Monday, May 03, 2004
Fallujah
Wish I could shed some reliable light on what's going on with Fallujah. But the fact is that there are no reliable voices anywhere near the city.
It looks to me like there's been a severe breakdown in communications between the Marine commanders in and around Fallujah and the policy makers in Baghdad and the Pentagon.
The reporters are saying the Marines have pulled back from Fallujah. The Pentagon is insisting that, no, the Marines are still where they've been. The Washington Post is insisting that no, the Marines have indeed pulled back. The New York Times carried the same story on Friday and Saturday--the Marines are 'being repositioned.'
Marine spokespeople said former Baathist general Saleh is now in charge of an Iraqi brigade of volunteers. But wait! It's only the size of a battalion! And now the Chairman of the JCS and Baghdad are saying they never approved the decision, they never vetted Saleh, and Saleh doesn't command squat.
Now the Marine spokesperson has "no comment."
From the WaPo:
The decision to form the Fallujah Brigade and put Saleh in charge was made from "the bottom up," the senior official said. "Now we have to have a policy to catch up with what is happening on the ground."
That's a very diplomatic way of saying the Marines seem to have gotten too big for their leggings, and now Baghdad is trying to come up with a graceful way out of this mess.
More specifically, it appears that Marine commanders have forgotten who makes policy and who carries it out.
Meanwhile, insurgents are dancing in the streets.
Don't get me wrong--I do believe that an Iraqi solution that will enable us to transform the battle back into a quiet campaign of source development and midnight raids on safehouses is a great thing and far preferable to destroying the city in a general assault (cf. the parable of the two bulls).
But Bremer and Sanchez better get better control of their people.
Splash, out
Jason
It looks to me like there's been a severe breakdown in communications between the Marine commanders in and around Fallujah and the policy makers in Baghdad and the Pentagon.
The reporters are saying the Marines have pulled back from Fallujah. The Pentagon is insisting that, no, the Marines are still where they've been. The Washington Post is insisting that no, the Marines have indeed pulled back. The New York Times carried the same story on Friday and Saturday--the Marines are 'being repositioned.'
Marine spokespeople said former Baathist general Saleh is now in charge of an Iraqi brigade of volunteers. But wait! It's only the size of a battalion! And now the Chairman of the JCS and Baghdad are saying they never approved the decision, they never vetted Saleh, and Saleh doesn't command squat.
Now the Marine spokesperson has "no comment."
From the WaPo:
The decision to form the Fallujah Brigade and put Saleh in charge was made from "the bottom up," the senior official said. "Now we have to have a policy to catch up with what is happening on the ground."
That's a very diplomatic way of saying the Marines seem to have gotten too big for their leggings, and now Baghdad is trying to come up with a graceful way out of this mess.
More specifically, it appears that Marine commanders have forgotten who makes policy and who carries it out.
Meanwhile, insurgents are dancing in the streets.
Don't get me wrong--I do believe that an Iraqi solution that will enable us to transform the battle back into a quiet campaign of source development and midnight raids on safehouses is a great thing and far preferable to destroying the city in a general assault (cf. the parable of the two bulls).
But Bremer and Sanchez better get better control of their people.
Splash, out
Jason
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