but how many combat troops do we still have stationed in Europe, South Korea, and Okinawa, and what purpose are they serving there?
Secondly, another well-known Iraqi militant group, Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed in a statement on its Web site Friday to have joined forces with al-Zarqawi's group and the Islamic Army in Iraq.
While the cooperation between the groups will expand their resources and make them more formidable, this will expose the groups to infiltration. Terrorist groups maintain operational security by operating in small groups, or cells, with limited knowledge and contact between cells. The larger a terror network becomes, the greater chance a high-ranking member with detailed knowledge of the organization is captured or flipped. The merger may also be occurring for practical reasons. Large numbers of terrorists are being chewed up in Fallujah, and there may be manpower problems for al Qaeda in Iraq.
Time is not on the terrorists' side in Iraq. As the Iraqi military gets stronger, elections get closer, and terrorist forces continue to be depleted their prospects for success continue to dim. Barring a catastrophic strike against the United States' homeland, the only hope Islamists have in Iraq is for their allies in the American left to wear away at the patience and will of the American people. Doubtless they'll continue to do their best.
