I thought we won in Falluja?

Here is a quote from Donald Rumsfeld dated November 9, 2004. This was when 2,000 Iraqi troops and 10,000 of our troops attacked,

“Success in Falluja will deal a blow to the terrorists in the country and should move Iraq further away from a future of violence to one of freedom and opportunity for the Iraqi people.”

“The Battle for Falluja was critical for the success of the U.S led War on Terror.”

In light of the attacks yesterday, and the fact that this speech was made over a year ago, is it any wonder why myself and many others see very little in the way of progress?

It seems we are hitting the popping monkey and chasing the insurgents around the country but is it a viable strategy? It seems we are going in circles. We destroy Falluja, remove all the insurgents and leave to chase somewhere else, then they counter attack. It’s no wonder many of us feel we are chasing ghosts and fighting an endless battle.

Just an observation.

You aren’t in the military, are you?

While your questions are completely valid regarding strategy, especially given only public domain information, you stretch way too far in connecting the dots you’ve connected.

Using the same logic you’ve applied here, we should have pulled out of WWII when the Germans managed the huge Battle of the Bulge offensive…CLEARLY our strategy hadn’t and wasn’t going to work at that point…or not…

Remember…tactical and even operational success does NOT guarantee strategic success…the insurgents are going to win lots of cheap battles with the tactics they employ…you simply can’t conclude they are going to win the strategic conflict.

Or maybe you’d rather refer to Vietnam…where we won nearly every battle, and had huge operational successes…but we lost the strategic conflict in the end, didn’t we…