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Source: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/22307.htm
The Road to Iraq's Riots: Paying for Weakness
(New York Post) Ralph Peters - In the Middle East, appearances are all. Americans value compromise; our enemies view it as weakness. We're reluctant to use force. The terrorists and insurgents read that as cowardice. Sadr's militia should have been disarmed and disbanded in the earliest days of the occupation. Sadr himself should have been arrested for his inflammatory preaching. Now we face a much greater threat than we'd have faced had we acted firmly last year. We set a precedent of timidity. On the day of the ambush and mutilations in Fallujah, we failed to respond immediately. We viewed our non-response as disciplined - rejecting instant emotional gratification. But the insurgents, the terrorists, and the mob received the impression that we were scared, thus encouraging more attacks.