Quote:
Originally Posted by Shek
Is it a military failure when you have seized the physical objectives at the end of the fight and achieve your political objective? I agree that it didn't showcase Iraqi military independence, but I think we should be careful of decoupling the political from the military.
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I think Shek is dead on here. This was not an Iraqi military failure by any means. They managed to move a large number of forces and achieve their objectives. It wasn't perfect, but it's a great step forward for their organization. Of note here is that they did the majority of the fighting. It's a far cry from the units who ran away when brought to Fallujah a few years back.