Fallujah Bloodbath threatens US-Appointed Iraqi Government with Collapse

[Cooley Hurd]

From JuanCole.com

Fallujah Bloodbath threatens US-Appointed Iraqi Government with Collapse

AP reported that the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) issued a demand early on Saturday that the US cease its military action against Fallujah and stop employing "collective punishment."

Not only has what many Iraqis call "the puppet council" taken a stand against Bush administration tactics in Iraq, but individual members are peeling off. Shiite Marsh Arab leader Abdul Karim al-Muhammadawi suspended his membership in the council on Friday. A Sunni member, Ghazi al-Yawir, has threatened to resign if a negotiated settlement of the Fallujah conflict cannot be found. Old-time Sunni nationalist leader Adnan Pachachi thundered on al-Arabiya televsion, "It was not right to punish all the people of Fallujah, and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal." For him to go on an Arab satellite station much hated by Donald Rumsfeld and denounce the very people who appointed him to the IGC is a clear act of defiance. There are rumors that many of the 25 Governing Council members have fled abroad, fearful of assassination because of their association with the Americans. The ones who are left appear on the verge of resigning.



This looks to me like an incipient collapse of the US government of Iraq. Beyond the IGC, the bureaucracy is protesting. Many government workers in the ministries are on strike and refusing to show up for work, according to ash-Sharq al-Awsat. Without Iraqis willing to serve in the Iraqi government, the US would be forced to rule the country militarily and by main force. Its legitimacy appears to be dwindling fast. The "handover of sovereignty" scheduled for June 30 was always nothing more than a publicity stunt for the benefit of Bush's election campaign, but it now seems likely to be even more empty. Since its main rationale was to provide more legitimacy to the US enterprise in Iraq, and since any legitimacy the US had is fading fast, and since a government appointed by Bremer will be hated by virtue of that very appointment, the Bush administration may as well just not bother.

The Interior Minister, Nuri Badran, who was dismissed by Paul Bremer on Thursday, appears to have gone into exile in Jordan. He was probably let go because he objected to the twin US assaults, on Fallujah and on the Sadrist Shiites, or at least to the way it was being done.

**Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan and his columns are Syndicated by Agence Global. Juan is also a friend and collaborator of Joshua Micah Marshall of http://talkingpointsmemo.com **

I'm putting this in LBN because virtually no one is reporting on the toll this has taken on the US-appointed IGC.

[dbt]

1. Thanks, alg0912!

I'm so old I can remember when CBS would have carried a story like this!

:yourock:
dbt

[Disturbed]

2. Yeah, thanks

I will post this on other boards.
I have been posting many post here on other boards.
This board is quite informative.
I do go to other news related sites, as well.

The hand over has been a sham and I believe that many Iraqis are becoming more aware of that. It's most of the American public that remains unaware. Bushco and most of the Media treat Americans like mushrooms. Keeping them in the dark and feeding them dung.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. *snarf*

Bushco and most of the Media treat Americans like mushrooms. Keeping them in the dark and feeding them dung.

Perfect analogy! :thumbsup:

[leftchick]

20. Disturbed that is damned Priceless!!

"It's most of the American public that remains unaware. Bushco and most of the Media treat Americans like mushrooms. Keeping them in the dark and feeding them dung."

...and would make an excellent sig line! :)

[saigon68]

24. Looks like the END of the Puppet Show

KRAZY KILLER KIMMITT enforcer for the Viceroy




Viceroy Pontius Bremer (w/red tie, blue shirt) of the Amerikan Province of Eastern Iraq-Nam

With his Praetorian Mercenary Guard

Appointed by Cheney Caesar in the year of Our Lord 2003

[theHandpuppet]

8. Yeah, me too!

It would be funny if it weren't so pathetically true.

