Posted on 06/06/2004 8:27:00 PM PDT by saquin
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The travelers entered Fallujah first through a checkpoint operated by the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, a U.S.-trained paramilitary unit meant to add muscle to the American-led occupation. The men in black berets distractedly waved cars past, onto the city's main street.
Then it became apparent who was really in charge. A few yards in, wild-eyed young men in masks pulled cars over at will, searched them and demanded identification documents. No one could leave or enter without passing muster. Other groups of fighters in masks roamed side streets and alleys, brandishing rifles at all sorts of angles.
It was not supposed to be like this. Under an agreement made last month with U.S. Marine commanders, a new force called the Fallujah Brigade, led by former officers from Saddam Hussein's demobilized army, was to safeguard the city. The unruly gunmen -- many of them insurgents who battled the Marines through most of April -- were supposed to give way to Iraqi police and civil defense units.
Instead, the brigade stays outside of town in tents, the police cower in their patrol cars and the civil defense force nominally occupies checkpoints on the city's fringes but exerts no influence over the masked insurgents who operate only a few yards away.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
We'll have to deal with these guys sooner or later. Might have to wait until after the election, because it will be bloody and get lots of bad press.
it sounds like some parts of inner city LA - inside the gang "turf" zone, they are the law.
iraq isn't going to be disneyworld. our own country isn't.
This is not good news, because a safe haven is the last thing we can allow them.
Maybe this is what the people of Fallujah want. It's their country.
Well, what did anyone think was going to happen when we didn't send in the USMC to crush Fallujah??? I was wrong in my initial comments after the "truce". I thought it was going to be the secure base for Saddam's men. Now, with this talk of Islamic law, I think this is actually the new home of AQ and the Iraqi equivalent of the Taliban.
Fallujah is a no-go zone for our forces. Is Ramadi one yet? The terrorists in Fallujah may be making a mistake by attempting to declare Baghdad a no-go zone. Milk prices are down so I assume people in Washington, DC are drinking more of it. All that calcium may just settle in their backbones. I'm sure the USMC wouldn't mind clear and decisive new orders.
Anyway, anyone want to start a pool on the date when Saddam will "break out" of prison? The prize for closest guess gets an all expenses paid trip to Kerry's inauguration in January.
Sounds like all of deTwat when I was growing up!
They'd get those orders if the State Department were removed from the decision making process over there. Let the DoD run the show for the rest of the time.
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