The failed US face of Fallujah

The chilling reality of what Fallujah has become is only now seeping out, as the US military continues to block almost all access to the city, whether to reporters, its former residents, or aid groups such as the Red Crescent Society. The date of access keeps being postponed, partly because of ongoing fighting - only this week more air strikes were called in and fighting "in pockets" remains fierce (despite US pronouncements of success weeks ago) - and partly because of the difficulties military commanders have faced in attempting to prettify their ugly handiwork. Residents will now officially be denied entry until at least December 24; and even then, only the heads of households will be allowed in, a few at a time, to assess damage to their residences in the largely destroyed city.

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These dystopian plans are a direct consequence of the fact that the conquest of Fallujah, despite the destruction of the city, visibly did not accomplish its primary goal - "to wipe out militants and insurgents and break the back of guerrillas in Fallujah". Even taking American kill figures at face value, the battle for the city was hardly a full-scale success. Before the assault on the city began, US intelligence estimated that there were 5,000 insurgents inside. Sattler himself conceded that the final official count was 1,200 fighters killed and no more than 2,000 suspected guerrillas captured. (This assumes, of course, that it was possible in the heat of the battle and its grim aftermath to tell whether any dead man of fighting age was an "insurgent", a "suspected insurgent", or just a dead civilian.) At least a couple of thousand resistance fighters previously residing in Fallujah are, then, still "at large" - not counting the undoubtedly sizable number of displaced residents now angry enough to take up arms. As a consequence, were the US to allow the outraged residents of Fallujah to return unmolested, they would simply face a new struggle in the ruins of the city (as, in fact, continues to be the case anyway). This would leave the extensive devastation of whole neighborhoods as the sole legacy of the invasion.

US desperation is expressed in a willingness to treat all Fallujans as part of the insurgency - the inevitable fate of an occupying army that tries to "root out" a popular resistance. As Sattler explained, speaking of the plan for the "repopulation" of the city, "Once we've cleared each and every house in a sector, then the Iraqi government will make the notification of residents of that particular sector that they are encouraged to return." In other words, each section of the city must be entirely emptied of life, so that the military can be sure not even one suspect insurgent has infiltrated the new order. (As is evident, this is but another US occupation fantasy, since the insurgents still hiding in the city have evidently proven all too adept at "repopulating" emptied neighborhoods themselves.)

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The magnitude of the devastation and the brutality of the US plan are what's likely to occupy the full attention of Fallujans for the foreseeable future - and their reactions to these dual disasters represent the biggest question mark of the moment. However, the history of the Iraq war thus far, and the history of guerrilla wars in general, suggest that there will simply be a new round of struggle, and that carefully laid military plans will begin to disintegrate with the very first arrivals. There is no predicting what form the new struggle will take, but the US military is going to have a great deal of difficulty controlling a large number of rebellious, angry people inside the gates of America's new mini-police state. This is why the military command has kept almost all of the original attack force in the city, in anticipation of the need for tight patrols by a multitude of US troops. And it also explains why so many other locations around the country have suddenly found themselves without a US troop presence.

Asia Times

only country that can't smell it!!


"The ongoing policy of house-to-house inspections, combined with ultra-tight security regulations aimed at not allowing suspected guerrillas to re-enter the city, is supposed to ensure that everyone inside the Fallujan perimeter will not only be disarmed but obedient to occupation demands and desires. The name tags and the high-tech identity cards are meant to guard against both forgeries and unlawful movement within the city. The military-style work gangs are to ensure that everyone is under close supervision at all times. The restricted entry points are clearly meant to keep all weapons out. Assumedly kept out as well will be most or all reporters (they tend to inflame public opinion), most medical personnel (they tend to "exaggerate" civilian casualties), and most Sunni clerics (they oppose the occupation and support the insurgency). We can also expect close scrutiny of computers (which can be used for nefarious communications), ambulances (which have been used to smuggle weapons and guerrillas), medicines (which can be used to patch up wounded fighters who might still be hiding somewhere), and so on."

The generals said this would only take a week or so and the civilian casualties would be light.

A desperate attempt to show that they can control something in Iraq,
anything.

What I was struck with was the hysterical stupidity of this plan.
Suppose they "succeed", what do they have? They have one small city
in Iraq that they can maintain "control" of, at great expense, and
use for PR purposes. A potemkin village bought at huge expense and
maintainable only as long as the expenditure continues.

In the strategic sense it's a huge gift to the resistance and a
huge kick in the nuts to the occupation, and our so called "leaders"
are much too slow to understand, even now. They are still desperately
running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to
"control" the situation and "establish order".

going on in Iraq. FAUX trots out a General or two and tells the mindless that we're kicking ass.

http://www.fallujahinpictures.com/

Thanks for posting the Getty pictures. That's only the second time I've seen them.

Sheer Insanity