"A second Fallujah" in Sadr City
The WaPo outlines the delicate efforts to move US and Iraqi forces into Sadr City, but also includes "the stick" behind the negotiations.
Take a moment to look at the satellite photos of Sadr City as you contemplate this "second Fallujah plan."
I'm not sure if this was "leaked" to pressure the folks in Sadr City, but if they're serious, they'd better look again. Fallujah had only 400,000 residents at the time, and the city is far more spread out.
Sadr City is 2 million people stacked into an apartment block slum.
"Clearing" Sadr City would be impossible with the forces currently available. (Really, take a look at the satellite photos.)
If political avenues are exhausted, the U.S. military has formulated other options, including plans for a wholesale clearing operation in Sadr City that would require a much larger force, but commanders stress that this is a last resort.
"A second Fallujah plan exists, but we don't want to execute it," a military officer in Baghdad said.
Take a moment to look at the satellite photos of Sadr City as you contemplate this "second Fallujah plan."
I'm not sure if this was "leaked" to pressure the folks in Sadr City, but if they're serious, they'd better look again. Fallujah had only 400,000 residents at the time, and the city is far more spread out.
Sadr City is 2 million people stacked into an apartment block slum.
"Clearing" Sadr City would be impossible with the forces currently available. (Really, take a look at the satellite photos.)
posted by mikevotes at
8:01 AM
3 Comments:
Hijacking the post....
David Hick, the Australian held in Guantanamo for five years without trial or formal charges, is now back in Australia where he'll serve out the remaining 7 months of his plea bargained sentence. In a online posting the BBC noted:
"He had been flown from Guantanamo Bay in a jet chartered by the Australian government...
The plane had to fly via Mexico as the United States refused to allow it to enter American airspace."
Un-f'ing-believable. I'm embarrassed (again) by the the shallowness of my country's leaders.
By
-epm, at 10:11 AM
That is interesting.
The other key element of the Hicks settlement is that he would be released only if he agreed to never talk about his treatemnet in US custody.
I haven't been reading the BBC this week because the FACup game was Saturday (English soccer) and they're not showing it in the US until Wed, so I can't look at the BBC out of fear I'll see who won.
By
mikevotes, at 10:59 AM
"Fallujah Plan"- Tell all civilians to flee city. Consider it fair warning. Bombard city with airstrikes. Destroy infrastructure. Impose a strict curfew on citizens ordering them to stay off the streets. Assume anyone remaining and visible in the open is a fair target. Kill whatever moves. Capture hospital. Sweep city, block by block. Bomb and destroy any building from which resistance is received. Kill the stray dogs which are eating the dead bodies in order to prevent the spread of disease. Once city is destroyed, barricaded, and sequestered, establish biometric identification system for returning citizens. Ban private vehicles. Slowly allow return of former citizens into city which is now being operated as a military-controlled same-site refugee camp (where the refugees are the returnees). Provide jobs for working-age men clearing and rebuilding the rubble of the destroyed city. Formerly independent citizens in the once functioning, independent city now rely entirely upon assitance, identity papers are carried at all times, pockets of resistance that develop are quickly dealt with, martial law remains in effect indefinitely. Finally, cross your fingers, and salute the Stars and Stripes. This is liberation.
By
Anonymous, at 1:14 PM
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