Posted on 04/30/2004 7:29:41 PM PDT by blam
Saddam's man takes over in Fallujah
By Toby Harnden in Baghdad
(Filed: 01/05/2004)
A former senior general in Saddam Hussein's army made a triumphant entry into the besieged city of Fallujah yesterday and was greeted by flag-waving locals celebrating the departure of US marines.
Maj Gen Jassem Mohammed Saleh, who headed Saddam's infantry forces, is to take over as head of what American officials are calling the "1st battalion of the proposed Fallujah Brigade".
Maj Gen Jassem Mahmood Saleh arriving in Fallujah This is a new force to police the Sunni stronghold.
His appearance came as two marines were killed and six wounded in the city when their patrol was attacked by a suicide car bomber.
The new Iraqi battalion will have up to 1,100 men, many of them former members of Saddam's forces and some insurgents who have been fighting the marines.
American commanders argued that there had been no deal with the insurgents and the marines leaving the city were not handing over control but simply "repositioning" their forces.
The locally-brokered deal came after President George W Bush decided the political risks of fighting for Fallujah street by street were too great. Abandoning much bellicose rhetoric about wiping out the foreign fighters and Saddam loyalists, US commanders decided to allow at least some of these elements to police the city with their blessing.
"This is not a withdrawal, it is not a retreat," insisted Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt, the senior US military spokesman in Iraq. "But as long as we continue to see progress, we will continue to pursue the political track."
He said the new force would start to man checkpoints. Gareth Bayley, a British coalition spokesman, said: "Talk of a peace deal is over the top. What we have here is a tactical change."
Tanks and American troops left Fallujah after pulling down barbed wire defences around the soft drinks factory where they had set up a base for the past three weeks.
Up to 80 marines remained but were expected to withdraw to a base outside Fallujah last night.
Many ordinary marines said they did not believe the initiative would work and it could endanger their lives when they had to revert to the "plan A" of a full-scale offensive to take Fallujah.
"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."
He said the new force, largely made up of Fallujah residents, would be unlikely to apprehend or clamp down on anti-coalition fighters.
By leaving without defeating the insurgents, their deployment since April 5, following the killing and mutilation of four US defence contractors, "was a waste of time, of resources and of lives".
"Everyone feels the same, especially those who know someone who was killed."
L Cpl Julius Wright, 20, said: "Now it's going to get worse. We pulled out when we should of gone in."
Gen Saleh shook hands with marine commanders before he entered the city, which is thought to house 2,000 insurgents.
Gen Kimmitt said he had little knowledge of the general's background but he had been "initially vetted".
The appointment is a stunning reversal of US policy, which was to exclude all Ba'ath Party members who held senior posts under Saddam.
But Gen Kimmitt said the new Fallujah force would be "completely integrated" with US forces and "under operational control" of marine commanders.
"Marines will continue to maintain a strong presence in and around Fallujah. We are certainly not withdrawing from Fallujah."
Seriously. How long do you think the above would be Generals if they made a public statement that said, this is GW's, Rumsfield's, or Powell's decision not ours because we don't approve or agree with it.
Please, you virtually admitted in your last post that you couldn’t find a specific quote by giving up looking for it and claiming that it was my responsibility to prove what’s apparent to the majority. So now you’ve disintegrated into being overtly dishonest (backtracking to pretend that those quotes are specific and relevant to my claim, after I took the time to demonstrate that they weren't)
Life’s too short for this childishness. Write to someone else. I won’t read it. Regards.
It’s the privilege of the majority. [smile] If no further information about this comes out, I’m confident that my opinion will prevail. It’s the force behind the old adage, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof”.
As Mississippi red-neck says, it’s rare that officers speak out publicly against the chain of command, at least not immediately. I could turn it around and say with all the criticism of the politics, I’d expect an official statement that the Marines made the decision themselves to back out of Fallujah if it were true.
I’m thoroughly unconvinced by your explanation, and I don’t expect either of us to come to an agreement until more information trickles out. I think we’ve spent enough time working on each other. Time will certainly tell who was behind it.
You're right. I found at least five. They are as follows...
1. "The top Marine commander in Iraq has chosen to assemble what amounts to a Sunni Muslim militia"
2. "Under an agreement worked out by marine commanders in Fallujah...."
3. "DiRita said marine commanders had "a lot of authority to make decisions, and they're doing that, and they've developed this force."
4. That may explain why senior Pentagon officials appeared to have been in the dark about the agreement on Thursday when it was first announced in Fallujah by marine officers."
5. "General John Abizaid, the head of the US Central Command, told reporters earlier Friday he did not know the Iraqi general who was leading the force."
But hey, don't let the facts stand in your way. You've got an unsupported theory to defend.
Cut Rokke some slack, will ya? He knows stuff that we don't. He was there for the festivities last year, and last time I checked, still wore a uniform.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
My guess is that most of these guys were already insurgents. Now we have them in uniform and know where they are.
Or just one frank comment.
"okay, I'll release my double-nelson chokehold and call it a draw. :-)"
Thank God. I could hardly breathe... from laughter. [smile]
We'll see my friend...
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