Operation in Iraq.

The news is all abuzz with the operation centered on Haditha & Rawa in Iraq.

The reports make it sound as if the fighting has just started but others think this operation has been going for sometime. The death of 21 marines brought the attention to what is going on.

Bill Roggio blogs about why this fight is going on. Why? Simply Rawa (one of the contested villages in this fight) sits on or near some important highways and bridges the Euphrates River. These highways allow quick transit from Syria to Baghdad and Mosul.

Highway control is important, especially for terrorists on the move. They can obviously move overland but it would take longer to get places and it certainly would take much longer to haul supplies. Even highly mobile and mechanized armies prefer roads.

Now, one last thing needs elaboration. Recall the death of the fourteen marines the other day. They were in an amphibious vehicle. Why? So they could get cross the river:

There are only a few bridges across the Euphrates between the Syrian border and Haditha ... even fewer of the bridges are substantial enough to allow coalition forces to safely move armored vehicles from one side of the Euphrates to the other.

Source: The Belmont Club - The Battle for the Border The marines were in an amphibious vehicle for a reason.

Some pinhead on the Clinton News Network (CNN) was pushing a military analyst about needing to uparmor the vehicle the marines were killed in. There was absolutely no context given now I have given it.

Updates
Friday August 5, 2005. Notice the date of Mr. Roggio's post: July 20.