Month: April 2004

Apparently, the Bush administration, in consultations with Abizaid and the military commanders in Iraq, has decided to do something about the stalemates at Najaf and Fallujah. The game plan that they’ve made public seems vague and it is unclear what they intend to gain by making these moves.

In Fallujah there have been no reports that any weapons have been turned in at all, other than the pick-up load of “junk” that was turned in the first day. That means that none of the varying series of demands that the Americans have made on the people of Fallujah have been met. No one is even talking about the four mercenaries that were killed in Fallujah anymore. The cease-fire fizzled into rebel attacks answered by American bombs and helicopter gunship attacks. Snipers are apparently plying their trade on both sides and mortars are shot at the Americans regularly.

The latest announced plan for Fallujah is for Marines to make a “joint patrol” with “Iraqi security forces” on Tuesday, whatever that means. I suppose that if the patrol is able to make its way into and out of Fallujah uneventfully, the Marines can declare the siege a success. Whatever is supposed to happen after that is unclear.

U.S. troops will begin patrols alongside Iraqi security forces in Fallujah, said Hachim al-Hassani, a top Iraqi negotiator. The move is an apparent attempt to restore control over the insurgent stronghold without a full-scale Marine assault.

But like a previous agreement aimed at reducing the violence in the city, the new step hinged greatly on the response of Sunni guerrillas, who were asked to turn in their heavy weapons.

“We hope the U.S. soldiers will not be attacked when they enter the city. If they are attacked, they will respond and this will lead to problems,” al-Hassani told The Associated Press.

The Najaf situation is similar. The Army is saying they’re going to move into the “modern” areas of the city, in a quest for Sadr, I suppose, though he isn’t in the “modern” part of the city. I’m not sure what looking for him in a place he isn’t in is supposed to accomplish, but the Army says it will “tighten” the “clampdown.” Mmmkay.

“We probably will go into the central part of the city. Will we interfere in the religious institutions? Absolutely not,” said Hertling, a deputy commander of the 1st Armored Division.

He did not say when the move would occur, but it appeared unlikely for several days and was aimed at tightening the clampdown on radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia.

“It’s not going to be large-scale fighting, the likes of other places, but it’s going to be critical,” he said. “We’re going to drive this guy into the dirt.”

“Either he tells his militia to put down their arms, form a political party and fight with ideas not guns – or he’s going to find a lot of them killed,” he said.

Every Muslim in Iraq and across the entire Middle East is saying that if the Americans go into Najaf, they will Fallujah-ize the entire region, but I guess the Americans think they have to do something, after all their macho rhetoric. Whether the Iraqis allow them to save face and then back out while declaring victory or launch an all out attack is anyone’s guess. My guess is that the second phase of the Iraqi Intifada is about to begin.

Sibel Edmonds, the FBI translator who is trying to tell the truth about pre-9/11 warnings that were supressed by the Feds, is appering in court in Washington, DC tomorrow (Monday).

Edmonds is currently under a gag order and the FBI is moving to block her giving a deposition scheduled for Tuesday in a case filed by the 9/11 families against the government. Monday’s hearing will deal with the government’s request to block Edmond’s deposition.

Edmonds has asked for a strong public show of support at Monday’s hearing. In an email sent to supporters, Edmonds said:

I know it is a short notice, but it will be a big day. The Bureau will argue in front of the judge, try to get him to order a gag on me. [Law firm] Motley-Rice will try to make their case re: importance to the family members & the country.

We need to gather a large group, and have them show up in the courtroom, have them rally/kick/scream. The press will cover it, and this is our chance to wake everybody up and let them see what’s happening.

Please come to the U.S. Dictrict Court in Washington, D.C. at 3rd St. and Constitution Avenue this coming MONDAY, April 26th Enter thru Constitution Avenue entrance and go to Judge Reggie Walton’s courtroom. Proceedings BEGIN AT 11:30AM. Come earlier if you can.

Reader S. Melmoth sends the following thoughts on yesterday’s “Let’s Call Fallujah Their Yorktown and Be Done with It.”

South Korea also has the misfortune of having their national founding being grounded in humiliation and subservience as their liberation from Japan came via US forces who not only reinstated a collaborationist police state but also outlawed the only indigenous government that existed upon the arrival of the US.

In fact, though there has been much made of the analogy of Vietnam and Iraq, South Korea works better in terms of the perils of occupation and the inability of either the colonial power to extricate itself from its client state or the patron to ever dissolve its subservience to the same. Indeed, the South Korean decision to send 3000 troops to the Iraq adventure (though now delayed) adds a sickening epilogue, tying the whole mess together.

Quotation #1:

The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the feeble-minded and insane classes, coupled as it is with a steady restriction among the thrifty, energetic and superior stocks, constitutes a national and race danger which it is impossible to exaggerate … I feel that the source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed up before another year has passed.

Adolf Hitler? No, sorry, try quotation #2:

This [revolutionary] movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky [Russia], Bela Kun [Hungary], Rosa Luxemburg [Germany], and Emma Goldman [the United States] … this worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing.

David Duke? No, far too highfalutin for him; last chance:

I do not understand the squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes.

Saddam Hussein? Oh, so sorry–those are all from neoconservative god Winston Churchill.

Raed Jarrar has a plan and it starts with a confession:

The current pattern of failures and policy changing will not lead to any real solutions, the American administration must admit that the last year was a total mess, that nothing positive will come out if the currant policy is going to continue, and that standing in a brave way and confessing this failure can give everyone a good restarting point. This apology must admit the exaggeration in the whole issue of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and other reasons that justified the war, the Bush administration must apologize to the American and Iraqi people and compensate the thousands who were killed and injured in this unjustified war. The admission of guilt must also remember people from other countries that sent their children to be a part of the fake coalition, they must be sent back home and the U.S. government must be responsible, accountable and fix the mess it caused.

I know it is hard to confess that the last year was a disaster, and the war wasn’t justified, but this will be easier for the next administration if Bush wasn’t elected again.

Read the rest.

Today, Bremer “admitted mistakes” but he didn’t go nearly far enough and Bush and the Neocon Gang need to make a public apology for how, as David Kay said, they got nearly everything wrong about WMD in Iraq. No weaseling and equivocating. Can they, would they do it?

Probably not.

A valuable insight from a Paul Robinson piece on Iraq:

Actually, withdrawing might be the best thing we could do for them. Far from provoking civil war, the sight of us running from a combined Shia-Sunni offensive could provide Iraqis with a unifying myth of self-liberation to bind the country together and enable them to face the future with confidence.

Drop the macho pose for a minute and think about this. Conservatives and libertarians (not to mention America’s black Muslims) have long derided government hand-out programs in part because of their debilitating psychological effect on recipients. I would say the same logic applies here. Will Iraq be the first nation whose founding myth is one of subservience and humiliation? How do you expect that to turn out?