"Hearts and Minds" and the al-Ishaqi raid

How long has it been since you've heard the phrase "Hearts and minds "from this administration? I guess that battle, the real battle, can be more easily pushed under the rug because it doesn't cause the visibly apparent lumps that piles of bodies do.

I mention "hearts and minds" today because there is a prime example of the action/counterreaction nature of the Iraq conflict. Yesterday, US special ops ("There are some units we don't talk about...") conducted an attack within the Sunni village of al-Ishaqi killing "20 alleged "Al-Qaeda terrorists", including two women."

Today, the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, al Dhari's group, came out with claims that the majority of the dead were civilians.

Frankly, I don't know what the truth is, but I think it sums up the the impossibility of the Iraq situation. How do you "go after" violent Sunni groups in Sunni territory while winning hearts and minds? How do you "go after" Shia groups in their strongholds without creating more hostility?

(This is also the raid that prompted the military spokesman to say, "If there is a weapon with or next to the person or they are holding it, they are a terrorist.")

Also, while I'm venting, another form of violence that is getting seriously downplayed is the neighborhood to neighborhood mortar fire. The language around it is very minimizing, "lobbing" mortars, "mortar wars," but the reality is that alot of people are dying in these attacks.

Yesterday, 25 people died in one "volley" of mortars fired into a Shia neighborhood.