That’s the deadline the U.S. and Iraqi governments have set to
establish sufficient security in Iraq sufficient to hold the
January election. As this is written, the Marines, Army, Air Force
and Iraqi troops are two days into an attack in Fallujah that will
destroy a large part of the insurgency. And while we fight, the
U.N. and the EUnuchs are doing their best to propagandize,
prejudging the election illegitimate. The “world community” —
having been bribed into appeasement of Saddam — still has no
interest in fighting terrorism or building democracy where
murderous despotism so recently reigned.
Fallujah, about 140 miles west of Baghdad on the southern
baseline of the Sunni Triangle, has been in terrorist hands for
more than six months. In late March, some of the soulless
barbarians there ambushed four private security workers. The
employees of the Blackwater USA firm were murdered and then
mutilated, their bodies displayed to sicken the civilized world.
The Marines had to shed blood to achieve a position where they had
the city pretty well cordoned off. Then, to the leathernecks’
disgust, they were ordered to pull back when their own general gave
in to political advice and gambled on the locals to quell the
insurgency. It quickly proved a bad bet.
About seven months have passed, and the terrorists have had a
lot of time to train, dig in, build barriers and plant IEDs, the
improvised explosive devices that have killed and maimed many of
our soldiers. This attack will cost more American, Coalition, and
free Iraqi lives than it would have last spring. Our forces have
been working over Fallujah by air for more than a week. And some
three companies of the “Iraqi Intervention” forces, as well as an
Iraqi spec ops battalion, have been with them almost step by
step.
Al-Jazeera (all jihad, all the time TV) had set itself up in a
hospital in northwest Fallujah. It was preparing to broadcast the
terrorists’ fight against the advancing Coalition forces when it
received a rather large shock. Part of the new Iraqi forces — the
36th Commando battalion — took the hospital last weekend in a
pretty good operation. The 36th Commando was described by a senior
DoD source as an outfit that “continues to mature.” (Reportedly,
it’s made up largely of Kurdish Pesh Merga fighters who are, ah,
not French.) Most importantly, the Allawi government, according to
the same DoD source, has set no parameters for the operation other
than to succeed. No artificial limits, no thought of quitting
before it’s done. But other thoughts pervade the “world
community.”
The ever-helpful Kofi Annan warned last week — in logic only
the U.N. could endorse —that any assault against the terrorists
would jeopardize the credibility of the January election. Annan
apparently wants to ensure that Iraq is safe enough for every
terrorist to get to vote and for every terrorist ballot to be
counted. The U.S., British, and Iraqi governments rejected Annan’s
admonition in terms too diplomatic to suit the occasion. But Annan
was only following the lead his EUnuch masters have ordered.
Redundant proof of that came when EUnuch “High Representative
for the Common Foreign and Security Policy” Javier Solana said that
the Fallujah assault only demonstrated that there was little
prospect for the January elections, given the “deteriorating
security” situation in Iraq. Both the U.N. and the EU want the
world to ignore the fact that security improves in Iraq with the
death or capture of each terrorist. For peace to break out in Iraq
— and, worse still, for a new government to be chosen
democratically — would be a disaster for both the U.N. and the EU.
They are making the case now for rejection of the result. If the
U.N. and the EU were to succeed, they would want the Iraqi “peace
process” to be captured by a group like the so-called “Quartet”
that is attempting unsuccessfully to control the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That will avail them of nothing,
because the newly elected government will be recognized quickly by
the U.S. and other Coalition nations. The U.N.’s influence will be
reduced to zero, and the EU (thinking only of the sweetheart Iraqi
oil contracts they lost when Saddam fell) may have a tough
time.
THE ATTACK ON FALLUJAH, like the main campaign to oust Saddam, is
based on tactics that have achieved tactical surprise. Having had
half a year to prepare, the insurgents hadn’t expected our forces
to push through alleyways, avoiding the main roads and advancing
quickly. They didn’t expect us to attack at night with methods of
destroying their barriers and explosive ambushes. And some —
proving yet again that these guys aren’t descendants of Werner von
Braun — are still trying to use cars and pickup trucks with IEDs
or other weapons to attack M-1A1 tanks and Bradley fighting
vehicles, and in places where our aircraft have a clear shot (which
is damned near everywhere).
Our attack is made easier by the fact that about 75% of the
civilian population has fled. There is little reason to restrain
the use of air power, heavy artillery, and tanks. The Fallujah
fight, according to Lt. Gen. Tom Metz — the III Corps Commander
running this operation — has seen us kill more bad guys than we
thought we would, and our casualties are light. In a Pentagon
briefing Tuesday, he declined to say exactly how many Americans
have died there, though he said it was about a dozen so far. It may
be several more days before the battle is over and the number of
our casualties, as well as the enemy’s, will certainly
increase.
By Tuesday night, our men had pushed into the center of the
city, literally blowing holes through the prepared defenses. It’s
pretty clear that the insurgents planned an outer ring of
resistance designed to collapse toward the city’s center where they
will make a final stand. Gen. Casey, commander of the U.S. forces
in Iraq, said on Monday that for the insurgents, “death is a
promotion.” If the insurgents don’t surrender, and can be cornered
in one small part of the city, air power — delivered with the
skill and accuracy our fly-guys have made their trademark — will
award these “promotions” in quick time. Some — like Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq — have likely escaped.
They will pop up somewhere else in Iraq, and try to force us to
hopscotch around the country to attack their strongholds. They will
do everything they can to disrupt the January election, and the
functioning of the new government for some time to come. If we
stick to our guns, they will fail.
The January election in Iraq will be even more significant than
the election in Afghanistan because Iraq is a big part of the Arab
world. It remains to be seen if democracy can be made to take root
in any part of it. There is every reason to doubt that it can. But
we have come so far, and sacrificed so much to make Iraq
democratic, we at least have to try.
(Today, 10 November, is the 229th birthday of the U.S. Marines.
Happy birthday to all leathernecks, and may God bless and protect
every Marine, soldier, sailor, airman and coastie now in harm’s
way.)
TAS Contributing Editor Jed Babbin is the author
of Inside the Asylum: Why the U.N. and Old Europe Are Worse
Than You Think (Regnery Publishing).
