Squeezing
Jello in Iraq
By Scott Ritter
11November, 2004 by
Aljazeera.net
The
much-anticipated US-led offensive to seize the Iraqi city of Falluja
from anti-American Iraqi fighters has begun. Meeting resistance that,
while stiff at times, was much less than had been anticipated, US Marines
and soldiers, accompanied by Iraqi forces loyal to the interim government
of Iyad Allawi, have moved into the heart of Falluja.
Fighting is expected
to continue for a few more days, but US commanders are confident that
Falluja will soon be under US control, paving the way for the establishment
of order necessary for nation-wide elections currently scheduled for
January 2005.
But will it? American
military planners expected to face thousands of Iraqi resistance fighters
in the streets of Falluja, not the hundreds they are currently fighting.
They expected to roll up the network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his
foreign Islamic militants, and yet to date have found no top-tier leaders
from that organization. As American forces surge into Falluja, Iraqi
fighters are mounting extensive attacks throughout the rest of Iraq.
Far from facing
off in a decisive battle against the resistance fighters, it seems the
more Americans squeeze Falluja, the more the violence explodes elsewhere.
It is exercises in futility, akin to squeezing jello. The more you try
to get a grasp on the problem, the more it slips through your fingers.
This kind of war,
while frustrating for the American soldiers and marines who wage it,
is exactly the struggle envisioned by the Iraqi resistance. They know
they cannot stand toe-to-toe with the world's most powerful military
and expect to win.
While the US military
leadership struggles to get a grip on a situation in Iraq that deteriorates
each and every day, the anti-US occupation fighters continue to execute
a game plan that has been in position since day one.
President Bush prematurely
declared "mission accomplished" back in May 2003. For Americans,
this meant that major combat operations in Iraq had come to an end,
that we had won the war. But for the Iraqis, it meant something else.
In Iraq, there never was a Missouri moment', where the government
formally surrendered. The fact is, Saddam Hussein's government never
surrendered, and still is very much in evidence in Iraq today in the
form of the anti-US resistance.
"It is a war
the United States cannot win, and which the interim government of Iyad
Allawi cannot survive" While we in America were declaring victory,
the government of Saddam was planning its war. The first battles were
fought in March and April 2003. Token resistance, no decisive engagement.
The Iraqis fought just enough to establish the principle of resistance,
but not enough to squander their resources.
Since May 2003,
the resistance has grown in size and sophistication. Some attribute
this to the incompetence of the post-war occupation policies of the
United States. While this certainly was a factor in facilitating the
resistance, the fact remains that what is occurring today in Iraq is
part of a well-conceived plan the goal of which is to restore the Baath
Party back to power. And the policies of the Bush administration are
playing right into their hands.
The terror attacks
carried out against the United Nations and other international aid organizations
succeeded in driving out of Iraq the vestiges of foreign involvement
the Bush administration relied upon to present an international face
to the US-led occupation. In the chaos and anarchy that followed, the
United States was compelled to use more and more force in an attempt
to restore order, creating a Catch-22 situation where the more force
we used, the more resistance we generated, requiring more force in response.
The cycle of violence
fed the resistance, destabilizing huge areas of Iraq that are still
outside the control of the Iraqi government and US military. High profile
operations in Najaf, Sadr City and Sammara did little to bring these
cities to bear.
"While we in
America were declaring victory, the government of Saddam was planning
its war" Today, fighters in Iraq operate freely, continuing their
orgy of death and destruction in order to attract the inevitable heavy-handed
US response. Falluja is a prime case in point. While the US is unlikely
to deliver a fatal blow to the Iraqi resistance, it is succeeding in
levelling huge areas of Falluja, recalling the Vietnam-era lament that
we had to destroy the village in order to save it.
The images from
Falluja will only fuel the anti-American sentiment in Iraq, enabling
the anti-US fighters to recruit ten new fighters for every newly-minted
'martyr' it loses in the current battle against the Americans.
The battle for Falluja
is supposed to be the proving ground of the new Iraq Army. Instead,
it may well prove to be a fatal pill. The reality is there is no Iraqi
Army. Of the tens of thousands recruited into its ranks, there is today
only one effective unit, the 36th Battalion.
This unit has fought
side by side with the Americans in Falluja, Najaf, and Samara. By all
accounts, it has performed well. But this unit can only prevail when
it operates alongside overwhelming American military support. Left to
fend for itself, it would be slaughtered by the resistance fighters.
Worse, this unit which stands as a symbol of the ideal for the new Iraqi
Army is actually the antithesis of what the new Iraqi Army should be.
While the Bush administration
has suppressed the formation of militia units organized along ethnic
and religious lines, the 36th Battalion should be recognized for what
it really is a Kurdish militia, retained by the US military because
the rest of the Iraqi Army is unwilling or unable to carry the fight
to the Iraqi resistance fighters.
The battle for Falluja
has exposed not only the fallacy of the US military strategy towards
confronting the resistance in Iraq, but also the emptiness of the interim
government of Iyad Allawi, which is so far incapable of building anything
that resembles a viable Iraqi military capable of securing its position
in Iraq void of American military support.
"The images
from Falluja will only fuel the anti-American sentiment in Iraq"
Falluja is probably the beginning of a very long and bloody phase of
the Iraq war, one that pits an American military under orders from a
rejuvenated Bush administration to achieve victory at any cost against
an Iraqi resistance that is willing to allow Iraq to sink into a quagmire
of death and destruction in order to bog down and eventually expel the
American occupier.
It is a war the
United States cannot win, and which the government of Iyad Allawi cannot
survive. Unfortunately, since recent polls show that some 70% of the
American people support the war in Iraq, it is a war that will rage
until the American domestic political dynamic changes, and the tide
of public opinion turns against the war.
Tragically, this
means many more years of conflict in Iraq that will result in thousands
more killed on both sides, and incomprehensible suffering for the people
of Iraq, and unpredictable instability for the entire Middle East.
Scott Ritter
is a former UN top arms inspector in Iraq 1991-1998. He is now an independent
consultant.
© 2004 Aljazeera.net