The Americans say that one way or the other, Iraqis must learn to police their own cities. If the citizens won't do it, the Americans will find Iraqis who will. |
Posted on 04/30/2004 3:59:59 PM PDT by saquin
FALLUJAH, Iraq ---- A dozen former Iraqi generals and intelligence officers met Friday with U.S. military leaders and pledged to lead a brigade of 1,000 Iraqi soldiers to replace the Marines fortifying the city's borders.
But U.S. military officials cautioned that the arrival of the Iraqi forces in this embattled city, possibly as early as today, does not necessarily mean peace.
"They are still doing some planning on how to do a transition from U.S. forces to Iraqi security forces in Fallujah," Marine Col. John Toolan said Friday, choosing his words carefully while describing the new arrangement that other officials Friday called "delicate."
"I've been saying all along that this was all about leadership," Toolan said following a 30-minute meeting with the ex-military leaders of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "And, finally, we've got someone stepping up."
That someone is Staff Gen. Jasim Muhammed Salah, who will lead the newly formed 1st Battalion of the Fallujah Protection Brigade.
Salah said his brigade, which seemed to come out of nowhere over the course of the last week, is part of the "new Army of Iraq."
"We are very happy [to] cooperate with the Marines and Army," he said.
After shaking Salah's hand and telling him they would speak again soon, Toolan said the brief meeting was meant to confirm the Iraqis' commitment to taking over the cordon around Fallujah, which thousands of Marines shed blood to establish and fought hard to hold for nearly a month.
Toolan said he was confident in the generals and their forces, but he refused say when the troops would be in the city or when the Marines would pull back, though some troops started packing Friday.
Even while the generals talked of today's operations and reporters bantered about the sudden outbreak of peace in Fallujah, fighting continued Friday along the city's troublesome northern and western regions along the Euphrates River.
Exploding mortars, probably the same 82 mm shells that insurgents have volleyed at Marines day after day, crashed to the ground where Marine patrols have ventured in the last week.
A 15-minute firefight raged near the old bridge over the Euphrates near where four American security contractors were slain on March 31. Heavy machine guns ripped away furiously for so long that Marine gunners across the river commented that their barrels were probably melting.
And late Friday afternoon, mosques broadcast military marches advocating jihad and speakers called Fallujah the "city of heroes" for battling the Marines.
Marine leaders in the field urged their men not to let their guards down, even though it looked like they would soon be pulling back.
Toolan said the arrival of Iraqi forces does not guarantee peace.
"It still remains a concern that not all the cells operating in the city are buying into their effort," Toolan said of continued fighting Thursday afternoon and night.
He and other officials said there was still much talking to do before taking action.
According to a draft statement issued Friday by I Marine Expeditionary Force officials in Fallujah, the new Iraqi force will work with the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and Iraqi Police to replace the Marines at checkpoints and strategic points along the cordon around Fallujah.
"The mission of the battalion will be to assist in returning peace and stability to the city of Fallujah, facilitate the flow of support, and foster the rapid reconstruction and employment of citizens inside the city," the statement read.
The arrangement was touted as a "new model of cooperation" that recognized the "security of Al Anbar (province) will ultimately be an Iraqi responsibility. This will be an important step in the transition from Coalition to Iraqi authority."
While the sudden development of an Iraqi force to take over Fallujah may have surprised some on the ground, where Marines have said for weeks they were ready and poised to crush the thousand or more insurgents dug in the city at all cost, there was a growing realization among Marines and their leaders that a victory in Fallujah would have to have an Iraqi face.
"The way I look at it, it had to happen this way," said Lt. Josh Jamison, the young leader of Fox Company's 2nd Platoon, the first infantry platoon to lose a Marine during the initial cordon on April 5 and the first to fight its way into the city from the northwest on April 6.
"We could have attacked them and killed them all ---- and, believe me, all my boys are still ready and capable of doing it," Jamison said Friday after being shown on a map the town some 10 miles from Fallujah where his 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment would soon pull back to. "And Fallujah would pretty much be in rubble. What would we have then?"
Security in Fallujah has to be something the Iraqis do for themselves, Jamison said, adding the Marines would not be too far off if the new Iraqi forces needed help.
"This is really good because we're not really going anywhere," he said. "We're still right here. So if they mess it up or if the Iraqis need us, we're more than ready to come finish the job. I think the people of Fallujah believe that now."
Other troops occupying hard-won positions in the city at first seemed to treat the news that they might be pulling out in a matter of days with some natural skepticism. Plans change every day, they say; besides, insurgents were still shooting at them.
But by Friday evening, many seemed encouraged by the news.
"I still think we should push forward," said Lance Cpl. Ayron Kull, 20, of Niles, Mich., who was just coming off a shift monitoring the late-afternoon firefight in the city Friday.
"But maybe it's good. Let's give the Iraqis a chance. Maybe they can do it and we won't have to come back here and start all over again."
How many times have you typed this stinking line today? Do you have it cut so you can simply paste it? Get a life. I have stock in Italian companies...how can I do that from 6,000 miles away < /goofy laugh>
Stop stealing what you hear other people post on other threads. Isn't that plagurism?
I picture a little girl in the "I know you are but what am I" voice.
First of all, what's plagurism?
Second, repeating something that I read earlier on FR(Patton had former nazi miltary in positions of authority in occupied Germany) is not plagarism, but conveying what is a historical fact.
Apparently you missed everything else on those posts. It was also said that this was after we bombed german cities, civilians and military into the stone age. Guess you overlooked that point. We did it in Japan too, remember that?
That is historical fact also, just like Patton using former nazi military in the occupation.
Whew you armchair generals are a testy and nasty lot, IMO.
The Americans say that one way or the other, Iraqis must learn to police their own cities. If the citizens won't do it, the Americans will find Iraqis who will. |
You have been using that one all day long too. You must bore your husband to tears.
Very revealing with your words there. First you instictively use the liberal perjorative "chicken hawk". I notice that you have been on FR for a month and your posts today were basically doom and gloom about how our forces were surrendering and such.
JMO, I think you are a liberal trying to stir up dissention.
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I dunno, there's an angle to this that I sorta like.