The Collapse

Once again, Wretchard is providing riveting analysis of events in Fallujah (and the peripheral skirmishes), piecing together reports from imbedded journalists and placing them against a background of coherent military analysis and context.

The enemy withdrawals have sometimes been explained by suggesting that the enemy is suckering in US forces into a trap. But this is impossible. Their backs are to the river and the Marines are across that. Every retrograde movement compresses the enemy into a smaller area and forces them to leave behind prepared positions painstakingly stockpiled with food, batteries and ammo. Running backward with wounded, they can’t carry much ammunition and won’t find any unless a prepared position is already available. And how does anyone stand fast in the face of the otherworldly violence of the American onslaught?

If you’re new to the Belmont Club, be forewarned – the inevitable fallout of reading Wretchard is that you spend a lot more wasted effort yelling back at the radio and TV “news”.
Addendum This observation from Lileks;

Paul Harvey, of all people, noted that the hard phase of the battle would involve house-to-house combat, “just like Vietnam.” Sigh. It’s now the all-purpose metaphor. There could be a war on the moon with armies on dune buggies launching crossbows at each other, and someone would pronounce it a repeat of a disastrous battle in the Mekong Delta. But he’d be 108 years old, the last boomer, a brittle old survivor – not the Greatest Generation but the Generation that Grates, determined that any conflict should be seen through the prism of his youth with “White Rabbit” playing in the background. Times have changed. It’s FLIR and Kid
Rock now, I think. Stay tuned, and keep them in your thoughts.
The Marines, I mean.