CAIRO, 16 November 2004 — The US military announcement that major combat was over in Fallujah echoed the words of US President George W. Bush in May last year when he declared the official end of the war on Iraq.
Bush’s declaration later proved to be a major publicity blunder, as more US soldiers died subsequently after the invasion than during the entire “official” war.
Like Bush’s statement, the US military’s words in Fallujah could also indicate a mere short-term military victory followed by far more fatal long-term consequences.
Many Iraqi politicians are already staying away from Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and other supporters of the campaign on Fallujah. With the scheduled January elections drawing closer, they do not want to be associated with such an unpopular military move.
The soldiers of the Iraqi National Guard have also lost much public support as a result of their role in the assault on Fallujah.
They are now reviled as “the dogs of the occupiers” even by many Iraqis who had previously regarded the new Iraqi Army as an important factor in bringing peace to the country.
Even the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), the third largest Kurdish party that had previously refrained from taking the rebels’ side, has now distanced itself from Allawi.
“We reject resorting to military solutions,” the party made clear in a statement after the US-Iraqi operation against the city began more than a week ago.
And everywhere the nervous question is surfacing: “Where will be the next Fallujah — in Mosul, in Baqubah, or in the small Sunni towns south of Baghdad?”
The reports about the desperate situation of the remaining civilians in Fallujah have actually fuelled the rebels’ cause in other parts of the country.
The US Army has also not ruled out that some insurgents and Arab extremists might seek shelter and regroup in other cities in the so-called Sunni triangle.
As a result, there is no scarcity of possible new sites for attacks by US-Iraqi troops.
One of the hotspots is the area south of the capital along the Euphrates — dubbed the “triangle of death” by residents — where British soldiers have taken up positions at the request of the US military.
The situation in the towns south of Baghdad has deteriorated to such an extent that it is now just as dangerous for Iraqis as for US soldiers and other foreigners to pass through this area en route from the capital to the Shiite cities in central Iraq.
Even Shiite families who want to bring their dead from Baghdad to Najaf for burial have to fear for their lives, according to the Arab Internet magazine Elaph.com.
