'Just World News' with Helena Cobban: Shirin (and HC) on Falluja

'Just World News' with Helena Cobban Info, analysis, discussion-- to build a more just world
« Sistani, and US Jews \| JWN front page \| Whatever became of-- ? » Shirin (and HC) on Falluja Posted by Helena Cobban October 20, 2004 4:38 AM EST \| Link Filed in Iraq Well-informed JWN frequent-commenter Shirin responded to my invitation to give us more of her impressions of the history of the insurgency in Fallujah. I thought her comment, which was posted here, was worth putting into a main post, so I've done that (after a light edit) right here. Thanks, Shirin! I just want to also note the bullying ineptitude of the Negrocontra/Allawi regime in Iraq which actually detained some key Fallujah community leaders who had exited the city to come to talk to them about terms for a possible ceasefire. The US/Allawist forces detained the negotiators from Friday through Monday. Not surprisingly, after the negotiators-- who included the city's police chief-- were released, they said they were suspending any immediate further pursuit of the ceasefire talks. Duh! This was nearly unbelievably bad behavior by the US/Allawists, which should have been much more remarked on--by me and others--back when reports of it first surfaced over the weekend. Whether it was political ineptitude, or just plain bullying-- which could, after all, be described as the same thing--that caused that behavior, the results for both Iraqis and Americans will certainly be more death, more destruction, more wounding, more hurt and suffering all round. I've been following this story in Al-Hayat over the past few days, and should really show off my re-increasing command of written Arabic by quoting from one of those stories here. Instead, I'll just lift this quote from Today in Iraq: Fallujah negotiator Sheik Khaled al-Jumeili said peace talks to end the standoff in Iraq's major insurgent bastion will remain suspended as a protest against his detention by U.S. troops, who accused him of representing the militants. "The fact is that I'm negotiating on behalf of Fallujah people � civilians, kids, women � who have no power but through being represented by somebody. Since the situation has got up to this, each can go wherever they want and we don't need to talk about negotiations," he told Al-Arabiya TV. Anyway, let's move right here and get back to Shirin's comments on Fallujah... Over to you, Shirin-- and big thanks to you for contributing this: According to the reports I am hearing the Americans are aerial bombing Falluja during the night and attacking from the ground during the day, meaning this "charmless town" of 300,000 souls is under virtual 24 hour a day attack. I also heard today that, just as they did last spring, they are not allowing Iraqis to leave the city, thereby imprisoning them - men, women, children, infants, elderly - in a death trap they, the Americans, have created. Families who attempt to leave the city are, as they were last spring, turned back at check points, or attacked from the air or the ground as they attempt to escape the bombardment of their city. As I said yesterday, Falluja has never been the "hotbed of Ba`thists and Saddam supporters" the propagandists would have us believe - far from it, in fact. In truth, the so-called "privileged Sunni triangle", and the "Shi'ite south" and the "Kurdish north" and everything that flows from that myth is ignorant nonsense (including the manufactured spectre of sectarian/ethnic civil war), but that's another discussion for another time... Certainly there were people in Falluja who supported Saddam Hussein for various reasons - or at least went along with the regime in order to survive, and even reap benefits - just as there were in every part of the country. There were no doubt people there who were genuinely loyal to him and his regime. There were Mukhabarat agents in Falluja, and there were people who were coerced into working on behalf of the government, just as there were in every part of the country (and let us not forget that the U.S. has also used various forms of coercion to induce Iraqis to act as their agents). However, Falluja was very well known for its dislike of and defiance against the Ba`thist regime, and was subjected to periodic purges as a result. Fallujans would say "if Saddam said to work harder, Falluja would take two days off". When Saddam ordered that Friday services all over the country include prayers for and praise of him, the Falluja mosques defied that order. During the American invasion Falluja remained quiet and passive. There was no fighting from the city either during the invasion or in the early days of the occupation. For that reason, American forces saw no need to take any action regarding the city. Like most Iraqis, Fallujans were glad to be rid of Saddam, and hoped for the best from the Americans. Falluja also remained quiet and free of the chaos and looting and violence that was taking place in most of the country. Then, in late May [2003] American forces came rolling into town, took over one of the schools as its base, and, completely ignoring the city leaders, and the needs, concerns and interests of the population, proceeded to take it over. They disrupted virtually every aspect of life in the city. They drove tanks up and down residential streets all night long and flew helicopters over neighborhoods, shining bright searchlights on the families trying to sleep on their roofs in the late spring and summer heat, thus violating the privacy of the home, and giving the impression they were spying on the women. They stopped families on the streets and male soldiers frisked women in front of their fathers, brothers, and husbands. They did a great deal to confirm many of the wildest rumours about their intentions to violate the honour of Iraqi women. They treated men in humiliating ways in front of their families and neighbors. If their purpose had been to antagonize the residents of Falluja they could not have done a better job. But even then the people of Falluja remained non-violent, though they were becoming