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[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Tora Bora was the construct of a military idiot (guess who) and simply 
replicated in Fallujah. In both places the operation was preceeded by 
telegraphing U.S. intentions, in both places no anvil was created 
against which the U.S. military hammer could be smashed---unreliable and 
bribable warlords were used instead of sufficient U.S. boots on the 
ground, so the wounded Osama Bin Laden simply walked away from Tora Bora 
without even being inconvenienced in his escape

Ditto the escape of Al Zarqari and 95 percent of his cohorts from 
Fallujah. One only halfway competent Iraqi battalion, insufficient U. S. 
boots on the ground---no block to escape of Jihadists, who will pop up 
elsewhere, thanks to the Sandbox General in the White House who is the 
world's foremost expert in converting a winnable war in Iraq to defeat..



Squeezing jello in Iraq
                /By/ Scott Ritter



Thursday 11 November 2004, 11:40 Makka Time, 8:40 GMT

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**

The much-anticipated US-led offensive to seize the Iraqi city of Falluja 
from anti-American Iraqi fighters has begun. Meeting resistance that, 
while stiff at times, was much less than had been anticipated, US 
Marines and soldiers, accompanied by Iraqi forces loyal to the interim 
government of Iyad Allawi, have moved into the heart of Falluja.

Fighting is expected to continue for a few more days, but US commanders 
are confident that Falluja will soon be under US control, paving the way 
for the establishment of order necessary for nation-wide elections 
currently scheduled for January 2005.

But will it? American military planners expected to face thousands of 
Iraqi resistance fighters in the streets of Falluja, not the hundreds 
they are currently fighting. They expected to roll up the network of Abu 
Musab al-Zarqawi and his foreign Islamic militants, and yet to date have 
found no top-tier leaders from that organization. As American forces 
surge into Falluja, Iraqi fighters are mounting extensive attacks 
throughout the rest of Iraq.

Far from facing off in a decisive battle against the resistance 
fighters, it seems the more Americans squeeze Falluja, the more the 
violence explodes elsewhere. It is exercises in futility, akin to 
squeezing jello. The more you try to get a grasp on the problem, the 
more it slips through your fingers.

**


*"The goal is to kick out the Invaders"*

Alloy, Iraq
*_
_**_More comments...
<http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D623FBC9-A356-43F3-8AAA-E675D82BBDA2.htm>_*

This kind of war, while frustrating for the American soldiers and 
marines who wage it, is exactly the struggle envisioned by the Iraqi 
resistance. They know they cannot stand toe-to-toe with the world's most 
powerful military and expect to win.

While the US military leadership struggles to get a grip on a situation 
in Iraq that deteriorates each and every day, the anti-US occupation 
fighters continue to execute a game plan that has been in position since 
day one.

President Bush prematurely declared "mission accomplished" back in May 
2003. For Americans, this meant that major combat operations in Iraq had 
come to an end, that we had won the war. But for the Iraqis, it meant 
something else. In Iraq, there never was a ‘Missouri moment', where the 
government formally surrendered. The fact is, Saddam Hussein's 
government never surrendered, and still is very much in evidence in Iraq 
today in the form of the anti-US resistance.

*"It is a war the United States cannot win, and which the interim 
government of Iyad Allawi cannot survive"*

While we in America were declaring victory, the government of Saddam was 
planning its war. The first battles were fought in March and April 2003. 
Token resistance, no decisive engagement. The Iraqis fought just enough 
to establish the principle of resistance, but not enough to squander 
their resources.

Since May 2003, the resistance has grown in size and sophistication. 
Some attribute this to the incompetence of the post-war occupation 
policies of the United States. While this certainly was a factor in 
facilitating the resistance, the fact remains that what is occurring 
today in Iraq is part of a well-conceived plan the goal of which is to 
restore the Baath Party back to power. And the policies of the Bush 
administration are playing right into their hands.

The terror attacks carried out against the United Nations and other 
international aid organizations succeeded in driving out of Iraq the 
vestiges of foreign involvement the Bush administration relied upon to 
present an international face to the US-led occupation. In the chaos and 
anarchy that followed, the United States was compelled to use more and 
more force in an attempt to restore order, creating a Catch-22 situation 
where the more force we used, the more resistance we generated, 
requiring more force in response.

The cycle of violence fed the resistance, destabilizing huge areas of 
Iraq that are still outside the control of the Iraqi government and US 
military. High profile operations in Najaf, Sadr City and Sammara did 
little to bring these cities to bear.

*"While we in America were declaring victory, the government of Saddam 
was planning its war"*

Today, fighters in Iraq operate freely, continuing their orgy of death 
and destruction in order to attract the inevitable heavy-handed US 
response. Falluja is a prime case in point. While the US is unlikely to 
deliver a fatal blow to the Iraqi resistance, it is succeeding in 
levelling huge areas of Falluja, recalling the Vietnam-era lament that 
we had to destroy the village in order to save it.

The images from Falluja will only fuel the anti-American sentiment in 
Iraq, enabling the anti-US fighters to recruit ten new fighters for 
every newly-minted 'martyr' it loses in the current battle against the 
Americans.

The battle for Falluja is supposed to be the proving ground of the new 
Iraq Army. Instead, it may well prove to be a fatal pill. The reality is 
there is no Iraqi Army. Of the tens of thousands recruited into its 
ranks, there is today only one effective unit, the 36th Battalion.

This unit has fought side by side with the Americans in Falluja, Najaf, 
and Samara. By all accounts, it has performed well. But this unit can 
only prevail when it operates alongside overwhelming American military 
support. Left to fend for itself, it would be slaughtered by the 
resistance fighters. Worse, this unit which stands as a symbol of the 
ideal for the new Iraqi Army is actually the antithesis of what the new 
Iraqi Army should be.

While the Bush administration has suppressed the formation of militia 
units organized along ethnic and religious lines, the 36th Battalion 
should be recognized for what it really is – a Kurdish militia, retained 
by the US military because the rest of the Iraqi Army is unwilling or 
unable to carry the fight to the Iraqi resistance fighters.

The battle for Falluja has exposed not only the fallacy of the US 
military strategy towards confronting the resistance in Iraq, but also 
the emptiness of the interim government of Iyad Allawi, which is so far 
incapable of building anything that resembles a viable Iraqi military 
capable of securing its position in Iraq void of American military support.

*"The images from Falluja will only fuel the anti-American sentiment in 
Iraq"*

Falluja is probably the beginning of a very long and bloody phase of the 
Iraq war, one that pits an American military under orders from a 
rejuvenated Bush administration to achieve victory at any cost against 
an Iraqi resistance that is willing to allow Iraq to sink into a 
quagmire of death and destruction in order to bog down and eventually 
expel the American occupier.

It is a war the United States cannot win, and which the government of 
Iyad Allawi cannot survive. Unfortunately, since recent polls show that 
some 70% of the American people support the war in Iraq, it is a war 
that will rage until the American domestic political dynamic changes, 
and the tide of public opinion turns against the war.

Tragically, this means many more years of conflict in Iraq that will 
result in thousands more killed on both sides, and incomprehensible 
suffering for the people of Iraq, and unpredictable instability for the 
entire Middle East.