Military Commanders’ Decisions in Fallujah Overridden by Politicians (CONFIRMED)

Fox Live Broadcast / USA Today Interview ^ | 5/3/04 | Jim Michaels

[elfman2]

Freepers have been hotly debating whether politicians or military commanders made the decision to cancel the Fallujahn offensive.

Today Fox News Live’s Jon Scott (I believe) interviewed Jim Michaels (USA Today Reporter) just back from Fallujah. I transcribed the relevant portion of the interview. In summary he said that the Marines were told to stop the attack by Administrator Bremer under pressure from the Iraqi Governing Council.

MICHAELS – “No one [in the Marines] was happy with the cease fire. The American contractors were killed.

“They got the order to go in, as we know, on a big offensive. They were in the offensive for whatever, seven or eight days and boom the politicians said no, hold back, there’s too many casualties.

“The governing council, the Iraqi governing council, was really upset. They went to Mr. Bremer. Mr. Bremer in turn sort ‘a put in the order to hold back.

“While they were in this cease fire meanwhile the insurgents were in there, the insurgents were in there rearming re-supplying you know, taking advantage of of the lull in activities, so they were in a real bind here, and they really had no choice, they say, except to come up with the idea for a Fallujah Brigade.

“Otherwise these guys would still be in there and the ceasefire would still be going on, and these talks that they were having were going nowhere. The sheiks (sp?) were just kind ‘a sipping tea with coalition officials and were nowhere, It was just getting nowhere at all. “

SCOTT –“So very quickly Jim, Do the bad folks in Fallujah think that they’ve won?”

MICHAELS – “They do indeed! They’re running around the past couple of days, celebrating and saying you know that they’ve fought things to a stand still. They’re really taking a propaganda victory out of this. “

“They’re really running around saying, you know, they fought the American forces to a standstill. You know they’re pushing it for all it’s worth.”

SCOTT –“So how does that effect their overall strategy to win the hearts and minds of the the Iraqis - the fact that they’re claiming a victory in Fallujah?

MICHAELS – Well pol… It doesn’t help. And it’s one of the biggest fears that the Marines have is that a week, 10 days down the road, this things going to continue to snowball, and and these guys are going to claim victory, and it presents a BIG propaganda problem for the American forces there. It its a big risk.

"The Marines said that they had no choice, that they were in a stand off and the ceasefire whas going nowhere."

[elfman2]

No statements by General Abizaid, Kimmitt or Conway contradict this. Their statements need to be read carefully and are either very vague or irrelevant to “who” decided to stop the attack.

The military is of course always subservient to political objectives, but halting the attack on Fallujah like this is indicative of the crippling restrictions behind tragedies in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia.

Bush is of course principled, but one of his principles is to compromise to whatever degree necessary to claim some positive results when the outcome is not certain.

I think Americans did not struggle and suffer and die in Iraq for the president to compromise.

Some claim that a greater objective is served by this, and others call that a convenient explanation for our political weakness in kicking the knees out from under our Marines in full charge.

Some claim that we can restart the Fallujahn offensive if the Fallujahn Brigade fails. Others say it’s much more difficult now, unlikely, and the damage has been done.

Either way, we now have un-contradicted information on who made the decision to halt the attack on Fallujah.

[elfman2]

“As Falluja goes, so goes central Iraq, as central Iraq goes, so goes the nation," - Colonel John Coleman, chief of staff of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force

[The Bandit]

Politics is what killed over 50,000 soldiers in VN.

[swarthyguy]

Between Falluja and the burgeoning prison scandal, we have a problem, Houston.

[adam_az]

Oh sh*t. :(

[TomGuy]

There were too many conflicting reports about Fallujah the last few days for it NOT to be political. Too many, who should have, seemed to not know what was going on.

History teaches....but politicans never seem to learn.

[ARCADIA]

Nothing to see here. It is just Bush, Kerry, and the rest of the gang playing politics with the lives of our men.

[mrsmith]

"A reporter said so!"

Well, gee. Can't argue with a sacred reporter, especially a USA Today one- they're as unimpeachable as NYTimes reporters!

But, seriously.

Bremer makes the calls. That's his job.
I doubt he overrode any high Marine. They know what the mission is, to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis.

[Robert_Paulson2]

yup

screwed the pooch, bigtime, it appears.

[My2Cents]

Seems simple: We were prepared to go in, guns blazing. The Iraqi Governing Council had reservations about that. In deference to the Council, we backed off a major offensive. Why is there a fuss about the reality that any option in Iraq is difficult, complex, and has many ramifications? It's easy to sit in front of a computer on FreeRepublic and argue that we should flatten the miserable place. We have to trust to our leaders to figure out how to balance our military advantage with the diplomatic considerations.

[TheLion]

I thought Bush was going to let the military take care of things. So much for that. Politics and the conduct of war are an unfortunate by-product of our way of life.

The military might not have given the real decision makers the right info on what would happen, given certain choices. We may eventually find out.

[lentulusgracchus]

Between Falluja and the burgeoning prison scandal, we have a problem, Houston.

The latter is CBS News and Sy Hersh slipping in the knife. I wonder if Sy got off when the knife went in. It's so Vietnam-era. He hasn't got any Communist Empire to pledge allegiance to anymore, but he can still work for Communism in America.

What a bunch of comrades.

[Last Dakotan]

Meanwhile in Najaf, we are still negotiating the terms of our surrender.

[LibWhacker]

This should help drive the final nail into that silly, silly argument I saw repeated here ad infinitum that the naysayers couldn't possibly know as much as the "commanders on the ground" and had no business criticizing them.

[Eurotwit]

Reading some of the recent articles out of Fallujah it seems like the US Marine snipers were absolutely wrecking havoc there.

[Eurotwit]

I still make that statement:

The people on here have no clue to what is going on compared to the commanders on the ground.

So there.

[vbmoneyspender]

How does Bremer "in turn sort a put in the order to hold back."? As a civilian, how is Bremer even in the chain of command?

[swarthyguy]

Regardless, both happened. The consequences have to be dealt with.

[expatguy]

I have posted in numerous threads on this same thing.

The war is over. We lost.

We need to bring our boys home IMMEDIATELY!!!

[Last Dakotan]

Can't argue with a sacred reporter, especially a USA Today one

Hey, if the story fits the facts.