13,000-17,000 "Insurgents" Estimated In Iraq--Whoop-de-Doo!
In a late-breaking news report today a senior American military official released estimates that there are 13,000 to 17-000 insurgents present in Iraq. Of these, 5,000-7,000 are "committed fighters" who are mostly former Ba'ath Party members, many others are "fence-sitting" ex-criminals who provide support and materiel for the terrorists, 1,000 work with al-Zarqawi's network and 500 are non-Iraqis.
Let's see, with a total population of 25,374,691 people that would come out to be about .063% of the population.
Come to think of it, if only 17,000 showed up at Aloha Stadium for a University of Hawaii football game it would be a really big disappointment.
If someone organized a national march on Washington D.C. and only 17,000 showed up, the news media would consider it to be a failure.
The same official estimated that somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 insurgents were killed in Iraq during the past year. Many of these were replaced by others, he said, so it is hard to keep even approximate statistics on these things.
To my way of thinking, if that many were taken out last year during a time of political and social chaos, without Iraqi troops or guardsmen and without a unifying central government, then the year 2005 should provide even more success at rooting them out. Even more so if the vast majority of Iraqi people come to the conclusion that they can and must take charge of getting rid of them themselves and begin sharing intelligence information with Iraqi authorities and refuse to shelter them in their homes and neighborhoods any longer.
The fact that terrorists have taken to kidnapping the mentally retarded to do their suicide-bombing dirty work for them demonstrates how short the self-destructive line of eager volunteers is getting.
I sincerely doubt that Mr. al-Zaqawi will be strapping on body explosives any time soon. His modus operandi is to get the other flunky to blow himself up. We can only wonder what will happen when the few remaining terrorists run out of flunkies!
Iraq today is like a chess game where White has moved in such a way that mate is assured in four more moves. Black can still take White's pieces, of course, but in a futile cause. After last week's elections it should be clear to the Iraqi people and to the world that the insurgent's cause is now officially futile.
Let's see, with a total population of 25,374,691 people that would come out to be about .063% of the population.
Come to think of it, if only 17,000 showed up at Aloha Stadium for a University of Hawaii football game it would be a really big disappointment.
If someone organized a national march on Washington D.C. and only 17,000 showed up, the news media would consider it to be a failure.
The same official estimated that somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 insurgents were killed in Iraq during the past year. Many of these were replaced by others, he said, so it is hard to keep even approximate statistics on these things.
To my way of thinking, if that many were taken out last year during a time of political and social chaos, without Iraqi troops or guardsmen and without a unifying central government, then the year 2005 should provide even more success at rooting them out. Even more so if the vast majority of Iraqi people come to the conclusion that they can and must take charge of getting rid of them themselves and begin sharing intelligence information with Iraqi authorities and refuse to shelter them in their homes and neighborhoods any longer.
The fact that terrorists have taken to kidnapping the mentally retarded to do their suicide-bombing dirty work for them demonstrates how short the self-destructive line of eager volunteers is getting.
I sincerely doubt that Mr. al-Zaqawi will be strapping on body explosives any time soon. His modus operandi is to get the other flunky to blow himself up. We can only wonder what will happen when the few remaining terrorists run out of flunkies!
Iraq today is like a chess game where White has moved in such a way that mate is assured in four more moves. Black can still take White's pieces, of course, but in a futile cause. After last week's elections it should be clear to the Iraqi people and to the world that the insurgent's cause is now officially futile.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 10:20 PM
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