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"...even the wicked get worse than they deserve." - Willa Cather, One of Ours

Thursday, April 29, 2004

US to create "Fallujah Protective Army"

New York Times

Marine commanders agreed today to a tentative plan to deploy a new Iraqi force led by former Iraqi army officers in the rebellious city and to ease their three-week seige by pulling back from some positions inside the city.

The Iraqi force, to be called the Falluja Protective Army, was negotiated at a meeting this morning that included the commander of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, Lt. Gen. James T. Conway. The tentative plan replaced one to deploy joint patrols of the marines and the American-recruited security force known as the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps...
There are a huge number of problems with this proposal.

1) This would be a mercenary army under the pay and command of the US government, which would consist primarily of anti-US personnel. As our mercenaries fighting for the US, any violations of the rules of war they engage in will be our responsibility. The loyalty of this unit will be highly suspect. Also, the Iraqi interim government is going to hate having another large and heavily armed militia running around the country that they do not control.

2) It will cost tens of millions of dollars, and take months to recruit, supply, equip, organize, and deploy. It wouldn’t be available for 5-6 weeks at an absolute minimum. The siege would just have to continue at its present level until then.

3) This will tend to reinforce the jihadist mythology that Americans are afraid to fight, and that whenever possible, we will always have others do their fighting and dying for them.

4) This will tend to reinforce the fears of friendly Iraqis that the US does not have the will to follow through, and that they will be abandoned to the whims of a potential warlord.

5) This will be seen as a capitulation by the US and a clear victory for the insurgents of Fallujah who will still effectively control the town. This will be rightly seen as the most significant defeat for the Marine Corps since the Korean war.

The Pentagon denies that any such deal has been struck.

Of course, this whole thing could be an Iraqi proposal that the local Marine commanders are trying to kill, by exposing it prematurely to the press.

Otherwise this proposal makes no sense at all.

ORIGINAL ITEM: http://www.nytimes.com/
Posted by: Zayphar / 4/29/2004 03:04:00 PM
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