A rough and incomplete draft

Jack Kelly’s column in the Wasington Times (apparently not available online) reports on the major campaign (“Operation Quick Strike”) being waged by U.S. and Iraqi forces. This offensive, the biggest since the fall of Fallujah, has us striking simultaneously at insurgent strongholds along the Tigris and Euphrates “ratlines” through which al Qaeda terrorists infiltrate from Syria. According to Kelly, the only major news organization that has had anything much to say about this operation is the Los Angeles Times, which discussed it towards the end of a story about U.S. casualties.
Have you ever read a history of war that focused almost entirely on casualty figures (with an occasional torture story and grieving parent thrown in), to the exclusion of any real discussion of tactics, operations, and actual battles? I haven’t. But that’s what our self-proclaimed “rough drafters” of history are serving up with respect to Iraq.
SCOTT adds: Our friend Mac Owens also discussed the current offensive in a New York Post column that is available online: “Behind the casualties.” David Reedy also reminds us of Wretchard’s posts on this subject at Belmont Club (here and here).

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