Fallujah

Robert Kaplan writes an intersting account of the actions in Fallujah. Read the whole thing as they say. He also offers some perspective of how public relations affects what is happening on the ground. After detailing what had tactically happened he writes:

But none of the above matters if it is not competently explained to the American public--for the home front is more critical in a counterinsurgency than in any other kind of war. Yet the meticulous planning process undertaken by the Marines at the tactical level for assaulting Fallujah was not augmented with a similarly meticulous process by the Bush administration at the strategic level for counteracting the easily foreseen media fallout from fighting in civilian areas near Muslim religious sites. The public was never made to feel just how much of a military threat the mosques in Fallujah represented, just how far Marines went to avoid damage to them and to civilians, and just how much those same Marine battalions accomplished after departing Fallujah.

I agree with this assessment. In fact my biggest complaint against the Bush administration's handling of the war is how poorly it has communicated the realities in Iraq to the public. The information is out there but it is time consuming to find and the major media are either unable or unwilling to present the full story. I don't think the administration should lie or 'spin' to get its desired message out, but I do think that there is a lot of facts that support the assertion that we are winning in Iraq.