Fallujah- The Aftermath

by soccerdad

"They create a desert and call it peace." Tacitus commenting on the Roman conquests.

As he navigated his Humvee through rubble-strewn streets, Lance Cpl. Sunshine Yubeta articulated a question key to the Marines' mission here.

"I wonder," said the 23-year-old from Madras, Ore., nodding toward several sullen-looking men on a corner, "if they hate us or like us."

Well let’s look at the information that has begun to dribble out about the November siege of Fallujah.

As part of its continuing policy of “Shock and Awe” aimed at intimidation of “insurgents” in Fallujah, Fallujah was repeatedly bombed from the air before for approximately 2 weeks before troops with massive armor support entered the city. Due to the advanced “notice” given about the attack on Fallujah, most, including insurgents, had left the city. The number of people remaining behind is not clear, but there were a substantial number of non-combatants including women and children. There has been a virtual blackout concerning the effects of the attacks on the city of Fallujah and its residents. There are few reports and the US media has reported almost none.

Mike Whitney asks what happened to the media after the battle?

The role of the media in the siege of Falluja has been nearly as extraordinary as the battle itself. The siege began on November 8, but by Nov. 15 the military had declared "victory" and the story disappeared from all the major media. It was as if the Pentagon had simply issued an edict forbidding any further coverage of the conflict, and the press left without protest.

Mr Whitney claims that the behavior of the media can be attributed to the fact that they are now, for the most part, a “corporate media” rather than the free press we all desire. Corporate media operates by the same standard as other businesses. My interpretation is that their motivation is profits. To maintain profits you must be able to attract viewers/readers and to do that you must have access to the events of the days. I believe there is an unspoken fear that getting on the wrong side of the administration will lead to reduced access. Thus, there has been little in the way of reports concerning the effects of the siege on Fallujah and its former inhabitants.

It is clear that the US wanted as little publicity and information as possible to be disseminated from Fallujah. One of the early targets in the attack was a hospital. Apparently the military was angry about the reports from Fallujah concerning casualties from the previous attack on Fallujah 6 months earlier and attributed the reports to doctors at the hospital. The military considered the hospital as a center of propaganda. So there would be no casualty reports from the hospital and we know the military does not count dead or injured civilians. Everyone killed is an “insurgent”.

It would appear that the Iraqi “government” also threatened the media. On Nov 12, 4 days after the start of the siege Iraq's media regulator warned news organizations Thursday to stick to the government line on the U.S.-led offensive in Fallouja or face legal action. Link.

One of the people filing reports concerning Fallujah was Dahr Jamail. He filed this report the day after the siege started. He quotes one Iraqi:

“So many people in Falluja are poor and cannot leave. Land and houses in Baghdad are both very expensive, and so many people in Falluja are too poor to leave,” Aziz said with resignation, “The Americans are doing what they did last time-taking control of the main hospital and not letting the hospitals and clinics and ambulances function. They are killing civilians, just like before.”

He also reports:

There are reports from one of the doctors at said hospital that one of their ambulances was shot while attempting to leave the hospital, just like in April when I was in Falluja; all of the ambulances were targeted then as well. The photos are on my site.

Other reports quote a doctor at the hospital as saying that they were tied up an beaten despite having no weapons. The Dr. also claimed that 2 female Drs were forced to undress and that patients had been dragged from their beds and made to stand against the wall. Link

Dahr filed another report a couple of days later recounting a conversation with Dr. Wamid Omar Nathmi, a senior political scientist at Baghdad University who had vehemently opposed Saddam.

He told me that during the buildup to the siege of Fallujah, he had sent John Negroponte, the current so-called ambassador of Iraq, a letter which, along with several other points, asked him, “Do you think that by occupying Fallujah you will stop the resistance?”

Of course his letter was ignored, and now we watch in fear as the resistance is spreading across Iraq like a wildfire, fanned by the pounding of Fallujah.
Dr. Nathmi added, “Certainly the US military can eventually suppress Fallujah, but for how long? Iraq is burning with wrath, anger and sadness…the people of Fallujah are dear to us. They are our brothers and sisters and we are so saddened by what is happening in that city.

The military refused to let the IRC enter Fallujah saying that their aid was not needed. A journalist trying to sneak into Fallujah was detained.

Dahr also relates stories told him by refugees from Fallujah.

“They kicked all the journalists out of Fallujah so they could do whatever they want,” says Kassem Mohammed Ahmed, who just escaped from Fallujah three days ago, “The first thing they did is they bombed the hospitals because that is where the wounded have to go. Now we see that wounded people are in the street and the soldiers are rolling over them with tanks. This happened so many times. What you see on the TV is nothing-that is just one camera. What you cannot see is so much.”

Another man, Abdul Razaq Ismail arrived from Fallujah last week

“There are dead bodies on the ground and nobody can bury them. The Americans are dropping some of the bodies into the Euphrates River near Fallujah. They are pulling the bodies with tanks and leaving them at the soccer stadium.”

And from another

“They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud,” he said, having just arrived yesterday, “Then small pieces fell from the air with long tails of smoke behind them. These exploded on the ground with large fires that burnt for half an hour. They used these near the train tracks. You could hear these dropped from a large airplane and the bombs were the size of a tank. When anyone touched those fires, their body burned for hours.”

This last quote raises the possibility that the US had used napalm in the attack on Fallujah. The US had been forced to admit using napalm earlier in the war. So it would not be a surprise that it was used again in Fallujah.