[Racenut20]

3. I bet all those who fled have a pocket full of US dollars to tide them ove

[farmbo]

5. The Biggest Story of the day...and the US Media won't touch it!

The rest of the world and the Arab world in particular, sees no difference between our armored columns conducting raids into Fallujah and the Israeli punitive raids into the West Bank and Gaza.

One side bristling with the latest with heavy armaments...

The other armed with rocks and an occasional AK...

And caught in the middle: the Children.

No wonder the Iraqi Governing Council is disintegrating.

[chelsea0011]

6. Let me see if I understand this.

The hand-picked board is turning on the US? I at least thought the board would have lasted until the second week in July. Even the Iraqi board sees the writing on the wall.

[western mass]

7. Here's the whitewash in the "Paper of Record"

The fact that even the puppets are revolting should be HEADLINE news, destroying beyond any doubt the fiction of B*shco's "bringing democracy to Iraq", right??? (Or as Mike Malloy would say: right....RIGHT!?!?!?!). Here's how the Paper of Record reports this earth-shattering news. A few lines stuck on at the end of a very long piece on Fallujah:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html?pagewanted=2&hp

"Abdul-Karim Mahoud al-Mohammedawi, a Shiite on the Governing Council, announced he was suspending his council seat until ``the bleeding stops in all Iraq.'' He also met Friday with al-Sadr, whom U.S. commanders have vowed to capture.
A Sunni council member, Ghazi al-Yawer, said he would quit if the Fallujah talks fell through."

The NYT has helpfully scrubbed clean any hint of the council members' explicit criticism of what the U.S. is doing. Reading the above lines, the implication is that they're just unhappy in general with the turmoil.

[54anickel]

10. Uh-oh. This guy (maybe others as well) meeting with al-Sadr and the US

troops have orders to capture or kill al-Sadr. What's going to happen if/when the US troops are successful? I think it was David Brooks last night on Jim Leher (sp) pounding the table calling for the end to al-Sadr as well. Says al-Sadr is a brownshirt thug, wanting to take over and have an Iran type gov't. Says Sasitini despises him and wants him eliminated.

Shield makes some good points, both rip on Rummy. About 10 minutes long.

on edit: The Shields & Brooks segment of lastnights Jim Lehrer Newshour audio if you're interested.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html

[boobooday]

9. A Failure Across the Globe, That's Our Bush

How could he be SOOOO much worse than even those of us who knew he was going to be a horror thought?

Everything is devolving into chaos since the Bushies came to town!



http://www.wgoeshome.com

[Zero Division]

11. How can the situation in Iraq possibly recover from all of this???!!!

I just read this on Prof. Cole's site.

I'm struggling for the words to describe what I think of how the Bush admin. has handled the occupation in Iraq, and I simply cannot find them. While I opposed the decision to go to war in Iraq, I eventually came to agree with those who said that our armed forces needed to stay, to do the best we could to try to prevent the worst possible outcomes (such as a massive civil war) of an immediate departure. I supported Wesley Clark in the primaries partly because I believed him to be the most capable in undertaking this task.

But now with the uprising of Muqtada's Shiite followers (not to mention Sistani's response, or rather, his effective non-response to this uprising), the disastrous outcome of Fallujah, and the apparent crumbling of the IGC, I am deeply saddened and angered to admit that I am almost absolutely certain that our government/military will not be able to help bring stability to Iraq. I would be more than happy to be convinced otherwise, but I can't imagine what anyone could say or show me that would do so.

I concur completely with Josh Marshall's comments on the situation: "Awful. Unforgivable."

[NJmaverick]

12. *

U.S. Losing Support of Key Iraqis
36 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Los Angeles Times to My Yahoo!


By Alissa J. Rubin Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD — Tough U.S. tactics in Fallouja and Shiite Muslim cities of southern Iraq (news - web sites) are driving a wedge between the Americans and their key supporter — the 25-member Governing Council that puts an Iraqi face on the occupation and is expected to serve as the basis of a new government.


