Arab Alamo Holds Out

Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah are celebrating their victory over American occupation forces at the "Arab Alamo". US Marines are handing over control of a city they call the "nexus of evil" to Saddam Hussein's former Republican Guard Major General, Jassim Mohammed Saleh. Saleh is a Sunni Baathist and has recruited a force of gunmen which includes insurgents who, only hours ago, were firing at the Marines.

Apparently, the hope is that this gives Saleh "street cred". His statement, "The reasons for the resistance go back to the American provocations, the raids, and the abolishing of the army, which made Iraqis join the resistance," may help him win over the citizens of Fallujah.

Unresolved is the issue of more than 200 "foreign fighters" (I think that's a euphemism for Saudi jihadists) in Fallujah. "Of the things we're giving up [with this deal], the ability to control the fate of the foreign fighters is a big minus," says a senior US officer. Fallujah is "the last urban sanctuary you could hide in without people disturbing you - loading a car with explosives without any one bothering you."

Lt. Gen. James Conway, the top US Marine officer in Iraq, praised the "formation of a military partnership" that could bring a "lasting, durable climate of peace." That's an interesting statement for a Marine to make about a force not directly under US command. Saleh's gunmen are not a part of any US trained security force. In fact, they were shooting at Conway's Marines just yesterday.

The insurgents in Fallujah have a quite different perspective, "God has given this town victory over the Americans," blared loudspeakers from one mosque minaret, Reuters reported. "This victory came by the acts of the brave mujahideen of Fallujah who vanquished the American troops."

A senior defense analyst for Jane's Consultancy Group in London says, "Not going in [militarily] shows an outbreak of common sense - it was the right decision,"  Still, he says, it's likely to embolden the resistance. Many Arabs now say that "Fallujah is an Arab Alamo. We are only 24 hours into 'Free Fallujah,' and it is already moving into myth status ... that will do a lot for insurgency in Iraq and across the Arab world."

Are we making the best of a bad situation? Or is the administration grasping at straws to avoid house-to-house urban combat, something the US military has been concerned about since before the invasion?

Where did Maj. Gen. Saleh come from? Where did he get 1,200 armed Iraqi troops? What's to keep this Sunni general from becoming just another warlord using the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah as a base for violently asserting Sunni rule on the majority population of Shiites, just as Saddam Hussein did before him?

"No one wants to give up territory that they paid for with blood," says one junior Marine officer, who declined to give his name. "I think [the Marines] are frustrated," says another. "If this fails, they're going to have to go right back in there."