Machinist Mate said:
The death of Zarquwi was an Army operation.
I’ve been confined to the basement while my wife get’s my FD ready, so I will address this.
Awhile back, we announced that we are closing in on him. Why would we do that? As the leader of the insurgency, his capability to reduce that insurgency made him valuable alive. Consider, what closing in means – narrowing in grid squares? No. That was done specifically to create suspicion in his ranks and to let him know his security network was breached. Consider his actions at that point, he would most likely purged his security of anyone he considered potentially disloyal. Then we had that near miss a few weeks ago, reaffirming that we could still touch him. Think about it, if our intelligence operatives were the one’s who know that we had missed him by hours, then why did we miss him?
That was the final warning “either reign it in, or your dead”. He didn’t get the message, or didn’t care – so he’s dead. But his security network was compromised, repeatedly. Given the fanaticism of his follower’s, what would it take to get to them? The answer to that is a higher power within the Sunni system, with a different agenda. Of course, the Sunni would never take out one of there own, they would leave that to us.
Big picture, The US is putting pressure on every side to bring this government to fruition. The leak didn’t occur because his folks were disillusioned with him. It was one operation in a much larger process. We forced the political issues, we set up the operation, we got him, we deserve the credit. I was not taking credit away from the Army. My point is the Sunni politicians are ready to deal, and once the Sunni, Shia and Kurds negotiate the oil revenues, the oil will flow.
As far as the big red rant goes, I have no control over anything that is or is not posted on this board. I am a member just like anyone else. I was an E-nothing 20 years ago - with the exception of ROTC and the Academies, everyone starts out at the bottom. I have had hundreds of soldier's under my various commands over the years and I am respectful and thankful of everyone of them and everyone that serves. I've had disagreement's with suboordinates and superiors but I would never question any soldier's loyalty simply because they have different opinion. Your attitude that if someone doesn't agree with you then they are not a loyal American, is the most arrogent thing that I have read on this board. I have accussed you of nothing except being nasty and abbrassive, and clearly that is the case. You've attacked me on a personal level, I have no reason to communicate with you any further.