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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Fallujans flee en masse, Zarqawi's gonna fight |
| 2004-10-18 |
| The collapse of peace talks between Fallujah representatives and the Iraqi government signaled an end of hope for Ahmad Salim last Thursday. The generator mechanic loaded his tearful family into a car and escaped the embattled city of Fallujah by way of dusty farm tracks. Already 80 percent of the city's population of 300,000 has made the same decision, he estimates, even as the intense US bombardments over the weekend gave way to relative quiet Monday. "We were happy when the negotiations started, but were shocked when they arrested [chief Fallujah representative Sheikh Khaled] al-Jumaili," says Mr. Salim, speaking at a relative's home in Baghdad, where he has brought his wife and three children to wait out the conflict. "I think the Americans will wipe Fallujah from the map." Salim's thinking provides a glimpse into the world view of ordinary Fallujans, who say they are torn between their wish for peace, their opposition to the US presence, and their disgust for the tactics of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which include suicide bombings, attacks, and kidnappings of foreigners that have ended in gruesome videotaped beheadings. Iraq's interim government has vowed to "smash" all resistance before January elections. After months of ignoring Sunni strongholds like Fallujah - virtual no-go zones - US forces earlier this month began a major, rolling offensive to reclaim insurgent territory. The US push now is to conquer Fallujah, root out the local resistance, and eject Zarqawi and his band of foreign militants. But the release Monday of Mr. Jumaili, after three days, illustrates the delicate nature of the cold-then-hot US approach. Fallujans were "surprised" at his detention, and upon release, Jumaili declared that talks would not resume. "I think the residents of Fallujah don't want this sort of peace," the bearded cleric said after his release. "They want a real peace, not a peace that stabs in the back and strikes and destroys homes and kills women." On Monday, Allawi told Iraq's National Council that an "olive branch" is still being offered to Fallujah representatives, but he said, "We shall not be lenient in regard to the question of maintaining security and granting security to every Iraqi." Complicating the picture is the interim government's demand that Fallujans hand over Mr. Zarqawi. City negotiators say that task is "impossible," and claim that the Jordanian militant is not in the city. In a declaration issued on the Internet - surprising for its timing, if not its substance - Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group on Sunday pledged its allegiance to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda's strategy of battling the "enemies of Islam." Some analysts say that the announcement was an attempt by Zarqawi to entice new recruits. As the Americans step up aggressive tactics against the city and prospects for a negotiated settlement appear to dim, civilians tired of the conflict are fleeing. "Violence begets violence," says Salim. "Of course we are against these terrorist operations. No Muslim would allow himself to cut someone's throat. Our holy book says: 'If you capture someone, you must feed them, even with your own food.' " But just as Salim rejects Zarqawi's methods, he also believes that Fallujah has been unfairly singled out for attack. "We hate anyone who comes to [occupy] our city. Most people refuse to allow foreign [fighters] to go there," says Salim. "There are many operations across Iraq - car bombs, mortars, everything - not just in Fallujah. Why do they insist [on targeting] Fallujah, and one man?" Salim says his experience is common to many Fallujans, who have been rattled by weeks of nightly airstrikes and fearful expectations of an imminent US-led military siege and push on the city that promises heavy casualties on both sides. When the US Marines engaged the Fallujah resistance for three weeks last April - in the aftermath of the killing and mutilation of four American contractors - more than 100 marines and 600 Iraqis died. US forces have since ceded the city to the resistance. The result is new fear that is tearing at family social fabric, which Iraqis say has only hardened attitudes against American efforts. Throughout the conversation, Salim's young face lights up only once: when describing the purchase of new clothes and schoolbooks for his two oldest children. Classes began Oct. 1, and lasted just two days. Since then, the children have hardly slept, their parents say, kept awake by the constant crash and vibrations of explosions. "I'm afraid because the planes bomb our district and we can't go to school," says Salim's 10-year-old son Ala. "We can't go to school for fear of attack." Salim turns up the volume of the television, as the Al Jazeera channel shows headlines of several wounded children in a Fallujah hospital, and reports that the US bombing intensified on Sunday. Media reports cited witnesses, who said that during a nine-hour battle Sunday, US forces fired on a family trying to escape, killing all five. News agencies reported Fallujah doctors saying that four civilians were killed, including a child. "We are just concerned with living in safety," says Salim's wife, who wears a conservative white head wrap over a black shawl. "Sure, when you leave your city you are sad. We've left a father and mother and a house and more family. We are always thinking about them." Personal experience with civilian casualties during the latest surge of