This Is The War Saddam Planned to Fight, and Rummy & Wolfie fell for it hook, line and improvised explosive devise. Gracious, it's certainly not new in the annals of warfare--in fact it is just about the oldest and most popular way to wage war on a superior force that is away from home: Let 'em in, let 'em get settled, then start picking fights at a time and place of your choice. Something akin to "death by a thousand cuts." Of course, it doesn't always succeed. But then it often does. The primary determinant for success or failure is directly related to how determined the superior force is in sticking around. If it never quits, and it's superior numbers and supplies continue to be superior, it will not lose. It is that simple; it is also that complex. The public and political will must be as determined as are the forces in the field.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Italian mission in Baghdad, damaging the building but causing no injuries, the U.S. military said Thursday. In a political setback for the U.S.-led occupation, key Shiite Muslim leaders criticized the U.S. plan to transfer power to Iraqis.
A U.S. military convoy came under attack Thursday on the main highway west of Baghdad near the town of Abu Ghraib, witnesses said. An Associated Press Television News cameraman filmed two flatbed military trucks that were abandoned and left with their cabs blazing fiercely, as dozens of townspeople converged to loot tires and other vehicle parts. The military had no immediate information.
And in the northern city of Mosul, unidentified gunmen on Thursday shot dead an Iraqi police sergeant, Brig. Gen. Muwaffaq Mohammed said.
The overnight attack on the Italian mission underscored the precarious security situation in the Iraqi capital, despite a reduction in attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces in recent days. Two weeks ago, a suicide bomber detonated a truck bomb outside the Italian barracks in Nasiriyah, killing 19 Italians and 14 others in an apparent attempt to weaken the resolve of Washington's coalition partners.
In Mosul, U.S. troops on Wednesday killed a girl and injured three people in a pickup truck that was approaching American soldiers who had been shot at, the U.S. military said. No weapons were found in the truck. Assailants had fired at two shuttle buses traveling from a U.S. military compound, but no American troops were hurt.
