[Marxism] Ramadi, where US troops "defeated" insurgents, fights back

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The comments in brackets are excerpted from those of Prof. Mark Jensen
of United for Peace of Pierce County (Seattle, Washington). I wonder how
things are going in Samarra.
Fred Feldman

[Remember, weeks ago, Ramadi was touted as a demonstration that the
U.S.'s
offensive in the Euphrates valley of western Iraq was bearing fruit?
(See,
for example, militarist H. Thomas Hayden's article of Sept. 21, entitled
"The
Road to Success in Iraq Starts in Falluja":
( <http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,Hayden_092104,00.html)>
http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,Hayden_092104,00.html)  "A
major
battle is currently being fought against insurgents in Ramadi.  The US
forces
are working hand in hand with Iraqi forces.  Success in Ramadi may find
a
model for success in Najaf, which may have been attributable to the
Iraqi
forces assembled for the final assault on the Shiite shrine."]

PROVINCIAL CAPITAL NEAR FALLUJA IS RAPIDLY SLIPPING INTO CHAOS
By Edward Wong

New York Times
October 28, 2004


<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/international/middleeast/28ramadi.htm
l>
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/28/international/middleeast/28ramadi.html

RAMADI -- The American military and the interim Iraqi government are
quickly
losing control of this provincial capital, which is larger and
strategically
more important than its sister city of Falluja, say local officials,
clerics,
tribal sheiks and officers with the United States Marines.

"The city is chaotic," said Sheik Ali al-Dulaimi, a leader of the
region's
largest tribe.  "There's no presence of the Allawi government," he
added,
speaking of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

While Ramadi is not exactly a "no go" zone for the marines, like the
insurgent
stronghold of Falluja 30 miles to the east, officers say it is fast
slipping
in that direction.  In the last six weeks, guerrillas have stepped up
the pace
of assassinations of Iraqis working with the Americans, and marine
officials
say they suspect Iraqi security officers have been helping insurgents to

attack their troops.  Reconstruction efforts have ground to a halt
because no
local contractors are willing to work.

Most of the military's resources are channeled into controlling a
bomb-infested, four-and-a-half-mile stretch of road that runs through
downtown
and connects two bases.  Insurgents pop out of alleyways, mosques and a
crowded market and fire at marines at will, then disappear when the
Americans
give chase.

Ramadi lies at the heart of rebellious Anbar Province and astride the
major
western supply route to Baghdad.  The city, whose 400,000 residents have
at
best merely tolerated the foreign military presence, is seen as a
crucial part
of American efforts to plant a secular democracy in Iraq.  But the
disintegration of authority puts in jeopardy both the Bush
administration's
plan to stage nationwide elections by Jan. 31 and any sense of
legitimacy such
elections might have.  It also complicates the American military's plans
to
invade Falluja, because of the close coordination between insurgents in
the
two cities.

With a powerful mix of propaganda and intimidation, well-financed
guerrillas
have turned the people of Ramadi against the American occupiers and
their
allies, Iraqis and marines here say.

"The provincial government is on the verge of collapse," said Second Lt.
Ryan
Schranel, whose platoon does 24-hour guard duty at the besieged
government
center opposite the main bazaar.  "Just about everybody has resigned or
is on
the verge of resigning."

The provincial governor, Muhammad Awad, who doubles as the city's mayor,
took
office after the previous governor resigned in early August following
the
kidnapping of his three sons, and after a deputy governor was kidnapped
and
killed.  Mr. Awad is juggling two jobs because no one has come forward
to be
mayor.

Compounding the problems, guerrillas have been streaming in since the
marines
stepped up airstrikes against the mujahedeen in Falluja, Marine
officials say.

"We hit the deck one and a half months ago, and the area has changed for
the
downhill very quickly," said Staff Sgt. James Keefer, one of six civil
affairs
officers attached to the Second Battalion, Fifth Marines, which arrived
here
in early September.  "We used to go to civilian areas in one or two
Humvees to
look at hospitals and other places.  Now it's too dangerous, and we need
four
Humvees for a convoy, and we don't have the resources."

The power vacuum here also muddies plans for an invasion of Falluja,
which has
about 300,000 people, because Ramadi could well become a haven for
retreating
guerrillas.  Marines here say they have found it impossible to seal off
either
the highway or the desert smuggling routes between the two cities.
Indeed,
Marine officials say there is a high level of coordination between
insurgent
groups in the two cities, with the suspected guerrilla leader in Ramadi,

Muhammad Daham, working closely with counterparts in Falluja.

