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Bush Arming Insurgents
I really don't want to armchair general a conflict that is currently being fought, but this troubles me: "U.S. Marines negotiated a "tentative" agreement Thursday to pull back forces from Fallujah, a deal that would lift a nearly monthlong siege and allow an Iraqi force led by a former Saddam Hussein-era general to handle security"
The tentative deal for the Iraqi force outlined a surprising new way to find an "Iraqi solution to an Iraqi problem," said Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne. It envisions a force of some 1,100 members called the Fallujah Protective Army. The force, which would replace the Marine cordon and move into the city as U.S. troops pull back, would be led by a leading general from Saddam's army and include Iraqis with "military experience" from the Fallujah region, Byrne said. It could even include gunmen who fought with guerrillas against the Americans – particularly ex-soldiers disgruntled over losing their jobs when the United States disbanded the old Iraqi army, another Marine officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. |
The Bush administration has already been criticized for not disarming the warlords in both Afghanistan and now in Iraq: Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army is currently in the news, also armed and at large are the Badr Brigade, Ahmad Chalabi's troops, Iyad Alawi's ex-Baathists, and the two Kurdish political parties' peshmerga.
It seems like this new move just creates one more Baathist armed militia outside of CPA control.
I hope this deal has been carefully thought out and is part of an overall strategy for the peaceful transition of authority and eventually full sovereignty for Iraq. Unfortunately, I suspect it's a hasty, ill-advised solution forced on the Marines by the administration in an attempt to end the politically embarrassing insurgency in Fallujah.