Marines Prepare for Fallujah Pull Back (Fox Reports NO PEACE DEAL in Fallujah)

AP ^ | Thu, Apr 29, 2004 | Jayson Keyser

[Anti-Bubba182]

It just broke on Fox News. A deal has been made for the Marines to pull out and for Fallujah to turned over to the new Iraqi military.

I've got a bad feeling about this.

[F14 Pilot]

Go Marines Go!

[OpusatFR]

They have to handle it some day. Better to find out now if they can do so in a contained situation.

[Alas Babylon!]

It seems to me our left wing press has moved the objective of "Capturing those who killed and mutilated the bodies of Americans!" to "How do we prevent the destruction of Fallujah?". The story talks and talks about the pending move by Marines to destroy Fallujah and how everyone is working hard to avoid this. Why? Seems they've lost sight of why we went in there in the first place. Have we abandoned this goal? Since we didn't capture all those who did the initial atrocities, then we have lost, and the terrorists have won. Crazy.

[af_vet_1981]

Mutilate Americans, drag them through the streets of Mogadishu Fallujah, and hang their bodies from the bridge. What do you think we are going to do about it ?
This is not the Clinton Administration ...
Iraq is not Vietnam where politicians tied the hands of the military ...

[Anti-Bubba182]

We'll know pretty quick if we see a bunch of terrorists dancing in the streets of Fallujah proclaiming victory.

[trebb]

Live fire training exercises???

[Types_with_Fist]

I don't care what kind of "agreement" they made. The Iraqis will not live up to it and will see this as a victory. Well, zafter all of our huffing and puffing, it IS a victory for them.

[Westbrook]

Read the piece.

The reason for the pullback is purely political.

The live TV images of the bombing made Koffi Anan cry, and made Leftists around the world wet their beds, so the Marines have to pull out.

All the injuries, and deaths, that the Americans suffered in the seige of the city were for naught.

We STILL don't have the bad guys that burned and mutilated the four American contractors.

[Anti-Bubba182]

"We STILL don't have the bad guys that burned and mutilated the four American contractors."

I don't think we'll get them this way.

[AntiGuv]

What new Iraqi military? The one that collapsed three weeks ago??

[eclectic]

This is the beginning of the end

[section9]

Needless to say, I am very skeptical of this.

The command has to know that this is a fool's errand. The locals are Arabs, and as such, will see any sign of compromise as weakness. They will redouble their attacks.

What could be going on is a pullback/consolidation of the line, but I'm just not sure. Yes, if it works out politically in the long run, we win. But I'm not sure that this will do anything except encourage the jihadi.

Again, the situation is fluid and it is not always best to judge the outcome of the campaign on one day's movements. But I am not encouraged.

We will have to do later what we should have done two weeks ago.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Catspaw]

Unbelievable, just unbelievable.

[Pravious]

Me, either. My trust in the brains-that-be is beginning to falter. Who's running the Iraq war? Jimmy Carter? What's with this "you have until tonight to hand in your weapons or else!" warning followed the next day by... nothing. Followed by a pull-out! What?! I don't care if the Iraqi police go in there and exterminate every bad guy... WE come out of it looking weak (except perhaps to the Socialist RATS in our own country, who see weakness as strength), which is not the signal we want to send to the Islamofascists across the world.

[prophetic]

can we just use one tiny tactical nuke, huh, please??
C'mon forget about all about the 'political fallout' crap we gotta sent a clear lesson about f*/king with the USA here.

Its one clear thing about the Middle East folks and that is: they respect power and despise those who 'negotiate' as a clear sign of weakness. Heck, just look at the crap that Israel has gotten itself mired into because of 'negotiations' with terrorists (i.e. Arafat).

[AntiGuv]

Yes, if it works out politically in the long run, we win.

It sure didn't work out the first time. It's not as if Fallujah was bypassed during the initial takeover. We already pulled out last summer when there were so many things going on not much of anyone noticed. We see what that got us. Oh well, maybe it'll work this time around. Ya never know!

[lentulusgracchus]

In Baghdad, U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the U.S. strikes were limited and aimed at gunmen who were attacking Americans. "Even though it may not look like it, there is still a determined aspiration on the part of the coalition to maintain a cease-fire and solve the situation in Fallujah by peaceful means," he said.

Sounds like he and the Iraqi council are playing good-cop/bad-cop with the fedayeen. It remains to be seen if the Iraqi good guys can stand up to the wicked elan of the insurgents, who are trying to reclaim their "birthright" and bring the old regime back. If the new regime wants to pacify Fallujah their way, the militants may force them to flatten the place -- for which they don't have the horses now, they need all those BMP and T-72's that we burned up last year, and they need the Iraqi regular army back in uniform to do it.

Did anyone else notice that they're bringing in former Ba'athist generals? Oh, brother.

[Kozak]

Maybe the Marines are just pulling ack to be out of the blast and fallout radius.