I think if there is going to be a fight for the city, it probably

[Joe for Clark]

started already. No troop surge necessary to fight this. Not if we were to bleed off strength from the outlying areas. Anyway, our fight is in the city at the end of the day. Our fight is to impose control on the damn city - one way or the other. Not one militia over the other-control of the city.

I have not seen anything on the internet news I watch to support this view today. Nothing. Dead quiet. And I would sure love to be wrong. Not what my gut says, though.

Kind of strange the way the US seems to be fighting battles near Christmas time - from the Revolution to the Bulge, I suppose.

That is what I think, anyway.

Joe

[Kelly Rupert]

1. You mean a fight for control of Baghdad?

That's been going on ever since the al-Askariya bombing.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. Longer than that, they never have controlled

large parts of it

[Kelly Rupert]

4. Yeah, but there wasn't a fight for control of it

in the same sense. After the Golden Mosque was destroyed, things rapidly became Sunni Control vs Shi'a Control vs US Control.

[Joe for Clark]

3. Yeah.

Maybe more intense.

Maye a lot more intense.

Joe