Hello Raoul -

I don't know how you analyze it, but...

Helicopter air attacks have fewer initial casualties than ground assault. While this is always important, it is particularly important in an election cycle.

Unfortunately, a side effect of helicopter air assaults is the loss of innocent civilians, which aids guerilla recruitment. In effect, it appears that helicopter air attacks may (and that is a big "may") produce more guerrilas than they take out.

For Israel, this has little consequence, given the environment and possibly their ultimate strategic goals. In Iraq, the effects of this result are different, given the US goal.

I expect a shift to ground assaults by Iraqi troops once they are trained and eqiupped.

ep