more and more enraged. Then, when the American forces ignored the requests of city leaders to vacate their school, a group of Fallujans decided to exercise their "new-found freedom"� by holding a demonstration in front of the school to protest its takeover. That day the Americans shot and killed 15 unarmed protesters, and wounded many more. The next day there was another, smaller demonstration during which the Americans shot and killed three more unarmed Iraqis. That was when the people of Falluja reached their breaking point. That's the history in brief. The terrible irony is that it would not have been very difficult at all for the Americans to build Falluja into a model of Iraqi-American cooperation. At the very least, by leaving it alone they could have avoided most if not all of the trouble with that city. Instead, by doing exactly the wrong - of the very worst - thing at every opportunity, they have turned it into the proverbial "hotbed of insurgency" (sic) and a place of massive horror, death and destruction. Finally, Falluja has always been a socially, culturally and religiously very conservative city - hardly a place that someone like Saddam would find a welcome. Now, by all reports, rather than being a "Ba`thist stronghold", it has become "the Islamic Republic of Falluja" - NOT a very welcoming environment for "Saddam loyalists". « Sistani, and US Jews \| JWN front page \| Whatever became of-- ? » Comments Comment from... Damien, at October 20, 2004 09:14 AM: Helena, You consider that detaining the negotiators (some are still in custody) was "political ineptitude, or just plain bullying", and "the results for both Iraqis and Americans will certainly be more death, more destruction, more wounding...". Another way of thinking about that detention and its likely consequences (suspension of ceasefire talks) is to consider it was done deliberately to justify the US military campaign already underway in Fallujah by making it look like the "insurgents" are responsible for suspending the ceasefire talks. By the same token, the Zarqawi logic (give up Zarqawi or we attack) is reminiscent of the WMD logic (give up your WMD or we attack). We have not been presented any credible evidence that Zarqawi was/is in Fallujah, but we have been presented credible evidence that precision strikes do kill children and women on a daily basis in Fallujah, something the Pentagon does'nt even want to aknowledge. What I believe is the decision has been taken to level Fallujah beginning next month, and the American military is currently doing everything it can to escalate the situation so it finally looks like the right answer to "insurgent" violence in Fallujah is an all-out attack. Comment from... Geo, at October 20, 2004 04:43 PM: Thank you for re-capping our history of bloodletting incompetence in Falluja. I had forgotten about our earlier swaggering mistakes and this post so clearly shows everything wrong in our policy: turning potential allies into bitter enemies. Unfortunately for this benighted city, I think Dreyfuss (blog at tompaine.com) probably has it right: An all out attack on Fallujah is the long-awaited Bush October surprise. The present ongoing bombardment has nothing to do with Zarkawi, but it is a "softening" up of the city before the main attack. Underneat massive air power, the US will sweep into a fairly easy victory from our standpoint--nevermind the terrible toll on Iraqis--and Bush will declare (as Dreyfuss notes) that we have "turned the corner" in Iraq. No such thing will of course be the case. But will Americans buy it? Never underestimate.... Comment from... Geo, at October 20, 2004 04:43 PM: Thank you for re-capping our history of bloodletting incompetence in Falluja. I had forgotten about our earlier swaggering mistakes and this post so clearly shows everything wrong in our policy: turning potential allies into bitter enemies. Unfortunately for this benighted city, I think Dreyfuss (blog at tompaine.com) probably has it right: An all out attack on Fallujah is the long-awaited Bush October surprise. The present ongoing bombardment has nothing to do with Zarkawi, but it is a "softening" up of the city before the main attack. Underneat massive air power, the US will sweep into a fairly easy victory from our standpoint--nevermind the terrible toll on Iraqis--and Bush will declare (as Dreyfuss notes) that we have "turned the corner" in Iraq. No such thing will of course be the case. But will Americans buy it? Never underestimate.... Comment from... James R MacLean, at October 22, 2004 02:25 PM: the bullying ineptitude of the Negrocontra/ Allawi regime in Iraq which actually detained some key Fallujah community leaders who had exited the city to come to talk to them about terms for a possible ceasefire. I get the joke, but for those who don't--Negroponte is the US Ambassador to Iraq, and de facto governor-general. He's won notoriety because, as US Ambassador to Honduras (1980's), he helped cover up evidence of death squads in that country; this, in order to facilitate Reagan Administration boosting of the contras. Comment from... Shirin, at October 26, 2004 01:09 AM: The BBC has recently published a report taken by phone from a reporter inside Falluja. Here are a few excerpts: The mood in the city is grim. ********** I am not aware of any foreign fighters in Falluja. Ninety-nine percent of the fighters here are Fallujans. Local clan leaders are broadly opposed to any kind of foreign presence in the city because they fear they may be spies. **** Hospitals have all but run out of supplies and most people know this. But still the injured are being taken there - just so that they can be near the doctors and receive some comfort. ****************8 The ordinary people of Falluja still want a peaceful solution - but they knew war was inevitable when Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued his ultimatum earlier this week. ************ They think [Allawi] simply gives the order to batter Falluja because this is what the Americans want. 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Shirin (and HC) on Falluja

