A great article in the New York Times today. The reporter notes that both US and Iraqi government forces seem to have removed themselves physically and thus fail to control a huge province in western Iraq. The cities of Falluja and Ramadi are entirely run by insurgents. If the name "Falluja" rings a bell, this is the city where four US contractors had their bodies mutilated after they were killed. Subsequently the US Marines assaulted the place, but were pulled back in a political solution. The Iraqi government constituted an Iraqi battalion to continue the fight (this was two to three months ago). That Iraqi force has disintegrated, and neither the US nor the Iraqi government has any authority in the two cities anymore. The final quote is devastating - they note that the elections scheduled for less than six months from now will likely only take place in 15 or so cities. So much for democracy.
Posted by baltar at August 29, 2004 04:57 PM | TrackBack | Posted to PoliticsKrugman summarizes other reports in his column today:
Ever since the uprising in April, the Iraqi town of Falluja has in effect been a small, nasty Islamic republic. But what about the rest of the Sunni triangle?Last month a Knight-Ridder report suggested that U.S. forces were effectively ceding many urban areas to insurgents. Last Sunday The Times confirmed that while the world's attention was focused on Najaf, western Iraq fell firmly under rebel control. Representatives of the U.S.-installed government have been intimidated, assassinated or executed.
Other towns, like Samarra, have also fallen to insurgents. Attacks on oil pipelines are proliferating. And we're still playing whack-a-mole with Moktada al-Sadr: his Mahdi Army has left Najaf, but remains in control of Sadr City, with its two million people. The Christian Science Monitor reports that "interviews in Baghdad suggest that Sadr is walking away from the standoff with a widening base and supporters who are more militant than before."