BS: Iraqi Battalion Refuses to Fight Iraqis

Subject: RE: BS: Iraqi Battalion Refuses to Fight Iraqis
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 12:52 PM

I respect your interpretation McGrath, but I just don't agree with it. I see no evidence of the Bush administration preparing us for them to bring in international partners, be it the UN, Turkey, or anyone else. I do hope I'm dead wrong about that though, and that you are right.

This news certainly explains why the US commanders in Iraq requested reinforcements this week. In the meantime, it does put our forces at much greater risk.

It appears this past week's US fuck up in Fallujah was a result of new US commanders of the Iraqi battalion being newbies, and just rotated in on 1 April. But you'd think more seasoned higher ups would have stopped them from going into Fallujah under these circumstances. I mean, the murder of the 4 American mercenaries was retaliation for American troops having killed 15 Iraqis the week before. I remember thinking when I saw news reports that the US would "go in at a time and place of their choosing" to avenge the 4 mercenaries, I thought to myself "oh shit".

If the American commanders are so embittered against the Iraqis that they themselves are going in for vengeful, retaliatory, tit for tat attacks (as is the case with the Israelis) we have already lost this one, and the Iraqis are truly fucking screwed.

Subject: RE: BS: Iraqi Battalion Refuses to Fight Iraqis
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 12:43 PM

Step back a pace, and that's actually good news.

The bottom line is to be in a situation where pulling out the ocuupation forces from Iraq does not lead to a bloody civil war, and this kind of incident is actually helpful in getting there.

The essential thing is to avoid thinking in terms of military victory and so forth. That just lead to a continuing and escalating war going on for years, which will end badly. Unfortunately those are the terms, pretty clearly, in which the people in charge do think.

Subject: RE: BS: Iraqi Battalion Refuses to Fight Iraqis
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 12:42 PM

Well, I for one don't see this news as something to be so glibly dismissed.

Not only does this put our troops in even more danger than we thought they were in, but the result of this will be that no meaningful transfer of power will take place, or even a symbolic one, any time soon.

We simply must get an international presence with Arab forces in there immediately, or the whole country is going to blow.

Subject: RE: BS: Iraqi Battalion Refuses to Fight Iraqis
From: Amos
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 12:18 PM

Well, sure -- every mutiny is a command failure, isn't it? This would be the equivalent of the British occupiers of Boston demanding that local colonials fire on their fellow colonials. They wouldn't do it. Not at the orders of outsiders.

When they have their civil war, they can shoot each other to pieces. But not at the behest of an outside power.

Makes a crazy sense.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Iraqi Battalion Refuses to Fight Iraqis
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 12:11 PM

To quote the intrepid sage Homer, "Doh".

Subject: BS: Iraqi Battalion Refuses to Fight Iraqis
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 12:06 PM

This looks like some seriously major bad news for the Anglo American coalition forces. Talk about needing to watch your back.

Here is an excerpt from today's Washington Post article:

Iraqi Battalion Refuses to 'Fight Iraqis'

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 11, 2004; Page A01


BAGHDAD, April 10 -- A battalion of the new Iraqi army refused to go to Fallujah earlier this week to support U.S. Marines battling for control of the city, senior U.S. Army officers here said, disclosing an incident that is casting new doubt on U.S. plans to transfer security matters to Iraqi forces.

It was the first time U.S. commanders had sought to involve the postwar Iraqi army in major combat operations, and the battalion's refusal came as large parts of Iraqi security forces have stopped carrying out their duties.

The 620-man 2nd Battalion of the Iraqi Armed Forces refused to fight Monday after members of the unit were shot at in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Baghdad while en route to Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who is overseeing the development of Iraqi security forces. The convoy then turned around and returned to the battalion's post on a former Republican Guard base in Taji, a town north of the capital.

Eaton said members of the battalion insisted during the ensuing discussions: "We did not sign up to fight Iraqis."

He declined to characterize the incident as a mutiny, but rather called it "a command failure."