So you thought that the Shiite would just hang around and fight the Americans in an open battle and get slaughtered on the streets of Baghdad? It took me about 3 minutes after Bush's speech to figure out what the Mahdi Army would do..either move to a different area, or melt into the crowd and become invisible to any American soldier.
The question is whether the US military can come up with a counter to the Mahdi strategy and trap these bad guys while they are resting comfortably. Guerrilla warfare has always been about who can adapt best to changing conditions. The normal "command structured" modern military (like the US) cannot adopt...which is why we are loosing. I wonder if any US general has thought about what will happen when 20,000 new troops are in Baghdad, but none of the enemy is around to fight? One might hope they would thought about it -- I'll bet no one has or will. Individual initiative in the military can ruin careers!
