That's basic, known to absolutely everyone. Can't be argued.

You say they're intimidated, coerced into cooperating with the insurgency. They're like the South Vietnamese. They cooperate with whoever is pointing guns at them, and when no one is they cooperate with their friends and neighbors.

Think. Who are they going to support, their friends and neighbors, or a foreign occupying force from 8,000 miles away who has gratuitously invaded them, taken over Abu Ghraib, shot 'em up at will, and wants their oil? Who worked very hard to starve them to death for the 12 years prior to the invasion?

'Cause that's the view of the Iraqis. Except when they have guns pointed at them. Then they do what you and I would do, which is to say whatever the hell would get me back to my friends and family.

Your points simply undo themselves. Come apart at the seams. Collapse. If one read them in a comic book one might give the author the benefit of the doubt, just to keep reading. But they ignore a very basic truism - an insurgency needs the support of the people.

That's all just plain obvious. And very simple.

Arf