I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. I know I did.
Not it's back to blogging.
When we look back on this war - and I'm afraid "looking back" on it isn't going to be anytime soon - I think "pockets of resistance" will be one of the phrases we most remember. In fact, it may be remembered with such cynicism and bitterness that it will have to be retired from official Pentagonese. Sort of like "light at the end of the tunnel" from the Vietnam War.
In pockets of Fallujah, US troops still face harsh battle by Scott Peterson Christian Science Monitor 11/26/04. Describing a particular skirmish with determined guerrillas, Peterson writes:
US commanders say that such costly battles are taking place across Fallujah, where US Marine and Army units launched an assault more than two weeks ago in a bid to cut off the lethal insurgency that has spread across Iraq.
But the battle Monday, fought amid the maze of houses and alleyways in this ghost city that once held a population of 300,000, shows the difficult and dangerous task of uprooting insurgents who have hunkered down. Protecting civilians may also prove a daunting task as marines try to locate fighters who filter quietly back in as residents return.
"You are seeing individuals willing to die, and take as many Americans and Iraqis with them," says Marine Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, 1st Marine Division commander in an interview. "We overwhelm them, but despite that, they put up a very stiff and determined resistance. This [assault] had to be done, because Fallujah was a sanctuary for insurgents, and now it isn't."
Peterson also makes it clear that some of the Marines on the scene are very aware of the complicated nature of the task they face, of fighting insurgents without further alienating the civilian population. An all-but-impossible task in the current situation:
A clear example of the tricky balance is Monday's battle, which started out as a typical clearing operation, in which LAR vehicles and on-foot scout teams pushed east to west between two clocks, clearing house after house.
Red Platoon began in typical fashion, with a reading the 91st Psalm from the Bible.
"Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness," read Corporal Dustin Barker of Midland, Texas. Citations from the Bible mark his helmet strap.
The marines used explosives, axes, and even their boots to break down doors and storm houses.
They searched rooms and destroyed food stores when they found them to deprive insurgents moving from house to house of support.
"The problem with this, is we are opening [by breaking locks] the whole town up for terrorists to move in," said an intelligence officer with the unit.
In theory, the city was "liberated" by last weekend. But the battles are continuing. I remember just after the invasion when we heard about the "pockets of resistance" throughout Iraq. Now we have remaining "pockets of resistance" in various places in Fallujah. How many "pockets of resistance" will be left the next time our forces have to go in and liberated Fallujah?
Oh, we finally found a chemical lab that guerrillas were supposedly using to make weapons to use against US troops. Saddam didn't have WMDs. But now we're facing a resistance that (if this claim can be believed) is trying to make crude versions of them: Iraqi official: Troops found chemical lab during sweep of Fallujah (AP) San Francisco Chronicle 11/25/04.
[Later note: Juan Cole says of this report:
According to AFP, the story being trumpeted all day on Fox Cable News about the discovery of chemical and anthrax weapons labs in Fallujah by Iraqi troops is questionable to say the least. The US military denies it and Hans Blix is skeptical. I smell the troika of Iyad Allawi, Naqib al-Falah, and Hazem Shaalan behind this announcement, which will be remembered even if it is discredited.]
And how is the personnel situation doing? U.S. struggles to find troops for Iraq, Afghanistan by Joseph Galloway Knight-Ridder Newspapers 11/24/04.
The Army, which has been hard pressed to find enough soldiers to man the rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan, may soon be faced with an urgent request to find another 5,000 to 7,000 troops to increase the number of boots on the ground in Iraq.
Commanders there have been quietly signaling an immediate need for at least that many more soldiers to add to the 138,000 Americans already there. This, they say, is the minimum number needed to allow them to pursue the offensive against the insurgents in the wake of the taking of Fallujah.
Far from breaking the back of the insurgency, the capture of Fallujah only served as a signal for the enemy to launch its own offensive in cities across the Sunni triangle and in Baghdad itself. The fighters and leaders who fled Fallujah before the Americans launched their attack simply moved to other cities and went straight to work sowing havoc. [my emphasis]
Reinforcing the point about the scramble to find troops, Galloway notes:
Finding the rest of the troops that commanders want may be difficult. Getting them to Iraq in time and properly equipped to fight in that dangerous environment may be even more difficult; Army and Marine commanders have already used up most of their bag of tricks to find troops for the usual rotations to Iraq.
Reality is still crashing in hard on the Bush administration merry little adventure in Mesopotamia. The process will continue, no matter how much happy talk the administration and Fox News (or is that being redundant?) crank out.
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