Posted by Helena Cobban
October 20, 2004 4:38 AM EST | Link
Filed in Iraq

Well-informed JWN frequent-commenter Shirin responded to my invitation to give us more of her impressions of the history of the insurgency in Fallujah. I thought her comment, which was posted here, was worth putting into a main post, so I've done that (after a light edit) right here.

Thanks, Shirin!

I just want to also note the bullying ineptitude of the Negrocontra/Allawi regime in Iraq which actually detained some key Fallujah community leaders who had exited the city to come to talk to them about terms for a possible ceasefire. The US/Allawist forces detained the negotiators from Friday through Monday.

Not surprisingly, after the negotiators-- who included the city's police chief-- were released, they said they were suspending any immediate further pursuit of the ceasefire talks.

Duh! This was nearly unbelievably bad behavior by the US/Allawists, which should have been much more remarked on--by me and others--back when reports of it first surfaced over the weekend.

Whether it was political ineptitude, or just plain bullying-- which could, after all, be described as the same thing--that caused that behavior, the results for both Iraqis and Americans will certainly be more death, more destruction, more wounding, more hurt and suffering all round.

I've been following this story in Al-Hayat over the past few days, and should really show off my re-increasing command of written Arabic by quoting from one of those stories here. Instead, I'll just lift this quote from Today in Iraq:

will remain suspended

"The fact is that I'm negotiating on behalf of Fallujah people � civilians, kids, women � who have no power but through being represented by somebody. Since the situation has got up to this, each can go wherever they want and we don't need to talk about negotiations," he told Al-Arabiya TV.

Anyway, let's move right here and get back to Shirin's comments on Fallujah...

Over to you, Shirin-- and big thanks to you for contributing this:

According to the reports I am hearing the Americans are aerial bombing Falluja during the night and attacking from the ground during the day, meaning this "charmless town" of 300,000 souls is under virtual 24 hour a day attack. I also heard today that, just as they did last spring, they are not allowing Iraqis to leave the city, thereby imprisoning them - men, women, children, infants, elderly - in a death trap they, the Americans, have created. Families who attempt to leave the city are, as they were last spring, turned back at check points, or attacked from the air or the ground as they attempt to escape the bombardment of their city.

As I said yesterday, Falluja has never been the "hotbed of Ba`thists and Saddam supporters" the propagandists would have us believe - far from it, in fact. In truth, the so-called "privileged Sunni triangle", and the "Shi'ite south" and the "Kurdish north" and everything that flows from that myth is ignorant nonsense (including the manufactured spectre of sectarian/ethnic civil war), but that's another discussion for another time...

Certainly there were people in Falluja who supported Saddam Hussein for various reasons - or at least went along with the regime in order to survive, and even reap benefits - just as there were in every part of the country. There were no doubt people there who were genuinely loyal to him and his regime. There were Mukhabarat agents in Falluja, and there were people who were coerced into working on behalf of the government, just as there were in every part of the country (and let us not forget that the U.S. has also used various forms of coercion to induce Iraqis to act as their agents). However, Falluja was very well known for its dislike of and defiance against the Ba`thist regime, and was subjected to periodic purges as a result. Fallujans would say "if Saddam said to work harder, Falluja would take two days off". When Saddam ordered that Friday services all over the country include prayers for and praise of him, the Falluja mosques defied that order.

During the American invasion Falluja remained quiet and passive. There was no fighting from the city either during the invasion or in the early days of the occupation. For that reason, American forces saw no need to take any action regarding the city. Like most Iraqis, Fallujans were glad to be rid of Saddam, and hoped for the best from the Americans. Falluja also remained quiet and free of the chaos and looting and violence that was taking place in most of the country.

Then, in late May [2003] American forces came rolling into town, took over one of the schools as its base, and, completely ignoring the city leaders, and the needs, concerns and interests of the population, proceeded to take it over. They disrupted virtually every aspect of life in the city. They drove tanks up and down residential streets all night long and flew helicopters over neighborhoods, shining bright searchlights on the families trying to sleep on their roofs in the late spring and summer heat, thus violating the privacy of the home, and giving the impression they were spying on the women. They stopped families on the streets and male soldiers frisked women in front of their fathers, brothers, and husbands. They did a great deal to confirm many of the wildest rumours about their intentions to violate the honour of Iraqi women. They treated men in humiliating ways in front of their families and neighbors.