When the marines made their ill-fated push into Falluja last April, they
had
to battle a ferocious uprising in Ramadi, where 12 marines were killed
in a
single ambush.

Though members of the former ruling Baath Party are believed to be
financing
the insurgency here, where loyalty to Saddam Hussein ran high, there is
a
growing Islamist face to the rebellion, similar to Falluja, local
officials
and Marine officers say.  Calls for resistance emanate from mosque
loudspeakers when Marine convoys roll past.  In a coordinated raid on
seven
mosques on Oct. 12, marines said, they found large weapons caches, taped

anti-American sermons and DVD's showing beheadings.

Top Marine commanders say they may open an offensive in Ramadi together
with
one in Falluja.  But such an assault would probably have only a limited
effect, because insurgents here do not hold well-defined territory, as
they do
in Falluja.  They have instead blended into the population and conduct
hit-and-run strikes on Marine patrols and outposts along the main
downtown
strip.

"It's difficult to describe 'sense of control' in terms of insurgent
activity," said Capt. Eric Dougherty, the commander of Company E, which
lost
four men in the first six weeks here.  "The insurgent activity is
everywhere.
It's at our firm bases here.  It's among women and children, those
cowards."

Dozens of government employees still come to work every day at the
provincial
center, a three-story building pockmarked by bullets and shrapnel.
Marines
sitting watch behind sandbags on the roof get shot at regularly with
AK-47's,
mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

"We're one of the only units that's got bases inside the city," said Lt.
Col.
Randall P. Newman, the battalion commander.  "This is not Falluja.  We
want to
keep this place from becoming a Falluja."

In an interview in his office, Governor Awad attributed the anarchy to
the
ineffectiveness of the Iraqi security forces and the limited presence of
the
marines, whom he said had wasted time earlier on reconstruction
projects.

"The performance of the police and national guard is very weak in all of

central Iraq," Mr. Awad said as he sat behind his desk, two Iraqi guards
in
civilian clothes hovering near him.  "The marines are not protecting us.
It's
true that they've helped us with some projects such as improving the
water
supply and sewage disposal and rebuilding schools.  But people think all
that
is worthless.  They need security."

None of the dozens of marines interviewed in Ramadi disagreed with Mr.
Awad's
assessment of the Iraqi police and National Guard.

Even worse, they say, the local forces sometimes aid the insurgency.
Marines
arrested the police chief of Anbar Province in August on charges of
corruption, and Lieutenant Schranel said Iraqi National Guardsmen were
suspected of helping insurgents blow up a veterans' building that
marines were
using as an observation post.

Colonel Newman said the only effective Iraqi troops in Ramadi are 80 or
so
Iraqi Special Forces soldiers from elsewhere in the country.  They live
at
battalion headquarters and are used for specific operations like mosque
raids,
not day-to-day security.

On a recent afternoon, two Iraqi National Guardsmen at a checkpoint at
the
government center watched as a group of marines walked up.  "Here come
the
sons of dogs," one guardsman said to an Iraqi reporter.

Next door, in police headquarters, Iraqi officers tossed around
conspiracy
theories.

"The Americans gave us nothing more than AK-47's so they could stay in
Iraq
for a long time," Lt. Abdul-Latif Salim said.  "The resistance has the
right
to fight the occupation.  It's an obligation for every Muslim.  The
Allawi
government has no power."

Insurgents have tried discrediting the marines and the local government
through widespread propaganda.  Clerics regularly preach against the
occupation, while guerrillas post the names of Iraqi security officers
outside
mosques.  A marine showed a flier seized from a mosque that depicted a
woman
in a black robe being raped by men in sunglasses, presumably Americans.

In late September, insurgents began blowing up whole buildings downtown,

videotaping the demolitions and giving the tapes to Arab television
networks
to attribute blame to American airstrikes, Marine officers said.  The
explosions have destroyed an agricultural center, a veterans' building
and the
Red Crescent headquarters.  Their wrecked facades still scar the city.

As in other parts of Iraq, guerrillas are killing locals working with
Americans.  An interpreter at a base called Combat Outpost, east of
downtown,
was found beheaded recently.  Insurgents even killed the man who cleaned
the
portable toilets at the base.

Sergeant Keefer said the marines tried calling a list of 100 potential
local
contractors when they first arrived.  Many of the phone numbers had been

disconnected, and people who did answer said the contractors had left
town.
Reconstruction "is pretty much at a standstill right now," said Capt.
Sean
Kuehl, an intelligence officer.  "An insurgency cannot be defeated
solely by
an occupying power.  We need the support of the local population."

--Abdul Razzaq al-Saeidy contributed reporting for this article.





_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism