US Marines Hand Falluja to Former Saddam General

[barbaraann]

By Fadel Badran

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines handed control of Falluja to a former general in Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s feared Republican Guard on Friday in bid to end a month-long siege that killed hundreds in the city and infuriated Iraqis.

In what appeared to be a reversal of Washington's policy of excluding members of Saddam's Baathist regime from power, Jasim Mohamed Saleh told Reuters his force would help police and other Iraqi security forces bring order to the town.
...
Efforts to calm Iraqi irritation with the occupation were not helped by the wide dissemination of humiliating photographs, first broadcast in the United States, which appear to show U.S. soldiers abusing detainees at Saddam's long notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.
...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=1&u=/nm/20040430/ts_nm/iraq_dc


The comments posted about this stunning story are well worth reading.

[bleedingheart]

1. This is so ironic it isn't funny...we are handing back control

to the Baathists...

[asjr]

9. Ironic, yes

Aren't they the ones who committed so many atrocities? We are going back to Iraqis killing Iraqis. Our troops will be out before the election. It is a political move by our learned leader. How anyone can support this man is beyond my comprehension.

[IndianaGreen]

16. We are murdering Iraqis on a par with Saddam

and based on CBS disclosure of our torture and treatment of Iraqi prisoners in one of ASaddam's former torture chambers is plenty proof that we are as bad, if not worse, than Saddam.

[izzie]

19. It made me laugh. How to win friends and get elected.

Am. will not be killed. and that must be what Bush is looking at.They do not vote in Iraq.Now the Right will have to say these guys were not the bad guys. Can any one get through this? The riddle of the maze.

[Nlighten1]

2. Is this what liberation looks like?

[argonne]

3. Saddam

will be next.

[bleedingheart]

6. After he has been deprogrammed at a Mediterranean villa and

he has rekindled his relationships with the CIA and Rumsfeld he will be just the puppet dictator they need.

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. By September W will be willing to pay Saddam

to take back Iraq.

[sniffa]

4. how Long tiLL he mutinies?

[Scurrilous]

5. "Meet the new boss...

...same as the old boss."

[Enraged_Ape]

7. How can anyone not see how fucked up this is?

I'm to the point that I cannot even watch the news anymore, because I literally cannot believe my eyes. And the whore media, which gave up on asking any real questions years ago, has finally reached the point where they don't even TRY to explain this shit. There's just no conceivable way to pretend that any of this makes sense.

[dbt]

8. I feels ya, Ape!

Someone please explain to me in short simple words of no more than three syllables just WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE.

1. If we're going to turn around and put ex-Saddam loyalists in charge of things, why did we basically fire the entire Iraqi army just last year?

2. And since when do the United States Marines negotiate? You want negotiations, you send in the diplomats. You want someplace leveled, cratered and/or neutralized, you send the Marines.

There is so much shit not adding up these days that I can't even see how "follow the money" applies anymore--and that's always been the best way to figure the Neocons.

:freak:
dbt

[HawkerHurricane]

18. Comment on Marines

Once upon a time, Before WW2, the Marines were the ONLY soldiers the U.S. had overseas in peacetime... They were called 'The State Department's Troops', used to guard embasies and for 'armed negotiations'. The diplomats would go in, with 'reinforced for security reasons' marine guarded embasies to 'negotiate' with third world countries.
So, if you are going to negotiate with the threat of force, Marines are the ones who historically did it.

[dbt]

34. Thanks for the info, HH!

I plead guilty to a youth filled with too much TV and movies. It's good to learn things from somebody who knows!

:hi:
dbt

[IndianaGreen]

20. "Stay the course" = "Peace with honor"

The Democratic Party establishment wants us to buy into the "stay the course" lie. I rather choke on a pretzel than to support keeping our troops in Iraq one minute past Inauguration Day.

[izzie]

23. Take a pill and sit down with your popcorn, it is a movie.

The return of Dr. Stranglove or how Bush blew up the world and the Christians loved it.

[Loonman]

10. Yeah, that'll work

NOT!

[Paschall]

11. This is surely one of the generals US PsyOps paid...

...not to attack our troops when they entered Baghdad.

Doncha think?

And how 'bout this: "...humiliating photographs, first broadcast in the United States, which appear to show U.S. soldiers abusing detainees..."

APPEAR to show? What happened, did the reporter blink?

[bobthedrummer]

29. It was MERCENARIES hired by George W. Bush aka The War President

with our tax money-it was mercenaries responsible for those pics, George W. Bush aka The War President awarded contracts to Titan and CACI to interrogate Iraqis, Dyn Corp has the police and corrections Iraq contract btw.

Robert Baer, formerly of the CIA, had the best comment on the use of mercenaries to conduct interrogations as published in today's Guardian "It's insanity.".

So now we have mercenaries paid for with our tax money actually doing things that HELP OSAMA BIN-LADEN'S CAUSE BY FUELING ANTI-AMERICANISM.

Mercenaries should be targeted by US military as unlawful enemy combatants, but since it's our money paying them a thousand bucks a day they're lauded in some perverted way by traitors to our US Constitution and US.

[ze_dscherman]

12. Anyone remember the report how the invasion of Baghdad was bought?

Don't know if it were only rumours or if it has been confirmed that some high ranking Iraqi Army / Republican Guard leaders were bought. Maybe the same business partners this time?

[kentuck]

13. US Surrenders Fallujah to Saddam Loyalist

Would have been a better headline. Now if they have Saddam's trial in Fallujah, what would the verdict be? This is almost traitorous after the lives that have been lost to fight Saddam and the generals that supposedly committed all those atrocities. What's going on?

[sybylla]

39. US Surrenders is exactly what my Vietnam vet friend said last night

As far as he's concerned, we just surrendered and handed Fallujah back.

[IndianaGreen]

14. The arrest warrant against Al-Sadr was signed by a former Saddam

The arrest warrant against Al-Sadr was signed by a former Saddam intelligence agent.

I wonder who the new American-appointed Saddam is going to be????

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. So what number on the deck of cards

was this guy?

[BiggJawn]

21. "Arvn? Ar-Vn! ARRRRRRVN!!!"

Appologies to David Seville...
So what are they gonna call this abortion? If it was 'ARVN" or "Army of the Republic of Viet Nam", maybe they can call it "ARI"

Yeah, what a fitting "living memorial" for Ari F-LIE-scher, Dumbya's favourite mouthpiece?

Oh, wait...Karen Hughes is his favourite "mouthpiece" (in more ways than one) isn't she?

[johnnie]

22. In 20 years..

We will be back to bombing the shit out of Falluja because the person we put in power is raping women and eating children.
This is just fucked up.

[0007]

24. How can the marines give anything to anyone that isn't their's to give?

More monkey poop, more crazy spin to excite the fast food junkies that love to be informed by fast moving whores like CNN MSNBC and FAUX

[Just Me]

25. Talk about F-upped!!!

What is this administration thinking?

I mean,...

,...uh,...

geez

:silly:

I guess they are will to do anything to meet their political deadlines, including re-installing remnants of Saddam's regime.

[Tracer]

26. The Iraqi army ...

... and the Republican Guard has historically been veeerrry effective in squashing uprisings and dissent over the years, why not now?

So there you have it.

Invasion = Success without Victory
Success = Occupation
Occupation = Failure
Failure = Accommodation
Accommodation = Militarization
Militarization = Former Baathists
Former Baathists = Dictatorship

All is well.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

27. Mission Accomplished?

I don't think so.

[Dhalgren]

28. I have a question that has been bugging me...

Where has this "General" been for a year? This guy can just pop-up after a year, with no advanced warning, and just assume the command of a group he has never seen, in an organization he has not known, with no familiarity with the officer corp or structure, and just 'voila' he's in command? This must be one ass-kicking "Patton" of a general to be able to do this - and in a situation where the US Marines failed! What gives?

[0007]

31. I can't find anything on General Jasim Mohamed Saleh,

'Tis indeed a question that does need to be addressed. In these strange times we're living in, I doubt if anyone is much interested.

[MetaTrope]

32. Saddam's senior officers have been getting training in the U.S.

according to news reports, so filling in the details would presumably show the School of the Americas has had a pretty large graduating class recently.

[leftchick]

41. And he is wearing his old uniform fresh from the cleaners!!

:crazy:

[Spazito]

30. Soooo, let me see if I have this right....

"democratization" of Iraq means blowing the shit out of it, causing the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of soldiers and then giving it back to the same people that who were in charge when the decision was made to go in and blow the shit out of it? Okay, I think I have it now.

