THE FIGHT FOR FALLUJAH

U.S. Marines and Army soldiers are now engaged in the most important battle so far in the war on terrorism. The Afghanistan campaign, now that elections have taken place in a peaceful manner, is largely over. But the Iraq campaign continues, and may have reached a decisive moment. Last April the Marines had a chance to destroy the insurgency in Fallujah, and perhaps deal a decisive blow against the insurgency in the entire Sunni Triangle. They were denied that opportunity for political reasons by U.S. and Iraqi leaders. Now the time has come to crush the insurgency, and it appears to me that the Iraqi interim government is seriously committed to that end and is willing, therefore, to unleash all the power of the U.S. military toward that end.

LTC (ret.) Ralph Peters is one columnist who has consistently recognized the nature of the fight in Iraq. With operations begun in Fallujah, he believes the time has come to make this a quick and decisive victory.

Now we need to finish the job swiftly, no matter the cost in death and destruction, before the will of our civilian leaders weakens again. Stopping even one building short of the annihilation of the terrorists and insurgents would be a defeat. Al-Jazeera will pull out the propaganda stops, inventing American atrocities. The BBC will pressure Tony Blair to rein in our president. Iraqi faction leaders will press Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to accept a cease-fire for "talks." The weight of the free world is on the shoulders of our Marines and soldiers and on the backs of our Iraqi allies. They've got to wrap up major operations in a week.

I agree. Deal a devastating blow to the insurgents. Make them come out for a stand up fight, and annihilate them. If they disperse to other towns, follow them and kill them. If it is necessary to repeat this operation in other towns in the Sunni Triangle, do so until the job is done. It is impossible to justify the sacrifice of even one U.S. soldier or Marine unless we are prepared to fight our way to total victory. That means, in this case, the creation of a relatively free, relatively stable, relatively prosperous and relatively pro-American Iraq. The existence of a pluralistic, democratic Arab nation in the center of the Middle East will do more to ensure our final victory in the war on terror than anything else we could possibly do.