No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

Was Fallujah a Success or Failure?

Why did the US attack Fallujah? Sure the city was being used as a protected area for the insurgents to prepare car bombs and improvised explosive devices (IED’s) for attacking the Coalition Forces and the Iraqi police and military forces, but that wasn’t enough to cause the US to attack before the US Presidential election. The reason given was that an out-of-control Fallujah threatened the validity of the Iraqi elections planned for January.

So the US attacked Fallujah and now has it under military control Has it worked?

Juan Cole doesn’t think so:

Whatever the military rights or wrongs, the political judgment on the Fallujah campaign is easy. It was supposed to make holding elections possible in the Sunni Arab heartland. Instead, it has certainly further alienated the Sunni Arabs and made it more likely that they will boycott the elections en masse. If the Sunni Arabs remain angry and sullen in this way, Fallujah will have been a political failure.

We can only hope that the Bush administration is fighting the real war on terror more effectively than they are handling the insurgency in Iraq.