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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Iraq Official Blames U.S. for Standoff |
| 2004-04-26 |
| Iraq’s current Governing Council president said Monday the United States has only itself to blame for the military deadlock at Najaf and Fallujah because it allowed its troops to change from "an army of liberation" to "an army of occupation." In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Massoud Barzani said the United States faces a dilemma: It must not be soft in the besieged cities and give insurgents "the impression that they have the upper hand," but it also must make sure civilians are not harmed if military force is used. The comments from a close U.S. ally in Iraq signal the deepening dissatisfaction between the United States and top Iraqi politicians. Barzani supported the U.S. war effort, and members of his militia fought alongside American soldiers in northern Iraq. For more than a decade during Saddam Hussein’s rule, Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party and another Kurdish party controlled an autonomous area protected by U.S. warplanes. Barzani’s forces continue to dominate parts of northern Iraq, a region that has been largely stable and quiet. Barzani, who holds the council’s rotating presidency for April, spoke in one of the ornate marble-tiled rooms of a building once used by Saddam’s Ministry of Military Industry, now the offices of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council. Some members on the council seen by many Iraqis as tainted for their close association with the United States have complained that U.S. commanders have been heavy handed in Fallujah and launched military action without consulting them. Barzani meets with L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in Iraq, several times a week to exchange views. When asked whether Bremer consults the council or merely tell them of U.S. decisions, Barzani said: "It depends on the nature ... of the subject." "The fact that should not be forgotten is that Iraq today is under occupation," Barzani said. "Iraq does not have sovereignty or independence today." It also is seeing its bloodiest month since the U.S. invasion. At least 114 American soldiers and up to 1,200 Iraqis have died in April as U.S. soldiers confronted Shiite militiamen centered in the Shiite holy city of Najaf and Sunni militiamen in the city of Fallujah. U.S. soldiers still surround both cities, unable to force militants to disarm and fearful that assaulting the city would lead to many casualties on both sides. If the U.S. takes military action, Barzani said, the United States must make a "clear distinction between civilians and terrorist elements." But Barzani also cautioned that "at the same time, no impression can be given to the terrorists that they will be negotiated with or they are seeing any chance that they will win at the end of the day." For decades, Barzani’s KDP fielded tens of thousands of men opposed to Saddam. When asked what he would do to resolve the sieges of Fallujah and Najaf, Barzani became animated, gesturing rapidly as he spoke and raising his soft voice. "If it were me, I wouldn’t have allowed it to come to this by making earlier mistakes," he said. "What was a mistake is, they were liberators," Barzani said. But the U.S. Army turned into "an army of occupation," he added. After Saddam was ousted last year, "an interim government could have immediately been set up. ... Sovereignty would be in the hands of the Iraqis and the Iraqis would be in the forefront of affairs," he said. The Iraqi army should not have been disbanded quickly but instead reformed and restructured, he said. Those revamped Iraqi forces could have controlled Iraqi cities with American forces backing them up and not patrolling inside of cities, Barzani added. "Certain problems could have been avoided had it been done in a better manner," he said. But Barzani said he was not pessimistic. For decades, Kurds were oppressed by Saddam and struggled for limited autonomy in the north of the country. Today, Barzani, a former rebel leader, heads the Governing Council. Hoshyar Zebari, a member of his KDP, is Iraq’s foreign minister, while one of Barzani’s military commanders, Gen. Babakir Zebari, is Iraq’s top general. Asked if today is the golden age for Iraqi Kurds, Barzani replied: "Indeed, that is right. A major part of the rights of the Kurds has been accomplished." |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #9 GW...This is what you need to do: 1) move 2 carrier groups back into the theater.. 2) Address the nation, tell us there is no hope of Democracy without 'zero tolerance'... 3) Give the residents of Falluja and Najef 48 hours to flee the cities... 4)Take the nation to code "Red" 5)Seal the Iraqi borders; warn the UN... 6)Destroy Falluja COMPLETELY.. wait 2 days (like in Japan)... 7)Repeat in Najef... 8)Call me in the morning, if further assist is needed!! |
| Posted by: smn 2004-04-26 11:14:34 PM |
| #8 Mark, ca/Blame USA/Blame Bush/gi and you will have the Democratic Party Platform.... (that is change all instances of Blame USA with Blame Bush...) |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-04-26 10:36:45 PM |
| #7 In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Massoud Barzani said the United States faces a dilemma: It must not be soft in the besieged cities and give insurgents "the impression that they have the upper hand," but it also must make sure civilians are not harmed if military force is used. What does this asshat think is going on with these delays in sweeping Fallujah and Najaf? This is the predictable result of not using overwhelming force in a determined and prompt drive to kill off these "insurgents". Now, all those that are not willing to visibly stand by the U.S. are going to try nickel-and-diming us to death. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-04-26 10:05:19 PM |
| #6 X - I've come to the same conclusion. I think we're only delaying the inevitable - and it will consume the entire Arab world in the process. Good riddance. |
| Posted by: spiffo 2004-04-26 9:48:48 PM |
| #5 Xbalanke: I don't know if Barzani's just playing politics, but he's sure coming across like a whiny, ungrateful SOB. Karzai was the same way. Muslims see opposition to the US as a way to burnish their credentials. Barzani's probably hedging - the equivocal responses he's seen from the US military to the situation in Fallujah and Najaf in recent days may have convinced him that the US is the weak horse. I don't blame him - when Saddam was faced with similar insurrections, he killed his opponents by the tens of thousands, together with all their families and friends. Our Achilles heel is that we are unwilling to kill enough of the enemy to win decisively - where Saddam not only killed his enemies, he killed all of their friends and relatives and any bystanders who just happened to be around. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-04-26 9:37:01 PM |
| #4 If I wasn't sure that it would come back to bite us in the butt later, I'd say: let 'em kill each other, screw 'em. More and more, I'm coming around to the feeling that there are virtually NO moderate Arabs, only different degrees of cultural disease. I don't know if Barzani's just playing politics, but he's sure coming across like a whiny, ungrateful SOB. |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2004-04-26 9:23:26 PM |
| #3 Dammit - what's the use in having a puppet government if they're allowed to back-talk? /sarcasm |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-04-26 9:19:45 PM |
| #2 B's comment hit the nail on the head. Iraqi blames the US...Palistinian blames the US...Saudi Arabian blames the US....Egyptian blames the US...Syrian blames the US..Pakistani blames the US...Iranian blames the US...Kuwaiti blames the US...Afghani blames the US...Muslims blame the US...etc.....Screw 'em all. |
| Posted by: Mark 2004-04-26 9:08:42 PM |
| #1 yawn.. ___ blames US for child skinning knee. ____ blames US for zit breakout before prom. ____blames US for _____. Yawn...wake me up if they don't blame us for something. |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-26 8:33:39 PM |