Bush surrenders control of US Marines to Foreign Government!

[JanMichael]

HERE. Pretty unambiguous.

"American officials stress that the final order to launch a big operation would come from Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who has warned Fallujah to hand over followers of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or face attack."

They take orders from Allawi?

That's great, give the Marines to an unelection foreign "leader" (Some would call this a dictator...)!

[Vickers]

1. Jesus, wouldn't ya rather have a GLOBAL test than just an ALLAWI test?

Holy shit.

[JanMichael]

2. Using American soldiers as mercenaries. This is criminal.

Common place but criminal none the less.

And the "global test" with actual elected governments would certainly be less problematic than just hand over attack orders to a mini-potentate.

EDIT: Bush subscribes to the "Allawi Test"! That one kicks ass.

[punpirate]

3. This is the official explanation...

... the reality is that this is simply meant to build support for Allawi toward the elections. The US is still calling the shots, make no mistake, and I'll bet that's what the troops are being told.

They don't call them "puppet" governments for nothing.

[classof56]

4. Well, they now have an unelected commander in chief...

who'd love to be a dictator. And I'm willing to bet, if Bush steals this election like he did last time, he WILL be a dictator. As someone once told me, A dictatorship is fine as long as you agree with the dictator. So get ready, folks! Unless of course we roundly DEFEAT BUSH!! Let's do it!

[Straight Shooter]

5. Allawi doesn't care if they live or die

Neither does bush. But this tactic apparently is designed to prevent people blaming bush for the ensuing massacre. Or maybe Allawi is like bush, "my way or the highway."

It never had to come to this. But, we all know that.