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."
Thanks for the spelling lesson. Now give us some more of the history lessons you heard some others feed you.
Oh please, oh wise one, who has been posting so long, can I please have some FR rank even though I only signed up a month ago.
No, but as Dane pointed out, former members of the Nazi Party were appointed because membership in the Party was a pre-requisite for any position of consequence in Nazi Germany. Therefore, just about any German administrator worth his salt had been a Nazi Party member.
Membership in the SS was something separate and in an entirely different league than job-related membership in the Nazi Party.
You, dinok, are the one who first brought up the "SS" analogy for this particular general.
From what little has come out, it seems that he was a military man would stayed out of politics. What other information do you have about this particular general that would justify your "SS" analogy.
As long as you are going to compare him to the SS without any particular justification for your comparison, dinok, why not go all the way and compare him to Satan himself and then point out that "Patton never appointed Satan to anything"?
Am I reading the New York Times? "Well since Bush was only in the Guard, that is like not serving at all, therefore he didn't serve at all, therefore he burned his draft card and went to Canada, therefore he is a communist. See, Bush is a communist." Excellent deductive reasoning.
Really, there are 50,000 posters on FR(out of a total registration of over 100,000) that agree with you.
Again JMO, you are a legend in your own mind.
But no one is stopping you from pontificating from 6,000 miles away. Seems that you get mightily pissed when someone points that out.
Also, BTW, I am a male and your petty tries at insults are some of the most pathetic I have seen on FR.
Nope FR, can't stand historical fact can you, kmcb.
Oh my God you are dense! The posters on these threads!
I am done with you. Go dream about daisys and other pretty flowers.
Also, BTW, I am a male and your petty tries at insults are some of the most pathetic I have seen on FR.
So, you are a feminist. Big deal.
Can I get banned for calling you dumb?
Your reply #49 reeks of someone overindulging on the sauce.
Not according to some of the geniuses on this and a couple other threads. We are doing the sensible thing.
95% of these geniuses have never served a day in the military. I am sure of it. Even if they say they did, they did not. They don't have a clue.
Your analogy is not even relevant. Last time I looked at a map, Iraq was not on the open seas.
This is my last post to you. No you won't.
But keep on posting, IMO, you are the one making the point of the last word in the above italicized passage
Let's see. Their choices are:
A. Wipe out, with the support of U.S. air power, the remaining Baathist thugs that are surrounded and trapped like rats in the Golan slum district of Fallujah by U.S. Marines and have a future as the Golden Boys of the new Iraqi Army.
Or
B. Join the remaining Baathist thugs that are surrounded and trapped like rats in the Golan slum district of Fallujah by U.S. Marines so that they can die a violent death by an AC-130 strike, a Marine sniper round through their skull or a 2,000 pound JDAM collapsing the building they are hiding in sometime during the next six weeks.
Hmmmmmm........Tough choice. They are both so equally attractive.
Tell you what, Guillermo, after a lot of thinking, I'd like some of that action.
Put me down for "A."
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