BAGHDAD, 1 May 2004 — A year after US President George W. Bush declared hostilities over in Iraq, US troops are seeking peaceful solutions as the country’s worst month of violence since then draws to a close.
The US military brought its power to bear in its assault on the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah in April and its running battles with the militia of angry young Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
But the coalition quickly recognized its use of force played into the hands of its opponents and inflamed both the Sunni and Shiite populations against it.
When US forces assaulted Fallujah on April 5 days after four US contractors were brutally massacred there, it triggered protests across the nation and produced a semblance of unity among the long-feuding Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities.
Members of the US-installed Iraq Governing Council threatened to resign as gun battles raged and air strikes hit Fallujah. On April 9, the coalition froze its advance and began the laborious process of political negotiations, even as Marines and fighters fought tit-for-tat from fixed positions around the city.
Finally, three-weeks later, the Marines struck an apparent deal allowing a new security force, the Fallujah Protection Army, headed by a former general under Saddam, to police the city. If the situation stabilizes, the Marines have $77 million to pour into Fallujah for reconstruction projects in the hope that if the quality of life improves, the resistance will be hobbled.
The scenes of carnage served as a powerful recruiting tool for the fighters.
“The terrorist or foreign fighter will exploit every accident, every unintended consequence and spin it and make it seem the coalition deliberately did these things,” said Lt. Col. Alan Burghard, the 1st Marine Division’s advisor to the government of Al-Anbar, which includes Fallujah.
Even as defense officials in Washington grumbled about the tentative plan for US forces to scale back their presence in Fallujah, coalition officials were clearly wary of the long-term impact of a renewed US attack on the city.
“What would be the political and humanitarian fallout from resuming offensive operations? That is why the coalition has been so adamant about finding a peaceful solution,” a US military official told AFP.
In the south, the coalition is also leery of over-playing its hand with the country’s 15-million strong Shiite majority.
When fighting erupted in the first week of April between Shiite firebrand Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia and US soldiers, the upper echeleons of the Shiite community were notably quiet as the clashes claimed lives. Sadr’s men briefly seized the cities of Kut, Diwaniyah and Karbala, and also took Najaf, which they still control.
Despite the massing of US troops around Najaf, a US military officer said Thursday the Americans had no intention of crossing inside the holy city and sparking a battle that Sadr could use to hammer a final wedge between the coalition and the Shiite population.