[Dhalgren]

33. Maybe they offed Uday and Oosay (sp)

to quickly. I bet they could have straightened out Falluja for the Emperor and PDQ, too. :puke: :puke:

[Barkley]

35. So this is what they meant by 'pacifying Fallujah'? - nt.

[barbaraann]

36. Ooooh, I just remembered that today is Kerry's speech on foreign

policy at Westminster College in Missouri where Dick Cheney attacked him and the head of the college invited Kerry to speak as a result.

What exquisite timing!

[NickB79]

37. Even Saddam was never able to fully pacify Fallujah

Fallujah has always been a hotbed of violence, even during Saddam's reign. What makes us think that a general from Saddam's old army, backed by only 1100 poorly trained Iraqi troops on the ground, will be any match for the resistance? For that matter, what makes anyone think they won't turn around and side with the resistance when faced with overwhelming numbers? Having US air support on their side here does little, because air support only has a limited role in urban combat.

They're screwed.

[jmcgowanjm]

38. The Baath Party will only negotiate with the UN

The Arab Socialist Baath Party will never, ever be a part of
the occupations plans or forces in Iraq or outside of Iraq.
The Baath, in ideology and policy, its organization,
leadership, and fighters, has been and remains ineradicable,
a firm resistance force against the occupation, and an
armed leader of the Resistance, rooted in the earth and
people of Iraq. It has pledged to the Arab Nation to march on
its militant path, projecting and renewing its program
for liberation and renaissance, standing by its commitments
to itself and the Arab Nation and to humanity to work for
the downfall of the American imperialist plans in Iraq, the
region, and the world.

Political and Publication Information Section,
The Arab Socialist Baath Party,
Iraq. 23 April 2004

The Baath Party does not object to the return of the
United Nations to Iraq on the condition that it carry out its
basic and legal role and protect international legitimacy.
This requires that the United Nations, in accordance with its
own rules and international legal codes:


1. To condemn the Anglo-American invasion, because it
was carried out as an act of aggression with no
international cover
whatsoever,
2. To affirm the need for the aggressor forces to leave all
the Iraqi territories out of which Iraq is made up according to
its constitution and laws,
3. To find a speedy solution to the issue of Iraqi prisoners
in American prison camps, including the imprisoned leaders
of the country,
4. National reconciliation must take place between all
Iraqi national forces, including the Baath,
5. The Baath Party rejects even the idea of dialogue with
traitor and stooge forces and with sectarian and
chauvinist groups who put forward slogans, such as
federalism or confederalism, that aim at splitting up the
country, whether such splits be along religious or ethnic
lines,
6. The Baath believes that the body which goes by the name
of the so-called local governing council is nothing but a bunch
of stooges, traitors, thieves, and convicted criminals that
was formed on a loathsome religious sectarian and
ethnic chauvinist basis, and that it constitutes a
dangerous precedent in united, free Iraq – a precedent that
must be totally eliminated.
7. Mr. al-Ibrahimi or any other person will be dealt with
according to supreme Iraqi and Arab national interests.
All representatives of the United Nations will be respected
when they rise to their legitimate role.
8. The Resistance in Iraq is one whole, which cannot be
split apart, and the Baath forms its backbone. All
constituent parts of the Resistance are committed to the
national interests of Iraq and its Arab context, for the cause
of Iraq, of Palestine, and to counter the “greater Middle
East” plans.
9. The Resistance will not stop during negotiations, but only
after a final settlement or the departure of the invader
forces.

So, if the Marines are negotiating, it's not w/ the Baath Party.

[JPace]

40. The AWOL regime is in a pickle....

the more Iraqis they kill the more Arab enemies
they make. The more our soldiers get killed the
more Americans are turning against them.

They are good at being mean and aggressive but
have deficits in dealing with anything that cannot
be addressed this way.

I think all repugs have a dumbfounded look on their
faces lately, the kind of look that people have when
they are confronted with a serious situation but lack
any answers.

[skypilot]

42. Does anyone else think that...

...this whole mess in Falluja is way out of proportion to what caused it in the first place? In other words, this "counterinsurgency" operation in
Falluja is in response to the deaths of four security guards. Not that their lives aren't worth anything but it's not as though they were US troops. I don't remember the US responding quite so intensely when UN aid workers were attacked. I could be wrong because this whole mess is sometimes kind of hard to follow but still, four security guards? (Or mercenaries, as some here have called them).

[many a good man]

43. Dictatorship without the Dictator

So Bushcheney has finally settled in on a strategy to pacify Iraq: bring back the old regime minus its leader.

Soon all those giant portraits of Saddam will be repainted with the face of the new dictator -- see my avatar.