The families of those 20,000 injured and dead GIs. Too bad none of them are in office.

Posted by: Pyrrho | Oct 8 2005 22:37 utc | 4

Given the much greater firepower available to American forces, and their lax rules of engagement grounded in the US military’s obsession with force protection, it is probable that the ratio is significantly higher than 1:1 in the US’ favor.
When the definitive history of the Iraq debacle is finally written one of the central questions with which it must come to terms is how the armed forces that crushed Saddam in six weeks and which the historical illiterati proclaimed to be “the greatest fighting force in the history of the world” went on to suffer America’s greatest defeat since Vietnam. To a large extent that story begins and ends with the unwillingness of America’s elites to acknoweldge the human cost to Iraq of the policies they have imposed on it.

Posted by: Lexington | Oct 9 2005 3:53 utc | 6

A week before that omnious constitution vote in Iraq this is ridicules:
Bargain Sought on Iraqi Charter A Week Ahead of Historic Vote

One week before Iraqis vote on a constitution intended to remake their nation, U.S. and Arab diplomats are scrambling to broker last-minute concessions from Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish faction leaders that would persuade the Sunni Arab minority to drop its opposition to the proposed charter and defuse the country’s Sunni-led insurgency.
Saudi Arabian and Jordanian officials, at the urging of U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, have called on Sunni politicians in Iraq to stick with negotiations until Monday, Iraqi and U.S. officials said. Iraqi lawmakers say Monday is the last possible date for bargaining over the language of the constitution, which will be put to voters next Saturday. Ballots are already being printed at a plant in Europe, and the first of millions of copies of the proposed constitution have been distributed across Iraq.
…
Some U.S. officials say they hope Sunni turnout will be large enough to give legitimacy to the referendum but too weak to defeat the constitution. Some officials say that having to begin the constitution-drafting process all over again would only worsen instability and push back the possible withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Others, including Gen. George Casey, head of U.S. forces in Iraq, say settling on a compact that shuts out the Sunnis would do the same.

But it doesn´t matter – the vote will change nothing.

Posted by: b | Oct 9 2005 8:46 utc | 8

It seems to me that tagging a # on the “insurgents” is somewhat pointless – it’s an assumption that they Iraqi resistance is playing by something relating to the normal rules of war where two armies are tossed out in uniform and shoot at one another til one of them runs away. I would guess that the number of insurgents predicted by the US military of 20,000 is something close to correct, in terms of there being a much smaller number of men whose job, as it were, is to travel around Iraq trying to kill American soldiers. (20K is still probably low, but 40 or 50K seem entirely reasonable).
The problem is, in order to fight those few dedicated insurgents, the US has to fight dirty in urban areas, basically guaranteeing new recruits. In addition to that, there’s probably a huge amount of the population with is sympathetic, to some degree or another, to the insurgents. Whether it be joining in gunfights when the opportunity arrives, or turning a blind eye when something is being planned…well, I wouldn’t be surprised if that form of insurgents was closer to the millions than the tens of thousands.

Posted by: Rowan | Oct 10 2005 17:18 utc | 10