Fallujah braces for US reprisal

The Age ^ | April 3, 2004 | Paul McGeough

[Piefloater]

The predominantly Sunni city of Fallujah is braced for what US leaders, from the White House down, promise will be an "overwhelming" response to the brutal deaths of four US security contractors in the city on Wednesday.

There were sporadic attacks across Iraq yesterday, but in the aftermath of scenes reminiscent of a horror film - in which the bodies of the four were incinerated and dragged around the city behind vehicles before being dismembered or left hanging from a bridge - an eerie and shocked silence descended on the country.

Internationally, particularly in the US, there was outrage.

Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, the main spokesman for the US military in Baghdad, warned that 4000 US marines stationed near Fallujah would respond. "They are going to hunt down the people responsible for this bestial act," he said. "It will be at a time and a place of our choosing. It will be methodical, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming."

Pressed on the decision by the marines not to intervene in Wednesday's mayhem, Colonel Michael Walker, a civil affairs commander for the marines, said: "Should we have sent in a tank so we could have gotten, with all due respect, four dead bodies back?

"What good would that have done? A mob is a mob. We would have just provoked them. The smart play was to let this thing fade out."

US administrator Paul Bremer, who on Thursday was watched over by a 10-strong private security detail from Blackwater USA, the company that employed the four dead men, described the killers as human jackals, and their work as "an example of the ongoing struggle between human dignity and barbarism".

Lieutenant-Colonel Saad Jasim, head of the 900-strong Iraqi military unit in Fallujah, explained the failure of his men and the local police to respond: "We were only told about it when it had finished. By the time we arrived there was no one there."

But there seemed to be unanimity across the US political and military establishment that Fallujah would not be a repeat of Mogadishu in 1993 - the Somali capital from which the Americans retreated in shock after the dead crew of a downed Black Hawk helicopter were subjected to similar mutilation.

In Fallujah, the bodies of the four Americans were not retrieved until late on Wednesday, when local clerics and policemen handed them, wrapped in blankets, to US officials.

The attack that preceded the desecration was similar to many of the insurgency assaults on US occupation forces in Iraq, few of which have been claimed by any particular group. But on Thursday, leaflets were distributed in Fallujah claiming the attack on behalf of the Group of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, saying it was retribution for the controversial Israeli assassination last month of the spiritual leader of Hamas.

The reaction of Iraqis was mixed. Local television treated the deaths as major news, but many of Baghdad's new newspapers gave it secondary treatment. Some Iraqis wanted to separate pride in the success of the initial attack on the two US vehicles in Fallujah from revulsion at the treatment of the dead.

[Lady Jag]

Time to bring out Atomic Annie.   Note:Turn up the speakers.

[WestTexasWend]

"Some Iraqis wanted to separate pride in the success of the initial attack on the two US vehicles in Fallujah from revulsion at the treatment of the dead."

They are the Iraqi equivalent of the peaceniks here who say "oh, we support the soldiers but we don't support what they're doing..."

[teletech]

We could always simply lay seige, not allow anything in or out - including food - until the Fallujans hand over the perps.

This is EXACTLY what we should do! I would add that we should shut off all the water and electricity too. When WE have verified we have ALL these KILLERS, then we will restore electricity food and water.

[TastyManatees]

Bump for congressmen advertising on website expressing support for murders in Fallujah.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1110343/posts

[ijcr]

Just like most people you do not see the forest because of the trees.

This is a defining moment,the American response to Fallujah will resonant throughout the Islamic world, it will forever
set the tone for the conduct of anti-terrorist operations for the next decade.

American generalship has not failed so far...and we must have faith in them and their planners.

American soldiers have proved themselves as a disciplined,tough,competent and extremely well equipped fighting force.

Now,all we can do is to let them do their work in a manner and time of their choosing.This will be no drill.

[varon]

Pressed on the decision by the marines not to intervene in Wednesday's mayhem, Colonel Michael Walker, a civil affairs commander for the marines, said: "Should we have sent in a tank so we could have gotten, with all due respect, four dead bodies back?
With all due respect Colonel, damn right you should have gotten the bodies back. Since when has our military stopped looking out after the dead and wounded?

"What good would that have done? A mob is a mob. We would have just provoked them. The smart play was to let this thing fade out."
What's the matter Colonel, afraid the mob would scratch your tank? If one tank was not enough then send in as many as needed and use the firepower, Colonel. The war is not over and your enemy does not wear a uniform.

