Seek and Destroy...

The L.A. Times reports, U.S. Military Responding More Fiercely to Iraqi Guerrilla Strikes, in which John Daniszewski and Patrick McDonnell tell of a recent incident in which a suspected terrorist safe house was bombed: "U.S. military authorities said the bombing... was a prime example of a firm new response to those who plant roadside bombs, hide weapons or carry out ambushes that kill or harm American soldiers, and they want the people in these parts to know about it. It was the third fixed-wing bombing in a week across Iraq, pointing up a re-escalation of the war by the U.S. in response to heightened insurgency. "The message is this: If you shoot at an American or a coalition force member, you are going to be killed or you are going to be captured, and if we trace somebody back to a specific safe house, we are going to destroy that facility," said Maj. Lou Zeisman, a paratroop officer of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division deployed here from Fayetteville, N.C. "We are not going to take these continuous attacks."" I doubt the message Zeisman refers to will get through to the fanatics still causing problems, but offensive operations such as these will certainly help to weed them out.