Winning Hearts and Minds with Lead and Depleted Uranium

The New York Times reports the assault on Fallujah has begun.

Whatever else happens, this much is clear: with every tactical victory in Iraq, we will suffer a strategic defeat. The real problem is that the Iraqis don't want us around--and how can you disagree? Reports of upwards of 100,000 deaths attributed to the conflict, the Abu Ghraib abuses, the complete breakdown of what was already a shaky civil society...and now you've got the very distinct possibility of an entire city being razed to the ground.

We'll see what happens in terms of overall destruction--it's possible the insurgents will simply cede Fallujah and move elsewhere, like they did in Samarra earlier this year. Otherwise, welcome to a miniature version of a 21st Century Stalingrad--in the desert.

I don't doubt the United States can score a tactical victory, and they might even do so with a minimum of US casualties. But war is a bloody business. The death toll will be high among civilians, i.e., the people we were supposedly liberating--and then what happens after we win? If we stay, welcome to truck bomb derby. If we leave, then what the hell is the point?

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."