One council member, angered by this week's heavy fighting in Fallouja and the prospect of a U.S. move against the militia of an anti-American Shiite cleric, suspended his membership Friday. Four others say they are ready to follow suit.


A sixth council member, Adnan Pachachi, a respected former diplomat who less than three months ago had accompanied First Lady Laura Bush to the president's State of the Union address, harshly criticized U.S. actions as "illegal and totally unacceptable."


From the beginning of the occupation, one of the biggest questions for U.S. authorities was how to create an indigenous leadership that would be acceptable to both the United States and the Iraqi people.


The Governing Council was a tenuous solution; many Iraqis accused its members of being little more than America's puppets.


But now even that backing seems on the verge of crumbling, undermining U.S. insistence that it has Iraqi support for its policies and leaving no one to hand power to, as the Bush administration insists it will, on June 30.

<SNIP>

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&u=/latimests/20040410/t...

Nomad1776

[Demeter]

13. I Don't Care What They Say

The only valid response to the Iraq situation is to pull out, bug out, go home and let the dust settle. There is no way, short of killing every Iraqi and half of the rest of the Arab world, that we will prevail there. Face facts, and the music. Save some lives and some face. What idiots!

[Veggie Meathead]

15. You have delivered the correct solution.We are the ones who have created

the instability in Iraq, not to mention untold suffering for a population that has suffered relentless bombing over a period of twelve years after enduring brutal rule by a tyrant for thirty odd years.On top of this they were subjected to a cruel regime of sanctions that has killed thousands of children for lack of medicines and food.Our hands are full of blood and as Shakespeare would have it,
"all the perfumes of Arabia" would not be enough to remove this stench.

An administration born in fraud, enters a war created by fraudulent means and is trying to sustain it by sending its fraudulent minions
to pull the wool over our eyes.It is time we do the one decent thing left for us to do. Remove our troops from Iraq and send people of goodwill like President Carter to help provide long needed relief to the suffering people of Iraq and help with Iraq's reconstruction with no strings attached.

[jpak]

19. We invaded unilaterally

We can withdraw unilaterally

What's all the fuss about????

[wildwww2]

26. The best post I have read all day! It`s a sad truth you tell.

But the morons who lead our country have corporate lobbyist`s to appease. So the blood will continue to flow. Our troops are not related to them. And middle eastern people for the most part. Do not make them any money. But how did our oil get under their sand?
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[RedEarth]

14. I was just getting ready to visit Cole's site and Marshall's site

and then I scrolled down LBN and saw this posting. In my opinion, Talking Points and Cole's site are two of the best blogs on the net. Not only do they have outstanding commentary, they also link to some other very good blogs. Both of these sites should be required reading.......Cole's, in particular, if you want to actually want to get some worthwhile insight into the Middle East.

Thanks for the post........

[cliss]

16. Thanks, alg for bringing this up.

And yet another "ally" turns on the occupiers and becomes a voice of the dissent. Meanwhile in Baghdad, Paul Bremer sits in Saddam's Louis XIV chair upholstered silk velvet and ponders the situation.

This is the dilemma of the US occupation. As resistance grows, they have only one alternative: to rise up against them and crack down even harder. We are locked into a rigid act-react situation which can have only one outcome: an escalation of bombings and bloodshed on both sides.

In one short year, we have reached the point which took 15 years in VietNam. And for those who say it's impossible for us to back out now, guess how we left VietNam. We packed our bags and went home. The US was defeated, by the way. And no, communism did not spread and infect the rest of the world, like we were warned.

[sspiderjohn]

17. So all of them are thugs, too, I guess? Great article -- thanks.

nt

[tedzbear]

18. The IGC has to side with the Iraqi people or else they will...

...be targets of ridicule and even assassination. They will be considered traitors by the Iraqi people and will be hunted down like their American masters.


Boy, I sound like al-Sadr's PR rep, don't I?

