Abu Ghraid has become a terrorist rest stop between missions

Victor Davis Hanson:

Not long ago Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, an authentic American hero, was shot three times and wounded in Mosul, Iraq, as he led his men into a terrorist enclave.
The jihadist who shot him survived and was given first-rate American medical care for his wounds. It turns out the terrorist was captured earlier in December 2004, on suspicion of being involved in a deadly suicide attack on an American base. Then he was turned over to the Iraqis, sent to the notorious Abu Ghraib jail and released. Once free, he returned to killing Americans and his rendezvous with Col. Kurilla.
For bickering Americans back home, Abu Ghraib is a "Stalag," but for the terrorists it's apparently a rest stop before resuming their hunt for Americans.
This recent incident once more reflects how confused we are in the West over the proper way to obtain the needed ends. While we worry we have gone too far in our harshness, our enemies are convinced our softness has us too far gone to win this war.
This fight is quite different from past conflicts. The jihadists have no uniforms. Their first, not last, resort is terrorism. They know they cannot win unless they murder and demoralize civilians, preferably in the U.S., as we saw September 11, 2001.
The enemy camoflages himself as a civilian because he is too weak to fight in uniform. His primary weapon is mostly ineffective and passive. He plants between 900 and 1500 IED's a month and yield 20 to 30 US KIA's most months. Anyone who thinks this minority of a minority is winning when he is also being fiercly fought by Iraqi Sunni tribes, just does not know much about military operations or they are desperate to lose for political reasons.

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