U.S. Must Leave Falluja, Iraq General Says

Reuters ^ | Thu, May 06, 2004 | Michael Georgy

[Eurotwit]

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - The Iraqi former general entrusted with pacifying volatile Falluja said on Thursday U.S. Marines must withdraw quickly from around the troubled town and go home so stability can be restored.

"I want the American soldier to return to his camp. What I want more is that he returns to the United States," General Muhammad Latif told Reuters in an interview.

"They should leave very quickly, very quickly or there will be problems. If they stay it will hurt the confidence and we have built confidence. They should leave so that there will be more calm."

Latif and a group of generals offered to tame Falluja with their Falluja Brigade after the town was subject to a month-long siege in which hundreds of Iraqis died as U.S. air strikes and guerrilla mortars rocked the town.

Life has been calm over the last few days, but Marines are still on the edge of the Golan area of Falluja, where the heaviest fighting took place, manning checkpoints with Iraqi security forces under Latif's command.

Major General James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marines Division, said on Thursday after meeting Latif the Marines would maintain a presence around Falluja until certain security requirements were met.

"At some point, I am sure we will pull back if the foreign fighters are confirmed and turned over to us, the heavy weapons are turned over to the Iraqi army and then we get them. It is event driven," he said.

But Latif said there was no need for them to stay because Falluja was peaceful.

"I am confident they will leave in a few days," he said.

Wearing a European-style suit and tie, Latif has been meeting top Marine commanders to discuss ways of imposing security in Iraq (news - web sites)'s most rebellious city.

On Thursday, he appeared with four other Iraqi former generals, pointing out that one of them was a Shi'ite, a suggestion that his force in mostly Sunni Falluja would be mixed.

TORTURED UNDER SADDAM

Latif denied reports he had worked for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s intelligence service.

"I never worked for the Mukhabarat at all. Saddam threw me in jail the first day he came to power for a period of seven years. I had two hands broken by Saddam. My arm and shoulder were broken due to torture under Saddam," he said.

"I was innocent except for the fact that I stood against a dictatorship. When I served in the special forces I had some information on Saddam, his brother and family. They hated me very much."

Saddam is gone but Iraq's problems are multiplying and Latif faces the daunting task of taming a combustible mix of tribes, Islamic militants, guerrillas, suspected foreign fighters and fierce anti-American sentiment on the streets of Falluja.

Latif dismissed the possibility that guerrillas lying low after the fighting could return with their rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assalt rifles.

"There are no insurgents. There are kind people," said Latif, who said he studied in Britain.

The Americans have said repeatedly that foreign fighters played a big role in the violence. But that's another subject Latif brushes aside.

"We have underground mujahideen. I believe 37 corpses are buried in the graveyard. I saw it with my own eyes," he said.

[jpsb]

Monumental failure, worst failure of America diplomacy I have ever seen. The entire war effort is crumbling. Wish we had a leader that knew what he was doing. None in sight so things will get worse before they get better.

We are screwed in Iraq.

[bushfamfan]

Fallujah is picking up where it left off. Funny how we send Marines into Fallujah to die going after the bad guys who inhabit the city yet then the politicians/Generals tell them to cease firing because we are negotiating with the terrorists! But the terrorists don't follow the 'agreement' and are still firing and attempting to kill our troops. They are supposed to hand over the weapons and do give us rusty, useless weapons and the General says how this isn't amusing and they've got DAYS not WEEKS, yet he not only gives them weeks, but they don't have to give up a thing and we draw back when we had the thugs cornered and install a Baathist General to control things-the same reliable man whom made these statements!! Appalling. Despicable.

[JSteff]

We went about the fighting in Falluja in the wrong way with the wrong forces. What we could have done was just tell RIAA that intel sources had determined that Falluja was the center of massive music downloading and DVD copying.

RIAA is ruthless and relentless.

[Dog Anchor]

I had two hands broken by Saddam. My arm and shoulder were broken due to torture under Saddam..........

Give him an f'n purple heart.

[Skywalk]

Don't take this as a flame, but can people on these threads please get it straight:

Al-Sadr has little or nothing to do with Fallujah. He is a Shi'ite and the Fallujahns are Sunni.

[DonaldDuke]

This is General B.

Ah, Never mind, I found him:

"There are no insurgents. There are nice people."

[swarthyguy]

He is right about the jihadis. They prolly left for Baghdad during one of the ceasefires.

Falluja is now liberated sovereign Iraki territory where they fly the old Iraki flag.

It's calm, stable and according to Gen Latif, safer than Baghdad, especially for women and children. No crime, no terror.

That's what we want. So, I don't know what we have to whine about.

We stated attacking Falluja. And then we stopped to let Irakis do it.

And this General has. Give him a cigar.

[PISANO]

For a man who has just been given a Command and been freed from the rule of Saddam, he sure is an ungrateful schmuck. In less than a week after assuming the Brigade he is already giving orders to US telling the MARINES to leave and for the US to get out of his country. Either most Iraqis don't deserve the freedom we have given them or there is NO WAY our CULTURES can ever mix because we see things totally different.

Check that..........TWO different cultures reside in that same environment here. Conservatives (The THINKERS) and Leftists (The FEELERS)

[Eurotwit]

Did you seen the piece by sir Jeremy Greenstock from the Economist? I think it is important for a bird-eye-view at the overall strategy, and why the CPA has acted the way it has.

I'll post it, if it hasn't been posted yet.

[prairiebreeze]

.

[swarthyguy]

Will read it at the Econ. Thanx.

[swarthyguy]

THis is why the Prison Debacle is so important.

Nevertheless, having claimed higher motives for invading Iraq, America and its allies can only expect to be judged by more exacting standards than those by which others are measured.

[Adam36]

Alot of Kurds are fighting with Americans against the Shiites and Sunnis now in Fullujah.

[swarthyguy]

Ping

[VRWC_minion]

Sounds like classic good guy/bad guy routine.

It occured to me that a major reason for pulling back is we likely ran out of targets. My guess is if this routine works we win, if not we get new intelligence on targets and we win.