Quote:
Originally posted by Ronn_Bman:
As far as the British response to their insurgent problem, had there been attacks and were they being fired on? I ask because I honestly don't know. Did they ignore the insurgents while they were being attacked or did the insurgents just hold the building? Whether they were armed doesn't seem to matter as much as whether or not they were using their arms.
The response to the taking of a building should of course be handled differently than the response to a calculated ambush and murder.
The pull back option seems good on the surface, but I don't believe it is without drawbacks(very few things are). Might not that approach encourage other insurgents elsewhere to believe that if they kill and fight that the coalition will leave their cities? I think that is exactly what they'd believe.
What happened to the cease fire and negotiations with the clerics?
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They did fire shots and drove out the guards and police in the Basra.
As far as the incident in Falluja goes, the only facts known are that the ambush was carried out by four men who melted away immediately after the killing took place - according to the eye witness accounts, they DID NOT stay for the mutilations but were long gone by the time that started. Falluja has a population of 300,000 - and probably just as many guns. Finding them may be an impossible task - they may even be already dead; killed in the fighting.
As far as other cities goes, each situation is unique. One size does not fit all and neither does each strategy. But Falluja is a powder keg around which even Shi'ites are uniting with the 'hated' Sunni's. NOT because Falluja is against the US, but rather at the civilian deaths caused by attempt to retake the town. To get the rest of the country back on side, there HAS to be a calming down period. And it is not to say that the US should sit on their hands during the lull. It goes without saying that this would be the counter-propaganda machine time, with the US offering ambulances to ferry out injured women and children, allowing food aid in, dropping leaflets re-affirming good intentions etc. etc. All the while sealing up access to the town and making sure that nothing goes in or out without them knowing about it.
One thing that you have to be aware of is that there ARE television crews stuck in Falluja. I've seen the pictures coming out of Falluja - and they are pretty shocking. There are streets littered with bodies and overfilling hospitals, burnt out cars with the occupants still inside (one was filled with a family that eye-witnesses said were killed by a US helicopter fired a missile at it), another where the occupant was apparently burnt alive, women and children running and screaming away from explosions....And these pictures are going out not only all over Iraq via sattelite - but also all over the middle-east. Hence the reason why mosques all over Iraq are calling people to donate food and blood to the 'victims' of Falluja. That's powerful and shocking imagery - and the coalition needs to reverse it pretty dam quick or they'll lose every gain they've made to date.
As far as the cease fire goes - I don't know anything beyond the fact that both sides have agreed to a 12 hour truce beginning at 6.00 am Sunday, to open negociations. The US has stated that it wants the insurgents to use that time to gather up those responsible for both the deaths and mutilations last week - my feeling is that the best that they can expect is have some bodies handed over with the claim that they were the ones, or some poor foreigners/undesirables who they've decided can take the fall. (Cynic that I am)
I know that the IGC are currently talking to Sadr - on the table is a promise not to pursue the 'murder charge' and to improve the lot of poorer Shi'ites in return to peaceful cohabitation and an end to the insurrection. However, Sadr has stated that he will not agree to anything before Falluja is resolved - he obviously wants to garner support out that and use it to guarantee his safety afterwards. So again, we're not likely to see anything there until that Falluja starts smelling of roses.
[ 04-10-2004, 08:39 PM: Message edited by: Skunk ]