BlackFive

This is bad, just bad. The CPA, the Bush Administration, and Iraqi power brokers are making deals over Fallujah. The primary part of which is to have Iraqi Civil Defense Forces and Police take control of Fallujah and pull the Marines back. Make no mistake that this is a political decision by civilians in a place where military commanders should be making the calls. That has never been a recipe for success.

At one point, it was estimated that one in ten Iraqi policemen were working for the terrorists and insurgents. So now we are going to depend on these trustworthy men to take care of this situation?

We are throwing away the lives of those who fought in Fallujah for nothing.

Why?

Because we'll be fighting these Ba'athist insurgents and terrorists again.

But we won't just be fighting these morons, we'll be fighting more insurgencies around the world because this will be perceived as victory in the eyes of the Arab world. Don't believe me? Just check out Al Jazeera when this comes down the official pipeline.

The call will go out - the Americans can be defeated. As I said, this is bad. And I really hope that I'm wrong.

The only solution is to send in the Marines, take down the insurgents, and spend millions on rebuilding the city and putting people to work.

When Mr. Habib is working hard every day and Mrs. Habib is happy with having food on the table, Mr. Habib will be too tired to pick up a rifle at night to fight us and Mrs. Habib won't want her gravy train to get killed. It's that simple.

Update 8:30AM CST: Commenter Ron points out that Wretchard from the Belmont Club thinks otherwise. I hope he's right. I also wonder what Phil Carter thinks. He's off-line this weekend (and congrats on graduating from law school).

Also, here is an article about what Army Gen. John Abizaid, the US Central Command CinC, had to say about this move and to caution us on expectations.

Update 1:20PM CST: Forget what I said about Al Jazeera. Just check out this Reuters article (notice the headline).

..."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...

The article also concedes that the Marines know that some of the new Iraqi force had been fighting the Marines just days ago.

Showdown (Marines in Fallujah) Parts One, Two, Three, Four and Five