[Travis McGee]

Scott Helvenston, Navy SEAL, R.I.P.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Overwhelming Reprisal

[VMI70]

All things considered, I don't see his speculation as illegitimate. It is certainly not trollish (new word).

We'll see.

[Travis McGee]

#46: How discouraging. I would have expected the USMC to fight like wildcats to get those bodies back asap. That really bums me out. I expected much more of the Marines. I hope a local commander made this terrible decision to let the mob rip their burnt broken bodies to shreds on world television. I hope this didn't come from the Whitehouse. I'm not and never would be, but if I was a Colonel or even a tank platoon commander, I would have gone straight in, and fired the place up to recover their bodies. If I was not reinforced, well, screw it all. I'd use every shell and bullet anyway.

Just damn.

[TomasUSMC]

Can't think of a better time or place to find WMDs accidentally blowing up and wiping out that city. What an awful pity that would be.

[don-o]

This is Somalia all over again -- this time with a Republican at the helm..

Shullbit

The adults are in charge. I don't watch TV much, but just the words of the folks in charge assure me that it ain't business as usual off this.

Way too much at stake; and it goes beyond punishing the perps. The good Iraqi's who still live in fear of the thugs need a clear demonstration of American resolve. As do foreign investors and entrepreneurs, who are vital for building a stable society.

[don-o]

This is a defining moment,the American response to Fallujah will resonant throughout the Islamic world, it will forever set the tone for the conduct of anti-terrorist operations for the next decade.

Give that man a

Big Ceegar!!

Defining moment, indeed. Well said!

[Poundstone]

I know it's natural to want to see Fallujah levelled. But a bloody reprisal is probably exactly what our opponents WANT us to do. It would be a golden opportunity for them to portray the US as a brutal, Nazi-like occupying force. It would help them recruit more fanatics to carry out more suicide attacks.

I think the smart way to strike down these rats is to use intel, Iraqi agents, and special forces to selectively eliminate the perps. Preferably in the dead of night. Night after night, one, two, or three perps are quietly killed as they sleep, by having their throats cut. A perp leaves his neighborhood to go to the store to buy a loaf of bread; he's found three days later with his head cut off, dumped in a rubbish heap. A ringleader surrounds himself with bodyguards, day and night, and holes up in his house; the next night, a JDAM bomb levels the place without damaging the neighboring houses.

This goes on for weeks. When the US command spokesman is asked if the US is responsible, he says, with a stony face, "No comment."

This would get the message across in unmistakable terms, but without handing the Islamic fanatics a propaganda bonanza.

[VMI70]

re: Colonel Michael Walker, a civil affairs commander...

Right you are.

My first assignment in Viet Nam was to the 2nd Civil Affairs Company. It did not take me very long to put in a request for transfer, because I quickly came to realize that military civil affairs organizations are full of people with Col. Walker's attitude.

When the battalion commander asked why I wanted to transfer, I simply told him that I could have joined the Peace Corps to do what I was doing. I thought it was a pretty nervy reponse from a 2nd lieutenant.

Anyway, I got my transfer to a real army unit.

[BobS]

I have a more creative idea thane a nuke. Put LSD in their water supply and have the Marines stand around and gross them out:):)

That way it's good for morale and security!

[Sir_Ed]

So this guy was afraid WE were going to provoke THEM???!!!

WTF??!!

THEY should have been scared sh**less that WE were provoked, and that we were going to come and slaughter them by the score!!

I don't get it, what the hell is a Marine spkesman doing sounding so politically correct? He sounds like the guys in Somalia.

We needed to immediately move in there and kill everybody within that crowd, it's already too late, they see we're hesitant, now...scared of "provoking" the little monsters.

Ed

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

You have one of the best, if not the very best, country on the planet.

You're not a gun owner are you?

[Capt. Tom]

This is Somalia all over again -- this time with a Republican at the helm..

I have my tag line for a reason.

I am so glad the Republicans are not involved in this. The Bushies will get the job done.

I shudder to think what kind of a response you would get from Trent Lott, Orin Hatch Bill Frist and others.

Don't misunderestimate the Bushies. -Tom

[Lurker]

These a**holes have no idea what's about to land on them.

Find 'em. Fix 'em. Fight 'em. Finish 'em.

Semper Fi.

L