fighting, and the battles last April, convinced the Salim family to go. "What did this teach us about the Americans?" asks Mrs. Salim. "First we thought the Americans came to liberate our country, but now our conclusion is the opposite. We know they came to destroy our country." Reversing that perception will not be easy, in a city where US and Iraqi forces are erring on the side of striking first and asking questions later. One source close to the Iraqi leadership says that US airstrikes are "hitting a lot of people, [and] not that every one is a target. The intelligence isn't great - but there comes a point when you just go." Though the US asserts that nearly every attack is a "precision strike" on a target related to Zarqawi's network, civilians have inevitably died is the urban environment. Some were killed two weeks ago, when a huge air-dropped bomb landed a few hundred yards from Salim's house at 2 a.m. - a wake-up call that shook the family to their core. The children came running to their father's bed, looking for sanctuary. "I held all my family together and said: 'We die just once in this life, not twice. Thank God, [the bombing] was far from us.'" Salim recalls. Within 30 minutes - after waiting, in case of a second US strike - Salim made his way in the dark down to the two-family house that was targeted. He will never forget the image that greeted him, and never forgive. "Most of them were children, all of them dead," Salim says, of the families he helped dig out of the rubble with bare hands. "When something happens, everybody runs there to help rescue, like an ambulance - maybe a friend will be [the victim] there." Salim says he gave blood twice that day. And there are other shortages - especially of anesthetics. The targeted house often hosts weddings and other gatherings. "Maybe the Americans thought: Why are there so many cars there? The father had a trucking business." Whatever the reasons, the lesson for the Salim family was that their survival was at risk in Fallujah, regardless of their political views. "I can't describe the feelings of that day," says Mrs. Salim, recalling her husband's vivid description of the bomb scene. "It's not just fear for your family - maybe your neighbor or a relative can be killed, by a misfired rocket, maybe randomly. Even walking in the street." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #24 Raze Fallujah and salt the ground. Film it. Distribute DVDs. Make sure it becomes a legend told thousands of years from now, as the destruction of Carthage is still told. I am very serious. That town must be made an example. It doesn't matter how many people die there (or rather it does, as it did in Hiroshima, Dresden, Tokyo, and Berlin). If we are going to WIN this WAR we must be willing to DESTROY the ENEMY no matter how many INNOCENTS die BECAUSE of the enemy's EVIL actions. If we shrink from destroying the enemy's nest, the West is doomed. And by the way, the enemy's true nests are in Mecca and Tehran. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-10-19 12:03:14 AM |
| #23 After they get him...Can I buy Zarqawi's balls? I would like to hang them over my fireplace for christmas, along with two little bells! |
| Posted by: smn 2004-10-18 11:22:09 PM |
| #22 Which should we sue, MOAB plus or MOAB Pro? |
| Posted by: Mickey Silvester 2004-10-18 9:32:33 PM |
| #21 Personally, I think the 21st century world needs an "example" city - something like Dresden in World War II - to represent the idea that local communities who side with arch-terrorists - or even tolerate their presence - lose their rights to persist as recognizable human habitations. As far as I am concerned, if educated people all over the world - the next 100 - or even 1,000 years - whisper the name "Fallujah"in referring to the ultimate destruction that can befall a small town that sponsors terrorist assholes - the the people of Fallujah will have fulfilled their destinies. Cry me a river .... Forever more: "This shattered landscape is what is left of the site that was once known as the town of Fallujah - before the inhabitants allowed foreign terrorists to take over" |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2004-10-18 9:26:33 PM |
| #20 yeah thatn what im figure. just wanted know ifn anyone else was heard somthin like this. theres lotsa peples out there right now who are believe it. figured i was ask you guys first. |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2004-10-18 9:19:02 PM |
| #19 Well, Mucky, you've provided a link. That's evidence. Incontrovertible. I'm Sold. |
| Posted by: Mickey Silvester 2004-10-18 9:16:40 PM |
| #18 Mucky that is some wacked out moonbatery. If China had Ossama they would be publicizing it. They have nothing to gain by hiding him and trading him to "Bush" |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-18 9:15:02 PM |
| #17 dont mean get offn subject and mebe you guys are already discuss this but ima see this lefty blogs today http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7077.htm. any truth you guys are know to this? is china have osama? |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2004-10-18 9:02:11 PM |
| #16 "I think the Americans will wipe Fallujah from the map." Ok who leaked our Super Secret plan? I hope this is the plan, if not it ought to be! |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2004-10-18 7:15:25 PM |
| #15 I'd play a tune on my nanoviolin, but I sneezed and have no idea where it is now on my desk... |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-10-18 7:10:00 PM |
| #14 Seems like the prudent thing to do is get Zarquawi and his thugs ASAP. This should straighten out a lot of problems both here and there. |
