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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (41730)	5/1/2004 12:40:20 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793926

This one will ruin your whole day. Iraqis Hail Falluja 'Victory' as U.S. Changes Tack May 1, 8:36 AM (ET) By Fadel Badran FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Soldiers of the old Iraqi army led by one of Saddam Hussein's generals patrolled the city of Falluja on Saturday, a year after George W. Bush declared the U.S. "mission accomplished" in ousting the Iraqi regime. Cries of "victory over the Americans" echoed from minarets and guerrilla gunmen celebrated in the streets under the green banner of Islam and Saddam-era Iraqi flags. Thousands who had fled a month of heavy fighting streamed back to their homes after U.S. Marines pulled back from their siege positions. Mired in a confrontation that spilled blood on both sides and outraged Iraqi and Arab opinion, U.S. commanders withdrew to more distant positions on Friday. Security was entrusted to local police and a new force of ex-soldiers under General Jasim Mohamed Saleh, formerly of Saddam's feared Republican Guard. U.S. commanders call it an experiment that may be reversed. But some Iraqis, impatient with an occupation that brought them pictures this week of U.S. and British troops abusing detainees, may well believe they are seeing a military debacle, albeit of an enemy with still massive firepower in reserve. Americans, deciding whether to re-elect President Bush in November, may also wonder where the Iraq venture is taking them after the bloodiest month for U.S. troops since the war began. "The city's defenders are celebrating," yelled one man as a group of gunmen in civilian clothes raised green banners and rifles aloft on a street to acclaim the "defeat" of the Marines. A uniformed member of General Saleh's 1,000-strong force, dubbed the Falluja Brigade by Marines, looked on. He smiled. On foot and in civilian four-wheel-drive vehicles, this force began patrolling the streets of the Sunni Muslim city, which was among those most loyal to Saddam. "God has given this town victory over the Americans," wailed a message from one mosque. "This victory came by the acts of the brave Mujahideen of Falluja who vanquished the American troops." "EYES WIDE OPEN" A Pentagon spokesman said the United States was going into the Falluja deal with its "eyes wide open," aware of the risks of dealing with the relatively unknown Saleh, whose influence over -- or links with -- the insurgents are unclear. Lawrence Di Rita said the Marines had had to end the siege or risk new challenges to U.S. authority that could jeopardize plans to hand over to an interim Iraqi government in two months. Marine commanders say they are playing the new arrangement in Falluja by ear and may return to the town. They say they will pursue insurgents and foreign militants and are still hunting the killers of four American security guards, images of whose mutilated bodies prompted the U.S. offensive a month ago. Hammad Makhlas, returning to Falluja with his wife and five children to find windows smashed and walls damaged at his home, said: "Praise God. The most important thing is that the town's dignity has been preserved with the defeat of the Americans." DEATH TOLL RISING The superpower turned to Saleh after failing to root out some 2,000 guerrillas dug in among 300,000 civilians. Bush's critics accuse him of wading into a Vietnam-style "quagmire." The rising death toll is not helping Bush's re-election campaign. In all, 129 Americans were killed in action in April -- nearly a quarter of the combat toll of 541 since U.S. forces invaded in March last year. Two of those died on Saturday. U.S. television program "Nightline" sparked controversy by devoting a show to broadcasting names and pictures of the dead. The bloodshed at Falluja has also not helped Washington win over Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority, long dominant under Saddam. Doctors say 600 died in the siege, enraging much of the "Sunni Triangle" of towns north and west of Baghdad. And U.S. efforts to maintain the goodwill of those Iraqis who did welcome the overthrow of Saddam's Baathist state, such as the Shi'ite majority to the south, have been hampered by the scandal over the abuse of prisoners by military jailers. The Arab world was outraged by photographs published this week showing U.S. troops abusing detainees in Saddam's once notorious Abu Ghraib prison. On Saturday, a London newspaper published images it said showed British troops, who control the Shi'ite south around Basra, abusing an Iraqi detainee. Britain's army chief ordered an inquiry. Bush said on Friday there had been tough fighting since he declared major combat over on May 1, 2003, but that the war had been worth waging to get rid of Saddam.