Saddam's Man Takes Over In Fallujah

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5-1-2004 | Toby Harnden

[lasereye]

This sounds looney.

[Amerigomag]

My fear is that as the November election draws nearer we will see more political solutions and more inconsistencies with previously stated, core policies.

[cynicom]

Reelection has become more important than winning a war.

[Amerigomag]

Can you imagine the reaction of the Muslim clerics in southern, Shia Iraq as their worst fears are realized... the rise to power of a Sunni Bathist who previously had persecuted them mercilessly ... all with the approval of the US.

The partitioning of Iraq is beginning.

[Azzurri]

This has the makings of a disaster. My guess is most of these 1,000 troops will eventually side with the insurgents. That means 2,000 insurgents + 1,000 reinforcements we just sent them that we'll have to fight, after giving up valuable ground and supplying them with training and weapons. I hope I'm wrong, of course.

[r9etb]

Actually, this is a good thing. If the general succeeds, that's a victory for the Iraqis, and for us. If he fails, then nothing has changed, except that the Iraqis know, and we know, that they can't take care of themselves. And if he takes command of the salamikazes, he's dead.

The general's best interests are served by succeeding, and in putting down the bad guys.

[Planet]

Coming soon:

Saddam's man takes over shot dead in Fallujah.

[Hank Rearden]

"Honestly, I don't think they're going to be able to do it," said Cpl Elias Chavez, 28.

"We had the insurgents cordoned off, they couldn't go anywhere, we had a chance to get them. Now they can flee wherever they want and we're still going to have to deal with them."

This is the part that really bugs me.

[cynicom]

My own perception is the war in Iraq is now being managed in Washington, not in Iraq. It smells like Vietnam did when Johnson and MacNamara started picking bombing targets.

Bush ,like his father, may very well be a one term president. If that happens, fingers will be pointed everywhere, except the Whitehouse.

[tuckrdout]

What kind of idiot dreamed up this plan?....oh, I know, Saddam! Geez, these guys are gonna join forces with the residents of this town and kill a lot of our kids!

[The Bandit]

Well, I am not pleased at all with this. However, I'll give it a chance on the grounds if the Iraqis are serious they at least will be able to identify the outsiders and kill them.

[Polybius]

Can you imagine the reaction of the Muslim clerics in southern, Shia Iraq as their worst fears are realized... the rise to power of a Sunni Bathist who previously had persecuted them mercilessly ... all with the approval of the US. The partitioning of Iraq is beginning.

In the new Iraqi forces, care has been taken to have the three top positions in every unit divided between a Sunni, a Shiite and a Kurd.

It would be expected that, if there is trouble in any particular region of Iraq, the senior Iraqi officer would belong to the predominant ethnicity of the region.

[NativeTxn]

This is about the end of it for me! I marched around the Governors Mansion here in Austin, I carried signs almost everyday and my husband and I were there sometimes at midnight with only a few sleepy reporters but I cannot in good conscience continue to support this war or (I won't say it here in a public forum). I am no military expert but this continues to go downhill fast and I am sick in my heart for our soldiers. I will not say anything else on this very public site). Native Texan

[Amerigomag]

The general's best interests are served by succeeding, and in putting down the bad guys

The general's best interests are served by stopping the violence. His best interests are also served by:

1) preserving his kinder
2) strengthening the idea that Bathists are well suited to rule "Sunniland"
3) that Iraq can't be ruled without the support of the previous regeim
4) that the "troublemakers" are better dispersed into "Shialand" to cause trouble for the US in the south

[Rokke]

"My own perception is the war in Iraq is now being managed in Washington"

Your perception is wrong. This is a Marine plan through and through. Time will tell whether it was a good move, but I sure wish people would withhold judgement until it has time to succeed or fail.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

We're not going to fight anyone anymore.
This is the beginning of Iraqiization.
And they will be shooting US all the way out the door.

Bush sacrificed domestic policy for reelection.
Now foreign policy has gone to Hell.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

On one hand, this maybe makes a small amount of sense. We are showing the Iraqi Sunnis that bribery and collusion (as seen from their viewpoint) works.

Yet what is the fallback position? There isn't one. Suppose this doesn't work? If it doesn't work, we will find out in a supremely ugly way and have to do the mashing we possibly should have done from the beginning. The Baathists' goal can only be to see the US effort fail. We have already seen the reluctance of the Iraqis to put down their internal insurrection. Now we are apparently going to re-subscribe to that failed policy.

Our game plan has theoretically been to show vs kill: Show the Iraqis the benefits of cooperation = our view of civilization. My concern is that we have been played---by the sub-aboriginal killing of the four contractors, which drew us into the Fallujah mess to begin with. I think we should have attended to the clear disruptive potential of this troubled zone (the so-called Sunni Triangle) of Iraq from the beginning.

The one thing we have successfully shown the Iraqis is the US attention span. I suspect we have focused on good deeds (waterworks, elec power, schools) which are things that take a considerable amount of time to bring to fruition even in a non-war zone, in a society where brutality has been the respected/feared force for centuries.

[Rokke]

"I am no military expert "

At least you'll admit that. Let the military experts in Iraq do their job. They are damn good at it. They deserve your support.

[Amerigomag]

In the new Iraqi forces, care has been taken to have the three top positions in every unit divided between a Sunni, a Shiite and a Kurd.

Ok but where's the beef?

No mention of the Shia or the Kurd in the press thus far. You'd think that this point would be impressed on both the US press for our domestic consumptiom and in southern Iraq to calm the fears of the Sunni.

My guess is that this is an all Bathits command because of the political considerations in the area.