Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Crushing Fallujah Won't End War: "The recapture of Fallujah is likely to be as disappointing in terms of ending the resistance as was the capture of Saddam Hussein last December or the handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government at the end of June. Each event was billed as a success that would tip the balance towards the United States. Instead the fighting got bloodier and more widespread.
There should be no mystery about why this is happening. All countries object to being occupied. Foreign invasions provoke nationalist resistance. This has happened with extraordinary speed in Iraq because of the ineptitude of the U.S. civil and military commanders, but in the long term it would have happened anyway.
... The United States and the British are trying to seize Fallujah and the central Euphrates cities. These may have been the original heartlands of the rebellion, but today there are guerrilla attacks in every Sunni region in Iraq. U.S. and interim government control of Baghdad is limited.
One of the strangest justifications for the attack on Fallujah is that it will allow an election to take place. This would be true only if the Sunni rebellion was a mirage and was entirely the work of FFs and FRLs oppressing a local population yearning to break free. A much more likely result of an increase in the fighting is a boycott of the election by the Sunnis. Even if they do vote there is no reason to suppose that the guerrillas will stop fighting any more than the IRA laid down its arms despite numerous elections in Northern Ireland in the '70s and '80s."
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