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November 17, 2004
John Quiggin comments on the Fallujah assault by the Americans.They call their attack Operation Phantom Fury, which they describe as a battle of good against evil to root out "terrorists" in the "militant stronghold" of Fallujah.
It is hard to know what is going on there in terms of the impact of the fury on civilian deaths, due to the American imposed media blackout. For the moment we have to rely on few embedded journalists.The only alternative information of what's happening on the ground in Fallujah can comes from civilians who have left and gone to Baghdad.
We do know other things. The CIA has to bear the brunt of the Bush administration's dislike of dissent. And we know that the loyal soldier Colin Powell resigned from being Secretary of State in the Bush Administration to be replaced by the more hawkish cold war, state-orientated Condolezza Rice. With that change I guess we can expect the Iraqi government and the US to push towards a real civil war in Iraq.
Leunig
Fallujah is a tragedy. How do you make friends in Fallujah after you have flattened parts of the city and filled with the stench of tons of explosives and decomposing bodies? What has happened to the refugees who fled the city?Are they living in the desert? What has happened to the civilians (50,000 to 100,000?) still living (trapped?) in the city? How many civilians have died as a result of the American fury?
The rubble of Fallujah is a contrast to the neo-con's rosy scenarios for a peaceful and democratic Iraq under U.S. rule. Fallujah had to be devastated in order to be liberated. Baghdad Burrning responds.
For a more detailed account For Fallejah in pictures
Update
The U.S. commander in Iraq said on Thursday that the retaking of Fallujah had "broken the back of the insurgency." Oh, what has being going in with the insurgent attacks in other cities in recent days? Did these not include the takeover by insurgents of police stations in Mosul, which then required a counterattack by U.S. troops? Do we not have a guerrilla war in Iraq?
What about the possibility that the insurgents had lost militarily but won a political victory at Fallujah? Consider this possibility. The Fallujah offensive has alienated the Sunni Arab populace of Iraq (around 4 million) to the extent that they may well boycott the polls for the forthcoming American-sponsored election. If the political point of the Fallujah offensive was to make Iraq safe and secure for the American-sponsored elections, then the US has failed politically.
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