Bremer Visits Fallujah in Effort to End Insurgency

[PfcHammer]

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aST0JvCwqCXs&refer=us

Bremer Visits Fallujah in Effort to End Insurgency

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, visited Fallujah today as part of efforts by the U.S.-led coalition to quell a Muslim insurgency, coalition spokesman Dan Senor said.

``His visit to Fallujah was part of our overall effort to reach a peaceful resolution to the situation,'' Senor said in a televised press briefing from Baghdad. Senor declined to identify the people who met with Bremer.

The U.S. has allowed civic leaders to try to negotiate with anti-U.S. insurgents for a cease-fire and voluntary disarmament in the mostly Sunni Muslim city 35 miles (56 kilometers) west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The U.S. sent soldiers into the city after four civilian contractors were killed and their bodies mutilated March 31.

U.S. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, speaking at the same news conference, said Fallujah civilian leaders are not fulfilling provisions of a cease-fire agreement reached earlier this week, while U.S. forces are holding up their end.

<chop>

[parasim]

1. Yeah, that'll work.

not.

[saigon68]

23. Viceroy Pontius Paul Bremer I



THE FIRST VICEROY OF IRAQ-NAM

Viceroy Pontius Paul Bremer I

announced that more former members of Saddam's military would be allowed to join the ranks of the new US-trained army because of the poor performance of the Iraqi forces during rebelattacks.(AFP/Pool/File/Damir Sagolj)








[PfcHammer]

25. interesting choice of attire. coat & tie with boots.

i'm thinking he got into fallujah incognito.
possibly disguised in native nomadic garments
changing back into western garb for high level
talks at the table.

[saigon68]

26. He always wears boots

So he doesn't have to walk in the bullshit with a nice pair of wingtips. LOL

[daleo]

2. Wow - I wonder what the real story is

You can bet he kept the lowest profile imaginable - on par with Bush's Thanksgiving turkey stunt. Still, for him to even risk that, there has to be something big cooking one way or the other.
- Maybe the Iraqi resistance has some high powered hostages.
- Maybe the U.S. wants to disengage from this confrontation, without losing too much face, so Bremer's presence is a signal to the resistance of how seriously they want to defuse things.
- or maybe it is a signal that the U.S. military is preparing for an assault of stupendous proportions, and Bremer's visit is preemptive political cover, to say "we did all we could" to the international community later on.

I tend to go with alternative 3, but I would be happy to be wrong.

[goclark]

3. Bremer should stay for a few days

He needs to stay with our troops so that he can feel what they feel.
He just wants to cut and run.
Sounds like another Turkey stunt to me.

Kimmit is so stiff and arrogant that I can't stand to look at him.
I am praying for our soldiers and the Iraqi people too.
Bremmer and Kimmet need to get some staff members that are from other ethnicities to advise them on this one. These two look like they only see things "straight up and down." They see no forms of grey.

[saigon68]

4. YOU MEAN THIS SWEET HEART ???



KRAZY KILLER KIMMITT enforcer for the Viceroy Pontius Bremer I

His quote " if you don’t like watching women and children die, change the channel."

[goclark]

5. That's the one

I bet he is the biggest coward on earth.
I want to change the channel everytime I see his face.

[0007]

14. I do change the channel when this mud hen appears

[ozymandius]

8. Fuck this guy.

When the history books are written and we are judged by historians to have had no business picking a fight with people who were no threat to us, Kimmitt will be an embarrassing footnote to the whole criminal enterprise. Not as exhalted and demonically ingenious as Goebbels, he has secured his place in history as a wholly malicious middle manager to the crimes perpetrated in Fallujah. If we may forgive the foot soldier for his ignorance of the uniform code of military justice, Kimmitt will not be forgiven. That star on his collar implies that he is a willing accomplice to the perpetrators of this crime. Or, perhaps I give him too much credit. He could just be incompetent.

