BREAKING: Bremmer: US unilaterally suspend offensive in Faluja

[meenie]

If Brehmer is calling the shots, we are indeed in bad trouble. Urban guerillas are worse than guerillas in any other mode. Concrete and rubble makes better defensive positions for guerillas than terrain or jungle. The troops are in one fierce battle to clean them out.

[Skywalk]

We're going to allow a meeting with ANTI-COALITION FORCES???!!

WTF?!?

[Cap Huff]

"threatening to resign"

Did someone report this or is this speculation? I am not trying to be argumentative, I just want to know whether this is based on reports or not.

[Robert Drobot]

Bremmer = Chicken S***.

[LdSentinal]

One guy resigned, but it was said it was due to Bremer's criticism of his department.

[A Simple Soldier]

As it should be. And I am a troop. Sorry, it ain't fair, but it is the ONLY way. Sometimes it really sucks, but in the end, our republic only survives if we trust our civilian leaders to make the ultimate decisions and this is a decision that is totally in the realm of civilian control.

Let this play out. People on the ground know what they are doing.

Remember the goal is victory in a strategic environment. Pressing a fight or winning a battle/engagement for its own sake, divorced of the grand strategic consideration is a waste of lives and resources. Victory is achieved with a combination of elements of power, not just military force.

[leadpenny]

I'm a bit confused by Bremer's action. It seems the announcement should have come from CENTCOM.

[kattracks]

Marines halt offensive operations in Fallujah for negotiations

The Associated Press
4/9/04 4:56 AM

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. Marines halted offensive operations in Fallujah on Friday to allow talks with a delegation of sheiks from the city, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents that has been besieged by American forces this week, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq said.

Shooting was still heard in the city after the noon suspension began.

Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Battalion 5th Marine Regiment, said his forces were continuing to respond to insurgent attacks but had halted offensive operations.

"I would not describe this as a cease-fire. We are still aggressively defending our positions. However we have ceased offensive operations for now," Byrne said.

A delegation from Fallujah was meeting with Marine commanders at their base outside the city. The purpose of the negotiations was not immediately known.

Marines have been battling Sunni insurgents in bloody fighting in Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, since Monday aiming to uproot guerrillas. At least four Marines and more than 280 Iraqis have been killed.

The top U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, confirmed the offensive halt.

"As of noon today coalition forces have initiated a unilateral suspension of offensive operations in Fallujah to allow for a meeting between members of the Governing Council, local Muslim leadership and the leadership of anti-coalition forces," Bremer said.

[jaykay]

We're going to allow a meeting with ANTI-COALITION FORCES???!!

WTF?!?

We're going to allow a meeting with ANTI-COALITION FORCES???!!

WTF?!?

[piasa]

They were not in the town but on the outskirts! Try to get the facts right.

No, looks like you need to:

Two US marines and 10 Iraqi rebels were said to have been killed in the fighting in Falluja before hostilities were suspended.
The US troops were hit by sniper fire as they edged through the city block by block, facing hit-and-run attacks with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

Doesn't sound like outskirts to me.

[Justa]

The holiday is Ara'been (sp?). It commemorates a 7th century martyr who-died-at-the-hands-of-infidels. It started last Sunday and goes til Easter. Hence the volunteers and mosque battles of the last week. Religious festivities peak this weekend in Karbala and Najaf and I believe it ends on Easter Sunday.

I suspect this will be called the Ara'been offensive.

[Steve Van Doorn]

The US said six more soldiers had died over two days, while at least 14 Iraqis were killed in Karbala and Falluja.

something is wrong with those numbers.

[Just mythoughts]

Personally I like to see his sorry "behind" over there in Iraq. He claims this to be a failure so let's see him take a bunch of his hand selected coalition and solve this failure, in country. I will personally send a movie camera so he can reenact his negotiating skills.

[Cap Huff]

Yes, I know about him. That was supposedly over Sunni / Shia mix considerations. Sounded a little suspicious, but not acrimonious.

[neverdem]

"As of noon today coalition forces have initiated a unilateral suspension of offensive operations in Falluja," Paul Bremer told reporters. He did not say how long the ceasefire would last.

This is an opportunity for a cease-fire over the Good Friday to Easter Sunday weekend. Don't Good Friday services start at noon, local time?

From what I'm seeing and hearing, they're getting their butts kicked something awful, both Sunni and the Shia. I'm not saying that our losses are to be ignored, but it looks like 10 to 1 in our favor. If they want to continue fighting, so be it.

[Barlowmaker]

They were not in the town but on the outskirts! Try to get the facts right.

If you could read carefully you'd note I said "coming into town".

I note you are exclusively a spammer of News reports highlighting American Soldier Deaths and military defeats. Which Balkan country do you live in?

[Cap Huff]

What's it look like from over there? Are we getting a good or distorted perspective through the news media? Can you tell from where your are?

[My Dog Likes Me]

Operation Vigilant Resolve has become Operation Osprey.

Dead Marines, again, for what?

We cannot democratize crazy people with the stroke of a pen.
This is disgusting. As I said here last week, our in-theater leaders are incompetent, but God Bless our servicemen who have the misfortune to serve under them at the moment.

[piasa]

They other side isn't leaving bodies around if they can help it. The blood remains, but they're taking the bodies according to one report. Most likely this is because they know we now have cause to mutilate theirs were we so inclined.

We cannot verify how many we take down because of that.

[Just mythoughts]

"We cannot democratize crazy people with the stroke of a pen.
This is disgusting. As I said here last week, our in-theater leaders are incompetent, but God Bless our servicemen who have the misfortune to serve under them at the moment."


What a defeatist mind, if this be the case then "WE" should just walk away and turn over the final destruction of our very own Constitution to the lying crooked liberals.