Military Commanders’ Decisions in Fallujah Overridden by Politicians (CONFIRMED)

Fox Live Broadcast / USA Today Interview ^ | 5/3/04 | Jim Michaels

[elfman2]

Freepers have been hotly debating whether politicians or military commanders made the decision to cancel the Fallujahn offensive.

Today Fox News Live’s Jon Scott (I believe) interviewed Jim Michaels (USA Today Reporter) just back from Fallujah. I transcribed the relevant portion of the interview. In summary he said that the Marines were told to stop the attack by Administrator Bremer under pressure from the Iraqi Governing Council.

MICHAELS – “No one [in the Marines] was happy with the cease fire. The American contractors were killed.

“They got the order to go in, as we know, on a big offensive. They were in the offensive for whatever, seven or eight days and boom the politicians said no, hold back, there’s too many casualties.

“The governing council, the Iraqi governing council, was really upset. They went to Mr. Bremer. Mr. Bremer in turn sort ‘a put in the order to hold back.

“While they were in this cease fire meanwhile the insurgents were in there, the insurgents were in there rearming re-supplying you know, taking advantage of of the lull in activities, so they were in a real bind here, and they really had no choice, they say, except to come up with the idea for a Fallujah Brigade.

“Otherwise these guys would still be in there and the ceasefire would still be going on, and these talks that they were having were going nowhere. The sheiks (sp?) were just kind ‘a sipping tea with coalition officials and were nowhere, It was just getting nowhere at all. “

SCOTT –“So very quickly Jim, Do the bad folks in Fallujah think that they’ve won?”

MICHAELS – “They do indeed! They’re running around the past couple of days, celebrating and saying you know that they’ve fought things to a stand still. They’re really taking a propaganda victory out of this. “

“They’re really running around saying, you know, they fought the American forces to a standstill. You know they’re pushing it for all it’s worth.”

SCOTT –“So how does that effect their overall strategy to win the hearts and minds of the the Iraqis - the fact that they’re claiming a victory in Fallujah?

MICHAELS – Well pol… It doesn’t help. And it’s one of the biggest fears that the Marines have is that a week, 10 days down the road, this things going to continue to snowball, and and these guys are going to claim victory, and it presents a BIG propaganda problem for the American forces there. It its a big risk.

"The Marines said that they had no choice, that they were in a stand off and the ceasefire whas going nowhere."

[Proud Legions]

Hmmm,

May be right, or may be wrong. Not sure why you say this is confirmed just because a USA reporter says it is.

Even if it is, why would the Iraqi Governing Council and Paul Bremmer not have a say on a strategic decision (as opposed to a tactical one)? A strategic decision (in Phase IV operations) is whether or not to attack Fallujah. A tactical one would be how the Marines conduct that operation if told to go in.

[vbmoneyspender]

The war is over. We lost.

LOL. Remind me never to get between you and an emergency exit if someone yells 'Fire!'

[A Jovial Cad]

From the second I saw your post--which I agree entirely with, BTW--I wondered how long it'd take "everything's going great in Falujah!" crowd to show up and begin ridiculing it's premises.
It didn't take long, as witnessed above.
And it's the same old tired bit about "sitting in front of keyboards" and all that cheap-shot claptrap, at that.
Excellent post, thanks for posting it.

[WHBates]

Well look at the posters. Personally I think the sky is falling. I just know there is money to be made.

[Normal4me]

I would rather see Iraqi troops killed by their own then American troops. The argument for leveling the place goes against everything we stand for and the reasons why we went in to "Liberate" them in the first place.

[Thud]

No one can say yes, but anyone can say no.

[swarthyguy]

I'm sure they did.

But US Marines are not patrolling Falluja, Iraki brigades are strutting with the old flag, Our general Saleh is now replaced by Gen Latif, because we might have installed the wrong gen Saleh in the first place!

The Fallujans are claiming victory. I agree. We can it back I'm sure. Just not today.

We started the Battle for Falluja after those 4 guys got bbq'ed. And then we stopped.

[Natural Law]

The insurgents have learned the sessons of George Washington and Ho Chi Minh. If you make a democracy bleed long enough for the passions of the moment to subside you will probably win. Too bad the American leadership hasn't remembered.

[A Jovial Cad]

My sentiments *exactly*! Well-said, and absolutely correct.

[lentulusgracchus]

The sheiks (sp?) were just kind ‘a sipping tea with coalition officials and were nowhere, It was just getting nowhere at all.

Rope-a-dope. "Talk talk, fight fight", v. 2.0. The sheikhs carried proxies for the bad guys, and they put a squeeze play on the Iraqi Governing Council to get Bremer to call off his dogs.

They sat around drinking coffee, to freeze the counteroffensive and give their pals, the bad guys, the win.

Now Bush is screwed, because the bad guys will be able to outlast him, with elections on us. The bad guys will either make their hay while he dithers, trying not to give the Media Left campaign ammunition...........or they get to deal with Kerry, who will give them the whole thing and just bug out.

[expatguy]

Very well.

And perhaps you can remind me as to what we are doing with over a 130,000 troops in Iraq?

[LibWhacker]

Fine, but it's completely irrelevant. For my part, my criticism was NEVER of the commanders on the ground, but of the political correctness emanating from State and elsewhere. As we suspected, the commanders on the ground were effectively out of the loop. So there. :)

[elfman2]

"Well, gee. Can't argue with a sacred reporter, especially a USA Today one- they're as unimpeachable as NYTimes reporters! But, seriously. Bremer makes the calls. That's his job. I doubt he overrode any high Marine. They know what the mission is, to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis. "

Please, this is the lead foreign reporter for the paper that Fox’s Jon Scott introduced as the “Paper of Record for the Iraq war”. If he has it wrong, he’ll pay.

You have ZERO evidence to the contrary.

[Sam Cree]

I don't know what's going on here, but I do know that if you let people push you around, they'll take it as license to continue pushing.

Granted, that didn't happen here, but it sounds like there's a perception that it did.

[cwb]

I'm listening to Seymour right now on Oreilly saying that these torture pictures are just the tip of the iceberg. He seems to be taking glee in that there is much more to come.

[elfman2]

"How does Bremer "in turn sort a put in the order to hold back."? As a civilian, how is Bremer even in the chain of command? "

Apparently the Marines were ordered to cooperate with him. And then Bush’s big conference call a few days ago that “agreed” against invading Fallujah settled the matter.

[Last Dakotan]

As a civilian, how is Bremer even in the chain of command?

He's got connections to another guy who goes by the title Commander in Chief.

[lentulusgracchus]

The governing council, the Iraqi governing council, was really upset.

Al Jazeera feeds.

[CasearianDaoist]

Nonsense, This area is less than 2 sq miles. How is that "losing the war." And you people bitch about the liberals having no guts. It is shameful to hear all of this "the sky is calling" horsesh!t on FR. This article confirms nothing other than the media is out to use this campaign for their own ends. Why help them? Wars ar not movies, things like this happens.

Why believe some reporter over military spokesmen? This is what liberals do.

[vbmoneyspender]

Trying to establish a democracy in a country that prior to the start of the war was routinely firing missiles at our pilots