Iraqis who fought GI's now patrol Fallujah

[JoFerret]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20040509/ts_chicagotrib/iraqiswhofoughtgisnowpatrolfallujah&cid=2027&ncid=1480


<<The smell of rotting garbage mixed with dust on a hot spring afternoon. It was worse around the corner, where the stench of death wafted from the rubble of a demolished home. A rocket had slammed through the front wall and left a 3-foot-deep crater filled with debris in the yard.


It was a devastating scene of urban warfare.


The brigade has taken up positions on the former front lines of fighting here and elsewhere in the city. The Marines have retreated to a base outside town from which they run checkpoints at the city's entrance and on main highways a few miles from the municipal borders.


Almost to a man, the new force was culled from the ranks of Hussein's disbanded army, the soldiers in the hut said. A year after U.S. forces vanquished the Iraqi army, the green uniforms and purple berets of the old regime are back in the streets of Fallujah.


"We're all from the previous Iraqi army," said 2nd Lt. Jassim Omar, a member of the new brigade who kept the same rank he had in the old Iraqi army. "They give preference to people with military experience." >>

[colonel odis]

1. they got tired of the u.s. soldiers

having all the fun killing children.

next, i guess they'll be angling to get back one of their prisons.

[anarchy1999]

2. It is tough to say welcome to DU to you.

You really need to do some research on Fallujah. Try Google. Then talk to me if you can put your family in a home there, Colonel.

[colonel odis]

5. unfortunately, anarcy, i'm not psychic.

so you'll have to explain what your post means.

[Bridget Burke]

11. Google is a search engine.

Click on this shortcut: www.google.com/

Type the word or words for which you need information and click on Google Search. Links will appear which you may follow.

It is a way of gathering knowledge. Not all links are totally trustworthy, but reading several will help you achieve a balanced view. Ignorance is an ugly thing. Good luck.

[0007]

3. It becomes a chess game now. Simply to cut down on U.S. deaths

and to save junior's face.

Will fuck face survive? No!! His first mistake was to put a boot on Iraqis soil.

Bringing the troops home may be a start!!

[hippiechick]

4. So essentially it was a zillion dollar shell game ....

The BFEE has destroyed our treasury, gutted the future of most domestic programs, created Goddess knows how many terrorists-to-come, killed nearly 1,000 US soldiers and countless Iraqi's ... all so they could reinstall pretty much the same gov't in Iraq, but call it 'a democracy' ??

It's starting to remind me of one of those scams where a wandering carpenter offers to re-side your house for $5,000 cash - they take off the old siding, you pay them, they put it back on - call it new, and leave with your money.

The American people have been duped, and the Cabal is laughing all the way to their Swiss bank accounts.


:hippie:

[Karenina]

6. Joke I got from an Iraqi

BEFORE the invasion:

"This is a Mobil Shell game intended to put the EXXON Iraq."

Back then, they had a sense of humor about it. No more.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. Basically

The BFEE has destroyed our treasury, gutted the future of most domestic programs, created Goddess knows how many terrorists-to-come, killed nearly 1,000 US soldiers and countless Iraqi's...

for nothing.

[9215]

13. Good post. And I'd

like to add that the profiteers (the BFEE the MIC) have their war on with no end of profits in sight.

Privatize the profit, socialize the risk.

[Columbia]

8. Title of article is misleading

Almost the entire conscripted Iraqi Army deserted at the onset of the OIF. The ones who did the fighting against the US were mostly members of the Fedeyeen Saddam who are not the ones patrolling Fallujah.

[sandnsea]

9. Well no...

"Last month, Yasser Harhoush said, he fought with the armed insurgents battling U.S. Marines.

A week ago, the wiry, clean-shaven 28-year-old dusted off his old olive-drab Iraqi military fatigues and joined Fallujah's new army brigade under the command of a former general who served under Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime."

And:

"Many brigade members said they had fought the Marines in almost daily battles beginning April 5, when the Marines laid siege to the city to force residents to hand over those responsible for killing four civilian contractors March 31 and mutilating their bodies.

"Every one of us participated in defending Fallujah," Omar said. "Everybody had weapons."

"I also fought," Harhoush said.

Harhoush said he and his brothers joined the insurgency to avenge the death of their father, who he said was shot by Marines while driving through the city on the fourth day of fighting. But only he has joined the new Fallujah force."

Either they won or they're lying.

[eridani]

10. They won

And they are partying down hard.

http://blog.newstandardnews.net/iraqdispatches/archives/000370.html#more

Once the patrol is about a half mile from the area, spontaneous celebrations erupt as crowds of residents flow into the street. Iraqi flags appear everywhere as people begin chanting and waving them wildly. Members of both the Iraqi Police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps who were at the intersections join in the celebration, waving their guns in the air and giving the “Victory” sign.

A parade is quickly formed…cars honking, trucks with boys and men riding in the backs of them line up, and the Iraqi Police who were there to guard the Marines have promptly turned into parade escorts, as well as participants.

As the ruckus begins to inch down the street, an elderly Fallujan resident riding in the back of a truck waving an old Iraqi flag yells, “Today is the first day of the war against the Americans! This is a victory for us over the Americans!”

Mujahedeen brandishing Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs), Kalashnikovs and hand grenades are paraded on trucks as thousands of residents begin to move up and down the main street in the victory parade amidst loud music blaring from the minarets of mosques.

Ahmed Saadoun Jassin, an Iraqi Policeman, smiling from ear to ear, says, “I can’t describe to you the happiness I feel right now. This is a victory for Islam.” Many of the IP’s and ICDC are holding their weapon in the air with one hand while giving the victory sign with their other.

When I ask about cooperating with the Marines, Mr. Jassin says, “This was the deal that was negotiated. They couldn’t stay in Fallujah for over one hour, which they didn’t.”

I am pulled up into the back of a pickup truck as we are being pelted by candy thrown by shop-owners throwing handfuls of candy at the crowds who pass. Many of the people celebrating continue to wave Iraqi flags, while some hold up the Koran.

[Dhalgren]

12. The US must leave Iraq.

Falluja displays vividly how well the Iraqis can take care of themselves. They do not need our presence in their country. We must pay reparations for all of the wanton destruction we have wrought, but no US soldier should remain one more day in Iraq. We are idiots, criminal idiots, and we must not compound our stupidity and our crimes by remaining one day longer.

Good for the people of Falluja! I hope the US doesn't double-cross them as is the usual way these things go.

[gratuitous]

14. It's called losing, and the U.S. isn't used to it

See, when your troops fight with other troops for control over a city, and your troops withdraw and the city is then controlled by the people who fought your troops, that means you lost. It's a concept that most Americans aren't used to dealing with.