WP: General's "stinging broadside" against top officials re. Fallujah

[DeepModem Mom]

Key General Criticizes April Attack In Fallujah
Abrupt Withdrawal Called Vacillation

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 13, 2004; Page A17

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Sept. 12 -- The outgoing U.S. Marine Corps general in charge of western Iraq said Sunday he opposed a Marine assault on militants in the volatile city of Fallujah in April and the subsequent decision to withdraw from the city and turn over control to a security force of former Iraqi soldiers.

That security force, known as the Fallujah Brigade, was formally disbanded last week. Not only did the brigade fail to combat militants, it actively aided them, surrendering weapons, vehicles and radios to the insurgents, according to senior Marine officers. Some brigade members even participated in attacks on Marines ringing the city, the officers said.

The comments by Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, made shortly after he relinquished command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force on Sunday, amounted to a stinging broadside against top U.S. military and civilian leaders who ordered the Fallujah invasion and withdrawal. His statements also provided the most detailed explanation -- and justification -- of Marine actions in Fallujah this spring, which have been widely criticized for increasing insurgent activity in the city and turning it into a "no-go" zone for U.S. troops.

Conway arrived in Iraq in March pledging to accelerate reconstruction projects as a way to subdue Anbar province, dominated by Sunni Muslims. But on March 31 he was confronted in Fallujah with the killing of four U.S. security contractors, whose bodies were mutilated or burned by a celebrating mob. Conway said he resisted calls for revenge, and instead advocated targeted operations and continued engagement with municipal leaders....

(Conway would not say "where the order to attack originated," but that it came from Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the overall commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. The article adds: "Some senior U.S. officials in Iraq have said the command originated in the White House.")

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16309-2004Sep12.html

[unfrigginreal]

1. MSNBC just reported that Conway feels that Fallujah has been mishandled

Maybe this story will get some play

[TexasUnderground]

2. No surprise here.

The whole thing has been mishandled, like going into Iraq in the first place. The only surprise is that the general was allowed to speak his mind. I guess Karl Rove didn't get to him in time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I suspect the General is

retiring

[TexasUnderground]

5. I suspect at this point

he won't be given a choice.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Well he is not singing hossanans nor is his last

name Boykin... and he technically violated the UCMJ...

:-)

But I admire teh man for doign that, and when was the lasttime US Generals were critical? Oh I forgot the commander of the 1st ID who was relieved of duty durign the combat phase...

Thuis is highly unusual

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thanks, ufr -- nothing seems to be news unless it makes it to TV --

this is encouraging.

[leftchick]

6. I saw it on TV this morning as well...

I am not sure if it was msrnc or cnn. They are both so bad I can hardly tell the difference anymore.

[Julien Sorel]

8. It's eerily like the Popular Forces in Vietnam:

That security force, known as the Fallujah Brigade, was formally disbanded last week. Not only did the brigade fail to combat militants, it actively aided them, surrendering weapons, vehicles and radios to the insurgents, according to senior Marine officers. Some brigade members even participated in attacks on Marines ringing the city, the officers said.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Oh, wow, you are so scarily right, BB! n/t

[xchrom]

10. now that's news and exactly

the kind of thing that kerry has been talking about.
not just fallujah has been handled badly -- but all of iraq.

[Disturbed]

11. The Iraq aftermath is a

miserable failure just like the CIC.

Rumsfailed is also a miserable, sociapathic failure. Anyone else would have been fired a long time ago. Dumbass can't fire Rumsfailed though. Why?

BTW

Rumsfailed Admitted to Violating Geneva Convention

Rumsfailed admitted in public that when CIA Director Tenet requested that an Iraqi prisoner be sent to a secret Afghan/US Prison that Rumsfailed did so. After four months a DOD Attorney stated that this was an illegal act. Rumsfailed then ordered that this prisoner be sent back to Abu Graib but the prisoner was not listed at that location, also an illegal act. That is two violations of the Geneva Convention by Rumsfailed. Tenet and Rumsfailed violated the Geneva convention, thereby also The Constitution of the USA. Recently it has been found out that even more detainees were "ghost detainees". The fact that he has not been charged speaks volumes.

Does the US no longer abide by the Geneva Convention or the Constitution of the USA?

It is obvious that this is the case!.