when you invade a hostile country. Look at what happened all over the place in WWII. As the invading power moved through or even settled in, partisan activity sprang up just about everywhere, both in Europe and in the Pacific, despite overwhelming force.

In the Philippines and many other Asian nations, guerrillas fought against the Japanese invaders for years. All across occupied Europe, resistance movements sprang up, especially in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Some of these partisan outfits numbered in the thousands. They did a lot of damage to the enemy's supply lines. Even in the Battle of the Bulge, German agents dressed as Americans fought in our rear areas and caused a lot of mischief before they were stopped.

In this war, we are the invader. We have to know that those most closely allied with Saddam's rule will do everything possible to resist us. Many of them got special perks for being Saddam's local henchmen. They know that when Saddam falls, they're likely to end up against a wall or swinging by their necks.

Saddam's Republican Guard is being attritted day by day. They have to concentrate their forces if they're going to effectively attack us or defend against our attacks. If they stay where they are, they get attacked by B-52s, Apaches, and A-10s. If they move, they're spotted by JSTARS and they get attacked even more, a true "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition for them. In the meantime, the most radical of their number are performing a Darwinean service for us. Those bent on suicide (or suicidal attacks) are being culled from the herd fairly quickly. I read a story on the NY Times website yesterday about a big attack against an Army unit where the Iraqis were armed with little more than AK-47s. They were slaughtered. The sergeant being interviewed said, "It wasn't suicidal, it was just stupid." It was a good article. I'll link it if I can find it again.

It almost makes me wonder if that was a big part of the plan - invade, take a lot of territory, dig in and reinforce, and draw the enemy out where they can be destroyed. Last week when the news broke a story that 1,000 vehicles were moving towards our Marines' position, I was hoping the story was true. Getting that force out in the open would've made them a lot easier to destroy, with the side benefit of having very few civilians get in the way.