Refugees from Fallujah have also claimed that civilians were deliberately killed including those living in mosques or approaching the mosque carrying white flags. Others have claimed that anyone trying to escape by swimming across the river were also shot. Although these stories cannot be confirmed, they are repeated by other Iraqishere and here who also saw the use of cluster munitions. It was reported that a clinic was bombed killing 5 patients despite assurances from the Americans that they knew where the clinic was and that it would be spared.

A Lebanese cameraman observed the first 8 days of the siege. He reports that snipers were shooting anyone who was outside. This has also been reported by a doctor who stated that women and young children were killed by snipers.

The military called over loudspeakers for families to surrender and come out of their houses, but Burhan said everyone was too afraid to leave their homes. So soldiers began blasting open the gates to houses and conducting searches.
“Americans did not have interpreters with them, so they entered houses and killed people because they didn’t speak English! They entered the house where I was with 26 people and shot people because they didn’t obey their orders, even just because the people couldn’t understand a word of English. Ninety-five percent of the people killed in the houses that I saw were killed because they couldn’t speak English.”
His eyes were tearing up, so he lit another cigarette and continued talking.
“Soldiers thought the people were rejecting their orders, so they shot them. But the people just couldn’t understand them!”
“I saw cluster bombs everywhere, and so many bodies that were burned, dead with no bullets in them. So they definitely used fire weapons, especially in Julan District. I watched American snipers shoot civilians so many times. I saw an American sniper in a minaret of a mosque shooting everyone that moved.”

He also witnessed something which many refugees from Fallujah have reported.

“I saw civilians trying to swim the Euphrates to escape, and they were all shot by American snipers on the other side of the river.”

It is very difficult to know how many civilians were killed in the siege. Many were buried in gardens surrounding the houses because people were afraid to go out any further. Dr Rafa'ah al-Iyssaue, director of the main hospital in Fallujah city has said that the emergency room had recovered 700 bodies from 9 neighborhoods (about 1/3 of the city). Of the 700, 450 were women and children many had been mutilated, presumably either by munitions or from the roving dogs who were feeding off the bodies. Of the male bodies many were elderly. Iraqi Minister of Health officials desputed the doctors claims and said that the number of women and children killed was small. Link.
The first refugees to return to Fallujah report a very depressing scene. There are reports of lakes of sewage in the streets. The smell of corpses inside charred buildings. No water or electricity. Long waits and thorough searches by U.S. troops at checkpoints. Warnings to watch out for land mines and booby traps. Occasional gunfire between troops and insurgents. Approximately 70% of the buildings may have been destroyed with damage to many of those remaining Link

Although more than 16,000 civilians have gone through the entry control points over the past week, the total number of Fallujans who decide to stay, is undetermined because Iraqi and U.S. forces do not count civilians who leave the city on a daily basis.Link. Certainly wouldn’t want any data that would even hint at the disaster Fallujah has become.

The destruction of Fallujah is prime example of America’s fundamental strategy, i.e. “Shock and Awe”. Cause so much destruction that either the insurgents will give up or the local population will turn against the insurgents. The fact that this doesn’t work is apparently lost on the military.

In a pep talk before the operation, Sergeant Major Carlton Kent, the most senior enlisted marine in Iraq, told his troops: “You’re all in the process of making history. This is another Hue city in the making. I have no doubt if we do get the word that each and every one of you is going to do what you have always done—kick some butt.” (The former Vietnamese imperial capital of Hue was nearly destroyed by the US military while attempting to counter the Tet Offensive in 1968.)Link

Many think that the brutal nature of the siege of Fallujah was retaliation for the failed operations the previous April. The thinking behind this tactic was summed up by New York Post columnist and former military officer Ralph Peters.

“We must not be afraid to make an example of Fallujah. We need to demonstrate that the United States military cannot be deterred or defeated. If that means widespread destruction, we must accept the price... Even if Fallujah has to go the way of Carthage, reduced to shards, the price will be worth it.”

They are not afraid to pay the price?? The Iraqis paid the price.

Much of the Foreign Press saw the destruction of Fallujah for what it was: a military victory demonstrating the power of American forces but a miserable and complete political defeat that seemed eerily like Vietnam

So how do Iraqis now feel?

Three weeks ago, a friend of mine who is a sheikh from Baquba visited me in Baghdad and we had lunch with Abdulla, an older professor who is a friend of his. As we were eating, Abdulla expressed a sentiment now widely heard. "The mujahideen," he said, "are fighting for their country against the Americans. This resistance is acceptable to us."

Pictures taken inside Fallujah can be found here.

Let’s summarize the possible war crimes committed in the latest siege of Fallujah
1. Use of cluster bombs
2. Use of Napalm
3. Attacking a medical facility
4. Seizing a medical facility
5. Indiscriminate killing of civilians including women and children
6. Cutting off water and electricity to the entire city before the siege
7. The use of collective punishment
8. Purposeful destruction of water, electrical and sewage facilities.
9. Preventing male Iraqis from leaving and making them return to the city.
10. Preventing the wounded from being treated
11. Preventing the Red Crescent from entering the city

Exactly how is this strategy supposed to work? The majority of the insurgents left the city before the start of the siege so you weren't going to kill off the fighters. Does some idiot in Washington or Baghdad really think this kind of destruction and killing is going to help stop the insurgency? You destroy their city, their houses and their belongings, kill civilians including women and children, people who were their neighbors, relatives and friends and then expect everything to be ok because you are willing to rebuild a city you destroyed. You destroy their places of worship many of which were historic. How do you replace those?

Rumsfeld has said that sooner or later the Iraqis will tire of being killed. I submit they will not. They are fighting for their country. They are fighting to avenge the deaths of relatives. They have seen our tactics.They are not the tactics of liberation but of occupation and control.

Will this ever get reported in this country? Does anybody care?