Posted on 04/26/2004 3:17:31 PM PDT by me_newswire
The current president of Iraq's U.S.-picked Governing Council, Massoud Barzani, said Monday that American mistakes helped lead to the military deadlock outside of Najaf and Fallujah because Washington allowed "an army of liberation" to become "an army of occupation."
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Barzani warned the United States that civilians must not be harmed during any assault on the cities, but also cautioned that the United States cannot act softly and give insurgents "the impression that they have the upper hand."
Barzani, who holds the monthly rotating presidency of the council, spoke in one of the ornate marble-tiled rooms of a building that was once used by Saddam Hussein's Ministry of Military Industry and is now used by the Governing Council. The 25-member council has little power in comparison to the U.S. occupation authority.
April, the month that Barzani has held the rotating presidency of the council, has been the bloodiest month since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
At least 113 American soldiers and up to 1,200 Iraqis have died as U.S. soldiers confronted Shiite militiamen centered in the holy Shiite city of Najaf and Sunni militiamen in the city of Fallujah. U.S. soldiers still surround both cities, with U.S. officials unable to force militants to disarm and fearful that assaulting the city would lead to large numbers of casualties on both sides.
If the U.S. takes military action, Barzani said, the United States must make a "clear distinction between civilians and terrorist elements."
But Barzani also cautioned that "at the same time no impression can be given to the terrorists that they will be negotiated with or they are seeing any chance that they will win at the end of the day."
Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led an anti-Saddam Kurdish militia for decades.
When asked what he would do to resolve the sieges of Fallujah and Najaf, Barzani said: "If it were me, I wouldn't have allowed it to come to this by making earlier mistakes."
"I probably wouldn't have made the mistake of letting an army of liberation turn into an army of occupation," Barzani said. "This was the biggest mistake."
He said an Iraqi interim government should have been quickly set up after the war.
Iraq's army should have been reformed and restructured rather than disbanded and Iraqi troops should have been patrolling cities rather than U.S. soldiers.
"Certain problems could have been avoided had it been done in a better manner," Barzani said.-
My exact thoughts as well.
The media and those opposed to this effort want it to appear that way, yet most people I know on the ground there tell me that the vast majority of Iraqis are for us and want us to forcefully route out and destroy the animals that have been oppressing them for these last decades, and those who give them sanctuary.
I believe we would quickly see an end to jihad activities if we did something like this and Iraq could get on with building a free nation.
Without it, the Jihadists feel they are making gains...forcing us to negotiate after they kill and desecate. Their mind set is empowered thereby because in such fighting they think they are going to heaven as martyrs. Negotiations with such extremists are waisted because they feel it is perfectly okay and holy to lie to infidels so they can kill all the more of them, even if they die in the act.
We must come to grips with that mindset and respond accordingly. I believe that particular avenue in Fullujah would be an appropriate response that negates what they perceive as their culutral/religious advantage (jihad and going to heaven through suicide fighting) while sending a very direct message to all watching.
But that's just my own opinion.
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