Seriously though, I'm starting to think the insurgency has more to do with how few people we've blown up, not how many. They didn't have problems like this in the Soviet Union, our good buddy Saddam didn't have problems with terrorists. Someone tried to shoot him, he rounded up 200 men from the town and killed them. Our troops don't instill fear in the populace, the terrorists/insurgents/freedom fighters/martyrs do. People are ruled by fear.
Hell, let's adopt a new policy...everytime one of ours dies, we'll round up 100 people and shoot them. "they put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue."
I'm being sarcastic of course, I don't want innocent people to die, I truly don't. I just don't understand exactly what we're doing there right now. Our guys aren't involved in any major operations for the most part, they're moving targets! Like our patrols, what are we patrolling for? The Iraqi civilians don't feel safer when our guys roll through, they get the hell out of the area, and I don't blame them.
It's so frustrating...I've been talking to my friend's cousin who just got back. And he was explaining how hard it is to "accomplish" anything when you're trying to be on a moral high ground in relation to the enemy, trying to avoid civilian deaths when the enemy can use their tactics of fear over the population successfully.
/rant