[Shadow_Group] Eyewitness from Fallujah Massacre

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

--- shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> 
> EYEWITNESS:
> SMOKE AND CORPSES IN FALLUJAH
> 
> BBC NEWS
>  
> US troops, backed by Iraqi forces, are locked in a
> fierce fight to wrest the city of Falluja from rebel
> control. The BBC News website spoke by phone to
> Fadhil Badrani, an Iraqi journalist and resident of
> Falluja who reports regularly for Reuters and the
> BBC World Service in Arabic.
> 
> We are publishing his and other eyewitness accounts
> from the city in order to provide the fullest
> possible range of perspectives from those who are
> there:
> 
> A row of palm trees used to run along the street
> outside my house - now only the trunks are left.
> 
> The upper half of each tree has vanished, blown away
> by mortar fire.
> 
> >From my window, I can also make out that the
> minarets of several mosques have been toppled.
> 
> There are more and more dead bodies on the streets
> and the stench is unbearable.
> 
> Smoke is everywhere.
> 
> Sleeping through bombardment
> 
> A house some doors from mine was hit during the
> bombardment on Wednesday night. A 13-year-old boy
> was killed. His name was Ghazi.
> 
> I tried to flee the city last night but I could not
> get very far. It was too dangerous.
> 
> I am getting used to the bombardment. I have learnt
> to sleep through the noise - the smaller bombs no
> longer bother me.
> 
> Without water and electricity, we feel completely
> cut off from everyone else.
> 
> I only found out Yasser Arafat had died because the
> BBC rang me.
> 
> It is hard to know how much people outside Falluja
> are aware of what is going on here.
> 
> I want them to know about conditions inside this
> city - there are dead women and children lying on
> the streets.
> 
> People are getting weaker from hunger. Many are
> dying from their injuries because there is no
> medical help left in the city whatsoever.
> 
> Some families have started burying their dead in
> their gardens.
> 
> Iraqi soldiers
> 
> There has been a lot of resistance in Jolan.
> 
> The Americans have taken over several high-rise
> buildings overlooking the district.
> 
> But the height has not helped them control the area
> because the streets of Jolan are very narrow and you
> cannot fire into them directly.
> 
> The US military moves along the main roads and
> avoids the side-streets. The soldiers do not leave
> their armoured vehicles and tanks.
> 
> If they get fired on, they fire back from their
> tanks or call in air-strikes.
> 
> I saw some Iraqi government soldiers on the ground
> earlier.
> 
> I don't know which part of the country these
> soldiers are from. They are definitely not from any
> of the western provinces such as al-Anbar.
> 
> I have heard people say they are from Kurdistan.
> 
> They are well co-ordinated. When the US forces pull
> back from an area, the Iraqi soldiers will take over
> there.
> 
> Translation from Arabic by Shukri Shewayish of
> bbcarabic.com
> Story from BBC NEWS:
>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4004873.stm<http://newsbbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4004873.stm>
> 
> Published: 2004/11/11 22:21:15 GMT
> 
> © BBC MMIV
> 
>
===============================================================================
> 
> Mission Defeated:
> Insurgency Foils U.S. Plans for Iraq
> 
> By Patrick Ayers
> "Justice," Issue #41
> 
> "The Americans say that Saddam is the man of mass
> graves,
> but they are the ones responsible for these mass
> graves." 
> 
> - Iraqi tribal leader
> 
> On the campaign trail, Bush presented a picture of
> an Iraq in transition from dictatorship to
> democracy. The President told a crowd in Minnesota,
> "It wasn't all that long ago that Saddam Hussein was
> in power with his torture chambers and mass graves.
> And today, this country is headed towards
> elections."
> But a growing section of Iraqis see the role of the
> U.S. military occupation of Iraq much differently
> than Bush. While helping bury Iraqis outside
> Fallujah after a U.S. aerial assault, one tribal
> leader told an American reporter, ''They [the
> Americans] say that Saddam is the man of mass
> graves, but they are the ones responsible for these
> mass graves." (Boston Globe, 9/18/04)
> 
> Months of occupation have stoked up enormous anger
> among Iraqis. In addition to the brutal and
> humiliating nature of a foreign occupation,
> unemployment stands at 60%. Crime is rampant. Women
> face the threat of kidnapping and rape every time
> they leave home. Raw sewage flows through the
> streets of Baghdad, and preventable diseases are
> spreading in epidemic proportions.
> Intelligence reports suggest that more and more
> Iraqis are joining the ranks of the insurgency. One
> recent report put the number of full-time insurgent
> forces as high as 20,000, much higher than all
> previous estimates.
> 
> The insurgency has already demonstrated sufficient
> strength to force the U.S. out of major areas in the
> "Sunni triangle" north and west of Baghdad and large
> areas of the Shi'a south. In the last months, the
> insurgency has spread to every corner of Iraq
> outside of the Kurdish north, and insurgents have
> even managed attacks in the heavily guarded Green
> Zone.
> 
> George Bush's Vietnam
> 
> George Bush is losing his war. His insane adventure
> to grab Iraqi oil fields and boost the power and
> prestige of U.S. imperialism has created a
> catastrophe that is spinning out of control. Attacks
> have increased to 87 per day, up from 40-50 per day
> in June. Nearly 1,100 U.S. soldiers have been
> killed, and a new report from public health experts
> estimates that more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians
> have been slaughtered since the March 2003
> invasion.(Lancet Journal, 10/28/04)
> 
> While playing down this disaster, Bush has gambled
> on a strategy of "Iraqification," that is, giving
> the U.S. occupation an Iraqi face in the form of
> former exile Ayad Allawi. But the authority of
> Interim Prime Minister Allawi's government extends
> little beyond the city limits of Baghdad.
> The U.S. has even found it difficult to ensure the
> security of the Iraqi National Guard. A recent
> massacre of 50 Iraqi soldiers suggests that
> insurgents have successfully infiltrated the guard.
> Many Iraqis sign up just for the paycheck, and at
> critical moments many have switched sides, joining
> the resistance to the U.S.
> 
> The insurgency may be outmatched by the awesome
> power of the U.S. military, but the U.S. will not be
> able to secure Iraq in the face of a widespread
> guerrilla war or national uprising. The New York
> Times recently expressed doubts about this:
> "History, from Algeria to Vietnam, suggests that no
> military solution to a spreading insurgency is
> possible" (9/26/04)
> 
>   Without security, Bush's stated aim of a
> democratic Iraq and U.S. imperialism's strategic
> goal of a pro-U.S. outpost in Iraq is in jeopardy.
> Clearly, 
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