[saigon68]

15. Agreed Ozy

He could be swept up by the Yamashita Principle

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

What is not debatable is the elastic expansion of command responsibility for malfeasance and misfeasance the Commission determined. In his appeal dissent Murphy J. of the United States Supreme Court frighteningly argued that:

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

[ozymandius]

21. Isn't this how they got Milosevich?

And indicted Mladich?

With the Yamashita principle applied - we may not know which foot soldier killed wantonly and criminally. But we do know who gave the orders.

[saigon68]

28. that's it and the US Supremes have said its OK

You have to give them a trial and an attorney. Someting the bush criminals fail to recognize.

[nonbelief]

6. What Arrogance!

Does Bremer eat dinner up his own asshole? Does he honestly think he garners any respect among Iraqis?

[RoyGBiv]

7. In Other News ...

Reinhard Heydrich will visit Prague in an attempt to quell dissent from Czech insurgents.

[saigon68]

10. This Sweet Heart

Reinhard Heydrich

Heinrich Himmler and the SS were also put in charge of the Concentration Camps. During the Second World War the SS followed the German Army into invaded countries where they had the responsibility of murdering Jews, gypsies, communists and partisans. Heydrich was given control of Czechoslovakia where he announced that the SS intended to "Germanize the Czech vermin."

In 1941 MI6 decided to help the Czech resistance to assassinate Heydrich. This was the only Nazi leader that the Allies attempted to assassinate. They took this decision knowing that the German Army would take terrible retribution of the people of Czechoslovakia.

Two Czech agents, Jan Kubis and Joseph Gabcik, trained in Britain, were parachuted into Czechoslovakia on 29th December, 1941. Five months later, on 27th May, 1942, was killed by a grenade while travelling in his car in Prague.

[RoyGBiv]

12. That's the one

Otherwise known as the "Butcher of Prague."

The Massacre of Lidice in which all males over the age of 16 were lined up and shot, an event sometimes compared to the collective punishment Fallujah, was the retaliation for his death.

I'm not totally comfortable with indiscriminately comparing Bush and his cronies to Nazis, but the similarities become more and more striking every minute.

[leftchick]

18. I am totally comfortable with bushco* = Nazis

for cripes sakes they go out of their way to prove the analogy DAILY!

[DAGDA56]

19. And remember the follow up?

The Nazis claimed some of the assassins came from the small village of Lidece (I may be spelling that incorrectly)...they moved into the village, shot the men, transported the women and children to concentration camps, burned the buildings and systematically wiped the town from the face of the earth...all because, the Nazis claimed, people from there had committed an atrocity. On edit, sorry but I didn't see the post above...sorry for the duplication.

[54anickel]

9. I don't get it. So he can just waltz right in? No shots, no nothing

directed at him?

[ozymandius]

11. I, too, am surprised 54anickel.

You might think that someone, anyone, might have pulled off a round in his general direction.

[daleo]

13. I doubt any but a very few ever knew he was there

And I am sure he was safely back in the Green Zone, surrounded by bodyguards before the news of his trip was announced.

[saigon68]

16. You mean these "SWEET HEARTS" ??

[mike1963]

17. Um...if I go to East Hampton can I say I 'visited' New York City?

It doesn't say he went INTO the city...
:eyes:

[DAGDA56]

20. What kind of response was he expecting?

"Mr. Bremer, so good of you to come to Fallujah! As I was telling the others, all you had to do was ask...here, take our weapons...no, really, we insist. Can we get you anything? Coffee? Couscous? Well, then...we're glad that's settled. Thanks, and drop by anytime."

[cambie]

22. It is absurd

to compare this with anything that happened 60 years ago. They only had black and white photography then.

[jimshoes]

24. You're kidding right?

n/t

[KerryThatWeight]

27. I wish him well but I think this is going to explode

I just hope the innocents are spared.

[cambie]

29. It won’t just explode.

It will be ordered by one man. The situation has been static for a week. Everyone involved could just forget about it and go home, but an order will be passed down.