| Posted by: John Q. Citizen 2004-10-18 6:39:38 PM |
| #13 someone explain too me why we keep having peace talks with a bunch of killers who are against peace? So we have time to lay out all the best lines of fire? |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-10-18 6:17:08 PM |
| #12 Number 4 is what the ME keeps trying. We must show them a better way, be it JDAM, Barrett, etc., or sitting down and reasoning together in the spirit of brotherly love and the fellowship of man. (Backed by JDAM, Barrett, etc.) |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-18 5:47:28 PM |
| #11 Number 4 is the arab way AP and we must be senstive to their nuances. Or shoot them, whichever is cheaper. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-10-18 5:37:36 PM |
| #10 someone explain too me why we keep having peace talks with a bunch of killers who are against peace? |
| Posted by: smokeysinse 2004-10-18 5:07:36 PM |
| #9 "Violence begets violence," says Salim Heh! Got that right, Salim. Fallujans allowed the "insurgents" to beget violence on our troops and now the Fallujans are going to beget'n it back in a very big way. Since 9/11, the only wha-wha-wha that Americans are interested in is that from our victims here at home. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-10-18 4:32:16 PM |
| #8 This sentence sums up the problems and tough choices of the civilians in Fallujah. It's not rocket science, and the seeming inability of the typical Fallujan to comprehend the matter is rather pathetic. The problem is the presence of Zarqawi and people of his mindset, and when these types are finally tossed out, peace will surely follow. The only question is whether Iraqis or the U.S. will do it. And a U.S. presence is going to be unavoidable, so these idiots are going to have to get used to it. They could help themselves a lot more if they decided to wise up and straighten their act out. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-10-18 4:29:14 PM |
| #7 the "Ultimate Humiliation" for Zarqawi's "Ultimate Jihad" - Through him in a vat full of of pig guts, heads and feet, used sanitary napkins, piss, and brown trout. Make him wallow around in that for a while and then parade him down the street nude, in chains with panties on his head, and on 2 leashes that are led by a dog and monkey while people spit on him. I'd execute him by suffocation by stuffing pages from Allan's Korn down his throat. |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2004-10-18 4:21:33 PM |
| #6 oh! the humiliation! the Arab Street™ would seethe! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-10-18 4:12:30 PM |
| #5 Do you think that Al-Jazz would play the pic of Zarqawi's head on a stick, or would that be too in-sennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn-sitive? |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-18 4:11:22 PM |
| #4 I second that notion, Atomic Conspiracy; either show his head on TV, or prod him in public with his genitals removed! |
| Posted by: smn 2004-10-18 4:04:41 PM |
| #3 Er, "unprecedented" |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-10-18 3:57:49 PM |
| #2 We may or may not bag Zaraqawi personally, but there is no doubt at all that his cannon-fodder will be slaughtered in a sniper-fest of unprecented proportions. In making a 19th century technology, the sniper rifle, our most feared weapon, US forces have directly confronted and destroyed one of the left's favorite strawmen, that American forces are cowards who rely solely much on high technology. I seriously think that we should further defy international propaganda by displaying Zaraqawi's severed head on television, thereby exposing the craven hypocrisy of those who would react with horror and outrage to this after doing everything possible to justify Zarqawi's own, much worse, outrages. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-10-18 3:56:48 PM |
| #1 Salim’s thinking provides a glimpse into the world view of ordinary Fallujans, who say they are torn between their wish for peace, their opposition to the US presence, and their disgust for the tactics of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which include suicide bombings, attacks, and kidnappings of foreigners that have ended in gruesome videotaped beheadings. This sentence sums up the problems and tough choices of the civilians in Fallujah. Nobody wants an occupying power in their land, even if it is us lovable cuddly Merkins. However, due to circumstances beyond their control, Fallujah has become one of those points of focus and conflict in the WoT, just like innumerable other towns in WW2, Korea, Viet Nam, etc. Because of the nature of the conflict, civilians wanting to be left alone and hoping to be left out of the conflict will realize that they will not get what they want. They will have 4 choices: 1. Flee Fallujah for a while until the conflict ends and hope that their homes were not trashed or destroyed during the conflict. 2. Throw their lot in with Zarqawi in hopes that he will win. 3. Assist the Coalition in ratting out Zarqawi and his minions so these thugs and their heinous activities are forever gone from Fallujah. 4. Straddle the fence and play both sides. The head of the household will pick No. 1 if he values the safety and existance of his family. Picking No. 2 means that he is an idiot, as it is only a matter of time before the terrorists are exterminated. Picking No. 3 would be a couragous thing to do, but it is fraught with danger, esp. to his family. Picking No. 4 means that he is a total moron. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-18 3:34:42 PM |