Not ready to roll over

Facing a major assault in Fallujah, insurgents struck back Saturday with suicide car bombs, mortars and rockets across a wide swath of central Iraq, killing over 30 people and wounding more than 60 others, including two dozen Americans.

The attacks could have been aimed at relieving pressure on Fallujah, where about 10,000 American troops are massing for a major assault. U.S. jets pounded Fallujah early Saturday in the heaviest airstrikes in six months - including five 500-pound bombs dropped on insurgent targets.

The deadliest attacks Saturday occurred in Samarra, a city 60 miles north of Baghdad that U.S. and Iraqi commanders have touted as model for pacifying restive Sunni Muslim areas of the country.

Yahoo article

Ooops. They actually have battle skills enough to plan and pull coalition forces in several directions at once? And, oops. The model is misbehaving? Oh, gee. Could it be that maybe the Iraqi "insurgents" really are defending their country from an invader.

And maybe, just maybe, they are not going to be "pacified" short of the grave. And then what? If foreign fighters are truly in Iraq in large numbers, maybe, just maybe, it's because they are there to help the Iraqis defend their country, and there will be no end to the numbers of people who will have to be "pacified". You think that's possible?

You think Americans are going to give a rat's ass? Well, I don't. In fact, I think if we take a vote, it will be 51% in favor of bombing the whole Middle East to rubble, and please don't leave any people alive.

Oh, wait. A woman told me today about a co-worker of hers (she's from Kansas) - a good Christian educator, about to retire - who voiced the opinion that maybe we should just drop nuclear bombs on the entire country of Iraq. When questioned, she said that maybe we should get the "good" people out first. This woman is educating Kansas' children. There's your future for you.

U.S. military vehicles roamed through the besieged city using loudspeakers to announce an indefinite curfew starting at 2 p.m. Saturday. American warplanes and helicopters roamed the skies.

Because they are safe in their houses? Because they have plenty of provisions to hold up indefinitely? You figure it out.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Update 2:00pm:

As U.S. forces prepared for the offensive, warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on several targets in [Falluja] early today. U.S. authorities identified the targets as a factory and suspected weapons caches. Residents claimed that a small Saudi-funded hospital and a warehouse for medical supplies were hit, along with dozens of houses. The bombing was reported to be the heaviest in months.

  WaPo article

It is simply bullshit that they are still dropping bombs on factories and weapons caches. We have been bombing the crap out of Falluja for over a year. There can't possibly be any factories left.