If their purpose had been to antagonize the residents of Falluja they could not have done a better job. But even then the people of Falluja remained non-violent, though they were becoming more and more enraged. Then, when the American forces ignored the requests of city leaders to vacate their school, a group of Fallujans decided to exercise their "new-found freedom"� by holding a demonstration in front of the school to protest its takeover. That day the Americans shot and killed 15 unarmed protesters, and wounded many more. The next day there was another, smaller demonstration during which the Americans shot and killed three more unarmed Iraqis. That was when the people of Falluja reached their breaking point.

That's the history in brief. The terrible irony is that it would not have been very difficult at all for the Americans to build Falluja into a model of Iraqi-American cooperation. At the very least, by leaving it alone they could have avoided most if not all of the trouble with that city. Instead, by doing exactly the wrong - of the very worst - thing at every opportunity, they have turned it into the proverbial "hotbed of insurgency" (sic) and a place of massive horror, death and destruction.

Finally, Falluja has always been a socially, culturally and religiously very conservative city - hardly a place that someone like Saddam would find a welcome. Now, by all reports, rather than being a "Ba`thist stronghold", it has become "the Islamic Republic of Falluja" - NOT a very welcoming environment for "Saddam loyalists".

Comments

Comment from... Damien, at October 20, 2004 09:14 AM:

Helena,

You consider that detaining the negotiators (some are still in custody) was "political ineptitude, or just plain bullying", and "the results for both Iraqis and Americans will certainly be more death, more destruction, more wounding...". Another way of thinking about that detention and its likely consequences (suspension of ceasefire talks) is to consider it was done deliberately to justify the US military campaign already underway in Fallujah by making it look like the "insurgents" are responsible for suspending the ceasefire talks. By the same token, the Zarqawi logic (give up Zarqawi or we attack) is reminiscent of the WMD logic (give up your WMD or we attack). We have not been presented any credible evidence that Zarqawi was/is in Fallujah, but we have been presented credible evidence that precision strikes do kill children and women on a daily basis in Fallujah, something the Pentagon does'nt even want to aknowledge.
What I believe is the decision has been taken to level Fallujah beginning next month, and the American military is currently doing everything it can to escalate the situation so it finally looks like the right answer to "insurgent" violence in Fallujah is an all-out attack.

Comment from... Geo, at October 20, 2004 04:43 PM:

Thank you for re-capping our history of bloodletting incompetence in Falluja. I had forgotten about our earlier swaggering mistakes and this post so clearly shows everything wrong in our policy: turning potential allies into bitter enemies.

Unfortunately for this benighted city, I think Dreyfuss (blog at tompaine.com) probably has it right: An all out attack on Fallujah is the long-awaited Bush October surprise. The present ongoing bombardment has nothing to do with Zarkawi, but it is a "softening" up of the city before the main attack. Underneat massive air power, the US will sweep into a fairly easy victory from our standpoint--nevermind the terrible toll on Iraqis--and Bush will declare (as Dreyfuss notes) that we have "turned the corner" in Iraq. No such thing will of course be the case. But will Americans buy it? Never underestimate....

Comment from... Geo, at October 20, 2004 04:43 PM:

Comment from... James R MacLean, at October 22, 2004 02:25 PM:

the bullying ineptitude of the Negrocontra/ Allawi regime in Iraq which actually detained some key Fallujah community leaders who had exited the city to come to talk to them about terms for a possible ceasefire.

I get the joke, but for those who don't--Negroponte is the US Ambassador to Iraq, and de facto governor-general. He's won notoriety because, as US Ambassador to Honduras (1980's), he helped cover up evidence of death squads in that country; this, in order to facilitate Reagan Administration boosting of the contras.

Comment from... Shirin, at October 26, 2004 01:09 AM:

The BBC has recently published a report taken by phone from a reporter inside Falluja.

Here are a few excerpts:

The mood in the city is grim.

************

I am not aware of any foreign fighters in Falluja.

Ninety-nine percent of the fighters here are Fallujans.

Local clan leaders are broadly opposed to any kind of foreign presence in the city because they fear they may be spies.

********

Hospitals have all but run out of supplies and most people know this.

But still the injured are being taken there - just so that they can be near the doctors and receive some comfort.

********************8

The ordinary people of Falluja still want a peaceful solution - but they knew war was inevitable when Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued his ultimatum earlier this week.

**************

They think [Allawi] simply gives the order to batter Falluja because this is what the Americans want.

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