We have learned nothing. Or specifically, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have learned nothing. The number of dead, Iraqis and American soldiers is about to increase dramatically as our armed forces prepare to do to Ramadi what they did to Fallujah:
BAGHDAD — Fears of an imminent offensive by the U.S. troops massed around the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi intensified Saturday, with residents pouring out of the city to escape what they describe as a mounting humanitarian crisis.
The image pieced together from interviews with tribal leaders and fleeing families in recent weeks is one of a desperate population of 400,000 people trapped in the crossfire between insurgents and U.S. forces. Food and medical supplies are running low, prices for gas have soared because of shortages and municipal services have ground to a stop.
U.S. and Iraqi forces had cordoned off the city by Saturday, residents and Iraqi officials said. Airstrikes on several residential areas picked up, and troops took to the streets with loudspeakers to warn civilians of a fierce impending attack, Ramadi police Capt. Tahseen Dulaimi said.
Ramadi is essentially the same size as Fallujah, maybe a little larger. It sounds like we are doing exactly the same thing we did in preparation for the Fallujah attacks: First, cut off the city from food, water and medical supplies and surround it with our troops. Then begin air strikes on suspected insurgent strongholds, and tell the citizens to either flee as refugees, or be prepared for the coming slaughter.
Let me be blunt. This is senseless and reckless. It’s also a war crime in my opinion.
Thousands of families remain trapped in the city, those who have fled say. Many can’t afford to leave or lack transportation, whereas other families have decided to wait for their children to finish final examinations at school before escaping.
“The situation is catastrophic. No services, no electricity, no water,” said Sheik Fassal Gaood, the former governor of Al Anbar province, whose capital is Ramadi. […]
“It is becoming hell up there,” said Mohammed Fahdawi, a 42-year-old contractor who packed up his four children and fled to Baghdad two weeks ago. “It is unbelievable: The Americans seem to have brought all of their troops to Ramadi.”
The fearful city is haunted by memories of the battles that raged in nearby Fallouja in 2004. Determined to purge that city of insurgents, U.S. Marine and Army units lined up to the north and pushed south through the heart of Fallouja. They cleared one neighborhood after another in intense, constant street fighting. By the time the sweep was over, the town was largely destroyed.
Military officials have insisted that the deployment of the additional troops did not presage a Fallouja-style offensive.
“Moving this force will allow tribal leaders and government officials to go about the very difficult task of taking back their towns from the criminal elements,” said Army Maj. J. Todd Breasseale, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.
With all due respect to Major Breasseale, he’s lying. This is exactly the MO the military employed prior to attacking Fallujah. The result will be a city not worth taking back, a city turned into rubble and heaps of the dead bodies.
“In general, Anbar is controlled by terrorist groups,” said Sheik Yaseen Gaood, deputy minister of the Interior overseeing the western provinces. “The Anbar government has no authority. The ministries of Interior and Defense have no influence there.”
This is the height of irony. The deputy minister of the Iraqi Department of the Interior, a department responsible for the Shi’a death squads that have roamed throughout Iraq killing Sunnis wherever and whenever they wish, complains about the vicious terrorists that control Ramadi. We have no influence there, he complains. What would his Interior Department be doing if it did have influence in Ramadi? Killing Sunnis, that’s what
I guess it’s official. We have finally decided to take sides in this civil war between the Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis. We’re backing the group with the larger population and the larger representation in Parliament. The group supported by fundamentalist Shia militias which are imposing Sharia law wherever their influence extends. The group bent on vengeance against their former Sunni oppressors.
God forgive them, for I can’t. This is insane.
