Who are we fighting in Fallujah?

[gratuitous]

The conventional wisdom is that Fallujah is just crawling with foreign mercenaries. Maybe that's not true:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/la-fg-fighters16nov16,0,19927.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Few Foreigners Among Insurgents


Judging from fighters captured in Fallouja, all but about 5% are Iraqi, U.S. officials say.

By John Hendren
Times Staff Writer
Posted November 16 2004

CAMP FALLOUJA, Iraq — The battle for the city of Fallouja is giving U.S. military commanders some insight into this country's insurgency, painting a portrait of a home-grown uprising dominated by Iraqis, not foreign fighters.

Of the more than 1,000 men between the ages of 15 and 55 who were captured in intense fighting in the center of the insurgency over the last week, just 15 are confirmed foreign fighters, Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, said Monday.

* * *

The overwhelming majority of insurgents, several senior commanders said, are drawn from the tens of thousands of former government employees whose sympathies lie with the toppled regime of Saddam Hussein, unemployed "criminals" who find work laying roadside bombs for about $500 each and Iraqi religious extremists.

"Over time, it's the former regime elements that are the threat," said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who joined Casey for a visit to bases in Baghdad and outside Fallouja before meeting with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Before the battle, U.S. officials frequently stressed the role of foreign fighters in Fallouja. Last week, as the battle got underway, Myers told reporters that the city was "a major safe haven for former regime elements and foreign fighters, in particular Zarqawi and his folks."

__________________________________

So, if our military is "liberating" Fallujah from its Iraqi inhabitants, how do we distinguish this from the "liberation" of the Warsaw ghetto by the Nazis? I'm having some real problems with what's being done with my tax dollars and in my name.

[Cocoa]

1. another question...

who's going to run Fallujah now that it has been liberated from the Fallujians who have been running it?

[phantom power]

2. I heard it was Satan, himself

(according to that nutcase general)

[VioletLake]

3. Ultimately,

ourselves.

[billyoc]

4. Oh, you didn't know?

We're fighting SATAN!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2690860

:crazy:

[RBHam]

5. It was always a lie

A pretext for this outrageous massacre.

How US fuelled myth of Zarqawi the mastermind
By Adrian Blomfield outside Fallujah
(Filed: 04/10/2004)

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader believed to be responsible for the abduction of Kenneth Bigley, is 'more myth than man', according to American military intelligence agents in Iraq.

Several sources said the importance of Zarqawi, blamed for many of the most spectacular acts of violence in Iraq, has been exaggerated by flawed intelligence and the Bush administration's desire to find "a villain" for the post-invasion mayhem.

more...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/04/wirq04.xml

[spanone]

6. We are fighting Iraqis. NOT INSURGENTS. IRAQIS

95 FUCKING PERCENT IRAQIS. THEY LOVE DEMOCRACY IT SEEMS.

[leftchick]

7. This little guy is no insurgent....

he is the same age as my little boy... :(





U.S. Army critical care nurse Cpt. Marvetta Walker checks on a 9-year-old Fallujah boy who was wounded in the face and stomach, while at the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites) Monday, Nov. 15, 2004. The boy was in critical condition. The hospital has been treating both American wounded as well as civilians from the Fallujah fighting.(AP Photo/John Moore)

[demnan]

8. It's awful, unspeakably awful