[Mb-civic] A Thousand Fallujahs

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

The Scott Peterson trial topped the Cable News as our government 
continues its brutal and insane campaign in Iraq.  The reality is 
painful but it is good and necessary for us ("citizens of the empire") 
to have some inkling of it.....

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1111-03.htm

Published on Thursday, November 11, 2004 by Reuters  
Human 'Disaster' Looms in Encircled Falluja  
 
  
FALLUJA, Iraq -- Fighting in Falluja has created a humanitarian 
disaster in which innocent people are dying because medical help 
cannot reach them, aid workers in Iraq said today. 

In one case, a pregnant woman and her child died in a refugee 
camp west of the city after the mother unexpectedly aborted and no 
doctors were on hand, Firdoos al-Ubadi, an official from the Iraqi 
Red Crescent Society, said. 


Smoke billows from US targeted areas in the restive Sunni Muslim 
city of Fallujah, Thursday, November 11,2004. (AFP/Patrick Baz)
 
In another case, a young boy died from a snake bite that would 
normally have been easily treatable, she said. 

"From a humanitarian point of view it's a disaster, there's no other 
way to describe it. And if we don't do something about it soon, it's 
going to spread to other cities," she said. 

About 10,000 US soldiers and 2,000 Iraqi troops are fighting to 
wrest control of Falluja, 50km west of Baghdad, back from 
insurgents. 

At least 2,200 families have fled Falluja in recent days and are 
struggling to survive without enough water, food or medicine in 
nearby towns and villages, she said. 

Some families have fled as far as Tikrit, about 150km north of 
Falluja. 

But the biggest concern is people in and around Falluja itself – they 
can't be reached because US and Iraqi forces have set up a wide 
cordon around the city to prevent anyone from entering and any 
insurgents from fleeing. 

It is unclear how many civilians are left in Falluja, but the US military 
estimates 150,000, or half the entire population, have fled the city 
since they began shaping up for an offensive in October. 

The Muslim Clerics' Association estimates about 60,000 people are 
still there but it is unknown how they arrived at the figure and 
because of the chaos no official numbers are available. 

Many of those who fled are with relatives and do not show up in 
refugee statistics. 

NO SUPPLIES, NO HELP 

Between a nightly curfew and the danger of venturing on to the 
streets, many are effectively trapped at home. 

"We've asked for permission from the Americans to go into the city 
and help the people there but we haven't heard anything back from 
them," Ubadi said. "There's no medicine, no water, no electricity. 
They need our help." 

The Red Crescent Society has teams of doctors and relief experts 
ready to go in to each of Falluja's districts with essential aid, but 
needs US approval first. 

The US military was not immediately available to comment on the 
aid agency's request, but has said its first priority is to defeat the 
rebels holed up in Falluja. 

An offensive was launched late on Monday and in furious street-to-
street fighting since, US forces have battled their way into the heart 
of Falluja's most rebellious district. 

Commanders say they are doing everything they can to minimize 
civilian losses, but it is not always possible. 

This week, a 9-year-old boy died after being hit in the stomach by 
shrapnel. His parents were unable to get him to hospital because of 
the fighting and so resorted to wrapping a sheet around him to stem 
the blood flow. 

He died hours later of blood loss and was buried in the garden of 
the family home. 

"We buried him in the garden because it was too dangerous to go 
out," said his father, teacher Mohammed Abboud. "We did not know 
how long the fighting would last." 

The International Committee for the Red Cross says there are 
thousands of elderly and women and children who have had no food 
or water for days. At least 20,000 have gathered in the town of 
Saqlawiya, south of Falluja. 

"The Red Cross is very worried. We urge all combatants to 
guarantee passage to those who need medical care, regardless of 
whether they are friends or enemies," spokesman Ahmad al-Raoui 
said. "They must be allowed to return home as soon as possible." 

Aid workers say there are still hundreds of families left in the city, 
which has been pummeled by sustained aerial bombardment and 
artillery fire in recent days. 

"We know of at least 157 families inside Falluja who need our help," 
said Ubadi. 

For some it is already too late. 

One mother and her three daughters had intended to flee but their 
home was hit by a bombardment earlier this week and all died, 
neighbors who escaped told aid workers. 

© Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd 

###
 


A Thousand Fallujahs

by Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Nov 12, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK12Ak04.html


"The bombs being dropped on Fallujah don't contain explosives, depleted
uranium or anything harmful - they contain laughing gas - that would, of
course, explain [Pentagon chief Donald] Rumsfeld's misplaced optimism
about not killing civilians in Fallujah. Also, being a 'civilian' is a
relative thing in a country occupied by Americans. You're only a civilian
if you're on their side. If you translate for them, or serve them food in
the Green Zone, or wipe their floors - you're an innocent civilian. Just
about everyone else is an insurgent, unless they can get a job as a
'civilian'." - Riverbend, an Iraqi civilian girl, author of the blog
Baghdad Burning.


Once again the US has been caught in a giant spider's web. Fallujah now is
a network: it's Baghdad, Ramadi, Samarra, Latifiyah, Kirkuk, Mosul.
Streets on fire, everywhere: Hundreds, thousands of Fallujahs - the
Mesopotamian echo of a thousand Vietnams. The Iraqi resistance has even
regained control of a few Baghdad neighborhoods.

Baghdad residents say there are practically no US troops around, even as
regular explosions can be heard all over the city. Baghdad sources confirm
to Asia Times Online that the mujahideen now control parts of the suburb
of ad-Durha, as well as Hur Rajab, Abu Ghraib, al-Abidi, as-Suwayrah,
Salman Bak, Latifiyah and Yusufiyah - all in the Greater Baghdad area. 
This would be the first time since the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003,
that the resistance has been able to control these neighborhoods.

Massive US military might is useless against a mosque network in full
gear.
 In a major development not reported by US corporate media, for the first
 time different factions of the resistance have released a joint
 statement, signed among others by Ansar as-Sunnah, al-Jaysh al-Islami,
 al-Jaysh
as-Siri (known as the Secret Army), ar-Rayat as-Sawda (known as the 
Black
Banners), the Lions of the Two Rivers, the Abu Baqr as-Siddiq Brigades,
and crucially al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Unity and Holy War) - the movement
allegedly controlled by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The statement is being
relayed all over the Sunni triangle through a network of mosques. The
message is clear: the resistance is united.

The mobile mujahideen

Fallujah civilians have told families and friends in Baghdad that the US
bombing has been worse than Baghdad suffered in March 2003.

The Fallujah resistance for its part seems to have made the crucial
tactical decision of clearing two main roads - called Nisan 7 and Tharthar
Street - thus drawing the Americans to a battle in the center of town.
Baghdad sources close to the resistance say that now the Americans seem 
to
be positioned exactly where the mujahideen want them. This is leading the
resistance to insist they - and not the Americans, according to the
current Pentagon spin - now control 70% of the city.

There are at least 120 mosques in Fallujah. A consensus is emerging that
almost half of them have been smashed by air strikes and shelling by US
tanks - something that will haunt the United States for ages. The mosques
stopped broadcasting the five daily calls for prayer, but Fadhil Badrani,
an Iraqi reporter for BBC World Service in Arabic and one of the very few
media witnesses in Fallujah, writes that "every time a big bomb lands
nearby, the cry rises from the minarets: 'Allahu Akbar' [God is Great]".

Badrani also disputes the Pentagon spin: "It is misleading to say the US
controls 70% of the city because the fighters are constantly on the move.
They go from street to street, attacking the army in some places, letting
them through elsewhere so that they can attack them later. They say they
are fighting not just for Fallujah, but for all Iraq." The mujahideen
tactics are a rotating web - Ho Chi Minh's and Che Guevara's tactics
applied to urban warfare by the desert: snipers on rooftops, snipers
escaping on bicycles, mortar fire from behind abandoned houses,
rocket-propelled- grenade attacks on tanks, Bradleys being ambushed,
barrages of as many as 200 rockets, instant dispersal, "invisible"
regrouping.

Iraq's borders with Syria and Jordan, all highways except a secondary road
leading to the borders, plus Baghdad's airport, all remain closed. Baghdad
in theory has become an island sealed off from the Sunni triangle - but
not for the resistance, which keeps slipping inside. Hundreds of Iraqis
are stuck on the Syrian border trying to go back home.

