Monday, April 05, 2004
Through the Looking Glass, Chapter XVI
On the Falouja murders:0 comments
"We are not going to do a pell-mell rush into the city," said a senior military spokesman in Iraq. "It's going to be deliberate. It will be precise, and it will be overwhelming. We will reestablish control of that city, and we will pacify that city."
Why not just plow in and go get our guys?
What's up with that?
L.A. Times: U.S. Vows to Find Killers
First, let's get straight just whom we're talking about here.
Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni was correct in his assessment to Congress of how many troops it would take to pacify the entire country of Iraq. But, as we now know, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld was convinced the U.S. could do it on the cheap. For two years now, Rumsfeld has been saying one thing, and paying for another.
So, we've always had half the personnel in Iraq that have been needed, which has led directly to over 400 dead American troops.
And, just as the Defense Dept. is attempting to do at military and National Guard bases throughout the U.S. and around the globe, the shortfall in troops in Iraq is being made up by our old friend, "privatization."
Private civilian armies, under corporate control, armed to the teeth. Paid for by taxpayer dollars. And answerable to no one but their corporate managers, and using the euphemism, "Security Consulting Firms."
Fast forward to last week in Falouja.
These four were not brave American soldiers, fighting for what they believe is freedom; these poor souls also were not civilians, in the sense we generally use: non-combatants who are performing a humanitarian task, such as missionaries, doctors or UN aid workers. Nor were they hapless employees for some company trying to set up shop under its no-bid contract, attempting to put this ravaged country back together again.
No. These guys were right out of a Arnold Schwartzenegger/Chuck Norris/Dolf Lungren/Jean-Claude Van Damme "lock & load," bicep, paramilitary action movie: mercenaries, pure and simple—soldiers-for-hire. Former Special Ops guys who either left after long tours in the military to make some serious money from their warrior skills, or whose military career track was thwarted by champagne generals who "don't know what it means to be a "real soldier'."
Now paid hansomely by "Security Firms" [that phrase should henceforth make your blood run cold] with lucrative Defense Dept. contracts, these Rambo-types get to fly into danger zones and continue their private wars.
But this time, these particular soldiers-of-fortune pushed their luck and their testosterone past the limits of their smarts, and ignored military suggestions to drive around the city of Falouja altogether, or to drive at night. Their arrogance pushed them right through the heart of the city in broad daylight, four very white guys in an SUV—right into one of the many well planned traps that have been reported to have been just sitting there, waiting for someone foolhardy enough to attempt to get through.
Now, we see the official military's response was, "Well, boy, THAT was dumb!" while leaving the clean-up to someone else.
Local Iraqi Civil Defense Corps officers assumed the grim task Thursday of recovering the remains of the slain contractors, who were employed by North Carolina-based Blackwater USA, a security consulting firm. Blackwater officials said the four were guarding convoys delivering food in the Fallouja area.
Of course, it later came out that these were not actually brave Iraqi police who performed the dangerous task of cutting these guys down and carting out the remains. They were Iraqis on the Blackwater payroll. The "brave Iraqi police" were doing something else, as you'll see below.
From House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), comes this:
civilian deaths and the upsurge in attacks on U.S. troops in the Sunni Triangle should prompt "reexamination of our resources there. The Iraqi security forces were supposed to maintain order in Fallouja. That did not happen. And our plan for departing in June was dependent on the Iraqi security forces taking over some of those responsibilities."
Witnesses said Iraqi police in the city did nothing to stop Wednesday's violence.
Swell.
We see now that our plans for a June 30 handover are just going swimmingly.
The reason we have such a hard time pinning down a number for the Iraqi police and new military recruits who are official, and non-Blackwater-et-al-financed, is that they keep taking the U.S. Government money for the training, then wisely deciding that if the entire U.S. military machine can't stop these guys, that there's no reason to stick a target on THEIR backs. At least half the trained recruits have just melted into the sand.
Can't blame them a whit.
Not when serious private-army money gets you killed, and U.S. military commanders say things like this:
At a briefing Thursday in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, senior military spokesman in Iraq, defended a decision by the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force—with 4,000 troops stationed just outside Fallouja—to not immediately respond to the attack or attempt to recover the bodies.
Kimmitt said Marine leaders determined it was too risky to enter the city throughout the day Wednesday. Even if they had, it would have been too late to save the victims, he said.
"A preemptive attack into the city could have taken a bad situation and made it even worse," he said.
Violence near Fallouja continued Thursday when a roadside bomb injured three American troops. The troops were forced to abandon their Humvee, which was later ransacked and set ablaze by a crowd of Iraqis.
In Ramadi on Wednesday night, a car bomb killed six Iraqi civilians at a marketplace, military officials said.
Translation:
Kimmett is saying that the U.S. commanders know full well those 4.000 troops would be 2,000 by nightfall. So, "I ain't goin' in there!" does seem the rational response from everyone concerned.
Especially when you consider the military perspective on these paramilitaries: they're not our guys!
Now, this whole quagmire leads us into assuming The West Bank Approach—the one that's worked, oh, so well for our Israeli brothers-in-arms:
U.S. officials were pressing local government officials in Fallouja to cooperate in the investigation and hand over those responsible. Such cooperation, they said, could prevent further bloodshed that might occur if Marines undertake raids to hunt down the assailants.
"If we can get the city leadership to come out from behind their desks, tell us who these people are, identify who these people are, and even better, perhaps imprison these people themselves, we can avoid a direct conflict," Kimmitt said. "It is up to the … people in Fallouja to determine if they want to do it with a fight or without a fight."
Ah, it's the fault of the general citizenry, I see.
"Hand the thugs over, or we'll burn down your village.
Or we'll have the Rambos do it!"
Sounds just like Palestine.
And Vietnam.
And Little Big Horn.
posted by Gotham 12:58 PM
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