:kick:

[revcarol]

21. The American-trained police are already under attack.

Seen as collaborators...lots of attacks on police stations...but they're only Iraqis so we don't hear about their deaths.

The best thing we could do is get Chalabi and his henchmen out of the country. They conned us out of enough money to retire on comfortably. Then STOP the attack on Fallujah.Then call the U. N. and say we turn over command to them as soon as they are in place, and we renounce all contracts and natural resources and void all purchases of the Iraqi businesses we have been privatizing!!We will give the U. N. money to administer Iraq, make reparations, and GIVE OUT CONTRACTS, WITH iRAQI FIRMS GETTING FIRST PRIORITY.

Revenue from oil should be saved for the time when the FREELY ELECTED government of Iraq takes over. Then THEY could decide what to do with THEIR money.

[Cooley Hurd]

22. Juan Cole's Sunday post...

http://juancole.com

Revolution in Baqubah

5 US soldiers Killed in Baghdad and al-Anbar
<snip>
According to Reuters and other wire services:

BaqubahA violent revolt broke out in the eastern city of Baqubah, in which guerrillas mounted assaults on government buildings and police stations. Fighting spread throughout the city, only slowing down Saturday afternoon. Baqubah looked like a ghost town. US-trained Iraqi security forces did not report for duty at checkpoints and police stations. Several American troops of the 1st ID's 3rd Brigade were wounded, and 40 Iraqis were killed in the fighting. On Friday, there had been coordinated rocket attacks on a police station, the governor's office, and a US military civil affairs building. On Friday, 11 civilians had been killed and 35 injured.
</snip>

[tlcandie]

23. Highway to hell: The road to Falluja

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FE78FACB-0A6D-4F88-A6C1-B434857135A6.htm


US marines hunt for Iraqi rebels on the outskirts of Falluja

<snip>
The images prove too much for Ahmad; he drops his face into his hands and breaks down. As he walks away, I call an Aljazeera cameraman in Falluja to check on his safety.

My colleague's voice is panic-stricken as he describes the scene, echoing the pictures that have shocked Ahmad. “There are images we can’t show because it’s just too gruesome. I have never seen anything like this before,” he says.
<snip>


Falluja's hospitals are overflowing with dead and wounded

<snip>
“There are bodies everywhere, and people can’t go out to retrieve them because they’re too afraid of being blown away themselves.

“I can’t believe the number of children here, we were at the hospital and it’s full of dead and wounded kids.

“The ones that aren’t dead have lost limbs and are wailing in pain, begging for their parents. What parents?” he screams. “I don’t have the heart to tell them that their parents are in pieces.

“Back at our office the Americans are shooting at us. I walk out of the bathroom and a laser is pointed at my chest,” he says, referring to US sharpshooters in the area.

“We'd just bought cigarettes from a store across the street; no more than ten minutes later it was bombed.”
<snip>


Deadly fate: An insurgent lies dead in the battle-ravaged town

This story is about hopelessness which IMO is why this is happening... the Iraqi people have lost all hope of the US leaving and some semblence of normal returning to their lives without bombing, occupation, foreigners, etc. Truly heartbreaking read... :cry:

[jmcgowanjm]

25. trying to confirm reports of B52's bombing

And 27 US hostages from Al Graib
And Snipers hunting down AlJazeera Reporters
in Fallujah.
Talked to wife of leader sniper group from
1st Marines-she couldn't pronounce "Fallujah"
where he was. She's not gotten emails from him lately.
And targeting ambulances
And major assault on Fallujah to free up
Marines for combat elsewhere
And IGC collapsing
And serious defections from USmade150k "Iraqi"Army.
And most important of all — something you will not hear
on American TV — is that the U.S. appears to be losing
control of Baghdad and all the other major Iraqi cities,
and the air campaign of killing innocent civilians is a
desperate attempt to reverse the trend.
Libertarian Socialist News
Debka/Mossad seriously worried