Riverbend, the Iraqi girl blogger quoted above, writes of "rumors that
there are currently 100 cars ready to detonate in Mosul, being driven by
suicide bombers looking for American convoys. So what happens when 
Mosul
turns into another Fallujah? Will they also bomb it to the ground? I heard
a report where they mentioned that Zarqawi 'had probably escaped from
Fallujah...so where is he now? Mosul?"

He could well be in Ramadi, where hundreds of heavily armed mujahideen 
now
control the city center - with no US troops in sight.

Tough tactics

The Pentagon is pulling out all stops to "liberate" the people of
Fallujah. According to residents, the city is now littered with thousands
of cluster bombs. In an explosive accusation - and not substantiated - an
Iraqi doctor who requested anonymity has told al-Quds Press that "the US
occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them
with internationally banned chemical weapons". The Washington Post has
confirmed that US troops are firing white-phosphorus rounds that create a
screen of fire impervious to water.

Dr Muhammad Ismail, a member of the governing board of Fallujah's 
general
hospital "captured" by the Americans at the outset of Operation Phantom
Fury, has called all Iraqi doctors for urgent help. Ismail told Iraqi and
Arab press that the number of wounded civilians is growing exponentially
and medical supplies are almost non-existent. He confirmed that US troops
had arrested many members of the hospital's medical staff and had sealed
the storage of medical supplies.

The wounded in Fallujah are in essence left to die. There is not a single
surgeon in town. And practically no doctors as well, as the Pentagon
decided to bomb both the al-Hadar Hospital and the Zayid Mobile 
Hospital.
So far, the International Committee of the Red Cross has reacted with
thunderous apathy.

The Sunni revolution

When a few snipers are capable of holding scores of marines for a day in
Fallujah - an eerie replay of the second part of Stanley Kubrick's Full
Metal Jacket - and when eight of 10 US divisions are bogged down by a 
few
thousand Iraqis with Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers, the fact is the
US does not control anything in Sunni Iraq. It does not control towns,
cities, roads, and it barely controls the Green Zone, the American
fortress in Baghdad that is the ultimate symbol of the occupation.

In 1999, the Russians bombed and destroyed Grozny, the Chechen capital, 
a
city of originally 400,000 people. Five years later, Chechen guerrillas
are still trapping Russian troops in a living hell there. The same
scenario will be replayed in Fallujah - a city of originally 300,000
people. All this destruction - which any self-respecting international
lawyer can argue is a war crime - for the Bush administration to send a
brutal message: either you're with us or we'll smash you to pieces.

The Iraqi resistance does not care if thousands of mujahideen are smashed
to pieces: it is actually gearing up for a major strategic victory. The
strategy is twofold: half of the Fallujah resistance stayed behind, ready
to die like martyrs, increasing the already boiling-point hatred of
Americans in Iraq and the Middle East and boosting their urban support.
The other half left before Phantom Fury and is already setting fires in
Baghdad, Tikrit, Ramadi, Baquba, Balad, Kirkuk, Mosul and even Shi'ite
Karbala.

They may be decimated little by little. But the fact is Sunni Iraqis are
more than ever aware they are excluded from the Bush administration's
"democratic" plans for Iraq. The only Sunni political party in interim
premier Iyad Allawi's "government" is now out. And the powerful
Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) - the foremost Sunni religious 
body -
is now officially boycotting the January elections. There are unconfirmed
reports that Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi, the head of the mujahideen shura
(council) in Fallujah and a very prominent AMS member, died when his
mosque, Saad ibn Abi Wakkas, was bombed.

The Sunni Iraqi resistance is now configuring itself as a full-fledged
revolution. According to sources in Baghdad, the leaders of the resistance
believe there's no other way for them to expel the American invaders and
subsequently be restored to power - especially because if elections are
held in January, the Shi'ites are certain to win. Contemplating the dogs
of civil war barking in the distance, no wonder Baghdad's al-Zaman
newspaper is so somber: "Iraq will remain a sleeping volcano, even if the
state of emergency is extended forever."


 ***


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