As I mentioned, I was sidelined by illness most of last week and part of the previous one. As a result, I’m way behind on book reviews — but not on books. Here’s another good one:
They should have feared us. But instead, the Muj apparently thought they could overwhelm our bases. That came from the stupidity of the proportional response. The fact that the insurgents could even consider massed assaults meant that we had not been sufficiently brutal…even [Paul Bremer] saw the problem. Instead of solving it, the horse had left the barn, and Marines were waiting for their bases to be overrun.
–Ilario Pantano, Warlord, p.315Â [discussing Fallujah and Mahmudiyah, Iraq, in August 2004]
I’ve got two stacks of books sitting next to the monitor, each 18 inches high — all of them recently read, and all fascinating and worthy of reviews. Coming soon….
Yeah, if you don’t hammer them hard, they might think it’s because you can’t. So the BPM’s make mass attacks on a base with everything from artillery to machingun positions set up and troops prepared for it.
Lots of raisins got handed out.