> Horrible. But just to be clear, this isn't shock and awe. This is old
> fashioned horrible war, the taking of a city.
I thought that shock and awe was Osama's tactic. Look how wonderfully well it has worked to demobilise the US Army. To win wars, you blow up useful things and people. Museums, hotels, TV stations and other targets of opportunism might be things Americans can't live with, but a desperate bunch of people teetering on having their country taken over by hostile, and for all they know, lethal foreign forces can live and fight without some of the nicer things in life. Which leads me to think that either the US Army just doesn't learn its lessons, or they are lying. I don't know which one to hope for.
As for cutting the water supply to Basra, lovely to see the US reverting to German WWII tactics. While it will probably work, since the Shia aren't very motivated to defend Saddam, it could well backfire. This sort of targetting of the civilian population to force a rebellion or capitulation - this is really an extreme extension of the sanctions regime, which only strengthened Saddam's hand. If cholera breaks out, it is difficult to see the US escaping blame for it.
Thiago Oppermann
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