Goals Remain Unachieved in Fallujah

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A senior U.S. military officer acknowledged Saturday that the Americans have not achieved their goals in Fallujah despite the agreement to end the siege of the Sunni Muslim city and turn security over to an Iraqi force.

Ten U.S. Marines and hundreds of Iraqis were killed during the three-week siege of Fallujah, which was launched after four Americans working for the Blackwater USA security company were ambushed, killed, their bodies mutilated and hung from a Euphrates river bridge.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters that the city had been generally quiet since Marines lifted the siege in early May.

Kimmitt also said the U.S.-led coalition had demanded a return to Iraqi government control, handing over of heavy weapons and the arrest of those responsible for the killing of the Blackwater employees.

"We are not satisfied we are making active progress in the latter," Kimmitt said. "We are not satisfied that there has been progress on any of those objectives, with the exception of having Iraqi presence back inside the city."

Hard-line Islamic leaders have reasserted their power in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad. Some were active in defending the city against the Marines and have profited by a perception — both here and elsewhere in Iraq — that the Fallujah fighters defeated a superpower.

From Military to change Iraq focus U.S. to work closely with interim leaders.

“Iraq’s incoming prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has said the U.S. military will not be permitted to repeat heavy offensives like the April siege of Fallujah.
The U.N. resolution gives Iraqi leaders a say on "sensitive offensive operations" by the U.S.-led multinational force but stops short of granting the Iraqis a veto over major U.S.-led military operations as France and Germany had wanted.”

With a more honest news media, the insurgents' fighting efforts to date would be roundly ridiculed worldwide as pathetic at best.

In April, they managed to kill 130 good Americans.
In May, they were down to killing 81 Americans.
So far in June, they've managed to kill only 16 of us.

In contrast, a hypothetical occupying force here in Alabama, population 4 million, would be inflicted with massive casualties from the locals, for example. The million deer hunters here alone would make any occupied foray away from heavy armor into exercises of professional suicide by .308. An occupying force of 100,000 grunts wouldn't survive the year here (for reference, look at the numbers of Germans required to occupy Serbia in WW2, and their casualties...in a nation with far fewer gun gun owners than 'Bama).

That Iraq, a nation of 26 million, is only fielding some 4,000 or fewer remaining insurgents, mostly foreign imported fighters at that, who are only able to make fewer than 50 attacks in the country per day in sum, with those 50 attacks killing fewer than 20 people per day (mostly local Iraqis, at that), just goes to show that the "resistance" in Iraq is below the historical noise level.

Iraqis are killing more Iraqis in accidental car crashes on their own highways each day than their insurgents are capable of killing in deliberate attacks. A single American sniper could make more confirmed enemy kills per day than what the entire Iraqi resistance is currently managing to eek out. 1 man (er, OK, a 2 man sniper team, anyway). The entire Iraqi resistance is less lethal than a single American sniper (team).

It's all press hype. An honest, fair news media would have the world ridiculing the pathetic Iraqi resistance.

I think you've summed things up pretty well. The Fallujah Brigade has very little time left to accomplish something proactively useful. On the bright side, an inherently rotten organization tends to do little more than cause everything around it to rot. The Fallujah Brigade may not be achieving its goals, but its mere presence causes fissures within Mujahideen forces in Fallujah. A muj force without unity is like a grenade without a pin. At some point, the spoon lets go and makes a big mess. But the muj grenade in Fallujah will most likely explode in its own bunker. Our best course of action is probably to do little more than shake the walls a little bit and jiggle the spoon off sooner rather than later. But I would expect Marine support of the Fallujah Brigade is about to end. I think we'll see definite signs one way or another in the next couple days.

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