Quote:
Originally posted by DRMatus
I've got news for you; Fallujah was neither a "cultural" nor "religious" center. Fallujah was a Sh#t hole with a majority population of criminals long before we invaded in 2003. Most of western Iraq was an unruly wasteland. Most Iraqis agree that Fallujah was always a bad place. Look at the number of weapon caches and IEDs that were found. The innocent Fallujah residents were forced out by insurgents, not by the U.S military
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Well, I would say that a city of several hundred thousand has some culture, and it is known as the "City of Mosques" so appearantly there was some religion at some time
Also I highly doubt the majority were criminals. A town with several hundred thousand criminals must have a pretty nasty bar scene, if only Muslims drank
You seem to be missing the point entirely.
The razing of Fallujah does come at a cost. US casualties, negative PR in the Islamic world, negative PR in Iraq as well as those that directly suffer and the cost to rebuild. This negative must be weighed against potential benefit...i.e. killing bad guys. I'm not saying we shouldn't have done it, but the negative must be weighed.
Again, from what I've read...we didn't necessarily kill/capture many real terrorists, but more local insurgents. The success of the mission should be based in this context. Not just one of death and destruction.
-spence