American forces have bombed what they refer to as a “safe house” in Fallujah, killing at least ten people, perhaps as many as 15 which Iraqi witnesses claim were all members of one family. Acting on “intelligence” provided by the US appointed Iraqi “government” which car bomber and CIA asset Iyad Allawi said was “clear and compelling,” American warplanes dropped four 500-pound (225kg) bombs and two 1,000-pound (450kg) bombs in the raid. We might hope that Allawi’s concept of clear and compelling intelligence has evolved since his elevation to the exalted position he now occupies because the type of “intelligence” he provided to his neocon handlers and dupes like Tony “45 minutes to WMD Launch” Blair in the run-up to the invasion was about on par with Chalabi and Curveball’s.
Jeremy, cutting straight through the obfuscation and euphemistic blather of the US military and Allawi, asks the obvious question:
If this new government is in control and the police force is so good can someone tell me why we didn’t surround the house, arrest people, and put them on trial? That would have been preferable to dropping a bomb on the place wouldn’t it? Or does the new Iraq believe in summary justice delivered from an Apache?
I don’t care who told them the house was used as a hideout. Attacking a safe house for the purpose of destroying it is a reprisal. Attacking it while innocents are inside is a crime against morality.
What is important is that the new Iraqi rulers, these men supposed to bring justice and freedom to Iraq, believe that flying a helicopter round and blowing up a house is a good way to deal with the problem. I guess it worked for Israel huh?
The refusal of the Bushites and neocons who are driving policy in Iraq to break with the heavily Likudnik-influenced mindset about Arabs, Muslims and Iraq has been responsible for their myriad spectacular failures to date, and cannot help but lead to the further destruction of civil society in Iraq. It is Iraq’s tragedy that the people least likely to succeed in any project in the Middle East, the people who least understood the culture, religions and tribal nature of this Arab people lied and connived their way to the helm of the greatest force for destruction in the history of the planet and proceeded to use it to force their hubristic and delusional vision on a country they knew nothing about. How it all ends is unknowable, but we can at least entertain the hope that it will end mercifully soon.