Fallujah given 'days not weeks' to give up arms

[hedgetrimmer]

~SNIP~
Fri 23 Apr 2004

MARGARET NEIGHBOUR


GUERRILLAS and residents in Fallujah have "days, not weeks" to turn in heavy weapons or face renewed military action, the top US marine commander in Iraq said yesterday.

US marines stopped allowing families who had fled the fighting to return home, which had been part of the deal struck with civic leaders two days ago.

Lieutenant General James Conway was scathing about the quantity of weapons handed in on Wednesday.

"It was junk, things I wouldn’t ask my marines to begin to fire. We were not pleased at all with the turn-in we saw yesterday. The volume probably amounted to a pickup truck full."

Lt-Gen Conway warned that patience is wearing thin and questioned whether the civic leaders who negotiated with US officials had much influence over the insurgents.

... more ...

link: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=455832004

[rooboy]

1. "out of my cold, dead hands..." right, freepers??? n/t

[walmartsucks]

7. Um.....

If i remember correctly, the military requested that all HEAVY arms, aka RPGs, rocket launchers, etc, be surrendered, not small arms.

[daleo]

2. The marines have been talking tough

Realistically, their options are:

- get into an urban warfare situation where something goes drastically wrong for them
- get into an urban warfare situation where they would kill at a five to one ratio (mostly civilians), but still lose militarily (a stalemate, where they will never really control Fallujah)
- send in the airforce, where they would kill at a twenty to one ratio (mostly civilians) where they would win militarily, lose politically, and only win because of superior air power (no points to the marines as soldiers)

They can never win here, any more than they could in Viet Nam.

[anarchy1999]

14. Fallujah is a "NO WIN"

go back to April 28th of last year. Then with google help, go forward. This town has been destined for this end since last year, April 28th. How would you feel if you were a citizen of Fallujah, your neighborhood had been bombed, your wife is dead and you had lost 2 or 3 uncles and countless neices and nephews? Oh not to mention, besides your wife/husband you have lost one child and the other has lost their eyes and one arm.

I think I would be an insurgent.

[saigon68]

3. Lieutenant General James Conway soon to be WAR CRIMINAL

Guess he's never heard of General Tomoyuki Yamashita

http://www.waikato.ac.nz/wfass/subjects/history/waimilhist/1998/yamashita.html


The charge facing General Yamashita was that

Between October 9 1944 and September 2 1945, in the Philippine Islands, while commander of armed forces of Japan at war with the United States of America and its allies, he unlawfully disregarded and failed to discharge his duty as commander to control the operations of the members of his command, permitting them to commit brutal atrocities and other high crimes against the people of the United States and of its allies and dependencies, particularly the Philippines; and thereby violated the law of war.18



No one in a position of command in an army, from sergeant to general, can escape those implications. Indeed, the fate of some future President of the United States and his chief of staff and military advisers may well have been sealed by this decision.1

[mallard]

10. Re: thanks for the reminder...

That's the kind of information that can really save lives.

People forget about things like the Battle for Dalton Pass where only a Marcos-era tourist sign marks the location where 7,500 Japanese and 2,500 American soldiers lost their lives in less than 48 hours (June '45).

Re: New Page 1 - War and Remembrance (Pinoy):

<http://newvizcaya.tripod.com/ww2vizcaya.htm>

[Robbien]

4. The mayor of Fallujah said up front that he does not control half the city

The mayor who negotiated with the US said that half the city is too dangerous where no one he knows enters that part of the city. So why on earth did the US think this mayor spoke for the citizens who lived in that part of the city?

[0007]

5. Where did Democracy go? I believe the Iraqis know the answer.

How would the citizens of this country react if the situation were reversed?

Or were these little pockets of resistance just a few racial thugs that did not want a free society in Iraq?

Would Uncle Sam lie to the America people?

[SOS]

6. Meanwhile in Najaf...

From NYT 4/22/04:

"Earlier this week, some 2,500 American troops around the adjacent cities of Najaf and Kufa began drawing down to only 500, after an American decision not to risk further angering Shiites by chasing Mr. Sadr down in his hiding place in Najaf, a city held holy by Shiites."

[OneBlueSky]

8. I really hope I'm wrong, but I see the potential for . . .

a real massacre developing here . . . if it happens (and I pray that it won't), I hope the foreign press is there to document it, because our corporate media sure as hell won't . . .

[anarchy1999]

15. Call and fax relentlessly. We "Americans" have to stop this wholesale

slaughter. Picture yourself in any suburban area in the US. Would you do any less if you had been invaded and occupied and watched friends and relatives die?

[ConcernedCanuk]

9. Lets see now, the US demanded that Saddam get rid of long range missiles

.
.
.

and he did.

Saddam was told he could not possess WMD's.

Saddam claimed he had no banned missiles or WMD's.

The United States didn't believe him.

So the United States bombed the shit out of his country, killed his sons, many of of his friends and military, along with thousands of his citizens.

Would YOU trust the USA's intentions?

. . :shrug: . .

[Voltaire99]

11. Remember Saddam's frantic destruction of missiles?

Evidently the US believes that if this ruse worked on Hussein, then it's worth trying the same thing in Fallujah.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. Saddam gave them the benefit of the doubt on that one

The US claimed that the missiles could go a few more feet than allowed, so he crunched them.

Bush wasn't going to let anything stop the mad rush to war.

[Disturbed]

13. BULLSHIT!!!!

Demanding that the "rats" give up their weapons is a ploy.
The General knows they won't do it and by some wild notion that they did how are we to know that? The object here is to kill as many
rats as possible with the excuse that they would surrender their weapons. This is a lesson for the rest of Iraq. Bow to the US or we will kill you all!

Anybody think this strategy will work out nicely?

[anarchy1999]

16. If you lived in Fallujah and had a gun, would you turn it in?

n/t