End Game for Fallujah?

by Mary

Military officers in Iraq wait the decision of George W Bush, the man who never backed down from a battle he could have others fight for him, about whether to storm Fallujah. The NY Times reports that Bush declares "America will never be run out of Iraq by a bunch of thugs and killers." So, by the time the anniversary of "Mission Accomplished", the number of dead could be significantly more than the 700+ that we count today. Taking out the "bad guys" in Fallujah will require house-to-house urban fighting and as we saw just this month, this is a particularly difficult and deadly type of fighting. As this article from last year before we went into war discusses, this is the nightmare of many military strategists.

"Urban warfare is ... close, personal, and brutal," says an Army report. "Tall buildings ... sewer and storm drains, allow unobserved shifting of forces, and streets become kill-zones."

Never mind that the rest of the world believes this is a bad thing to do. Bush would never consider the consequences of such a decision because the only thing that matters is these guys are challenging him! What chutzpah! Have you noticed that this war is all about Bush and his macho image? (Anyone who believes this war was necessary to fight terrorism has been duped by Bush and his warmongering cronies who planned this war of conquering Iraq, before 9/11, because they wanted to show how mighty they were - and to have a middle east country with oil in their backpocket.) When Iraqis fought back against his illegal war, he got angry and taunted them to "Bring it on".

Juan Cole mentioned that the rumor in Washington was that the decision to have the marines "teach a lesson" to Fallujah was made by Bush personally. Certainly couldn't let the Iraqis forget the iron fist of their master. Afterall, he bought the country (with the blood of our troops and the American treasury), and it belongs to him. The consequences of allowing an unimaginative yet spiteful man run this country will certainly haunt the world for decades.