The stage is now set for the next bloody showdown, that will likely foreshadow in fast-forward what is going to ultimately become of both Israeli and American occupations. The powerful are politically unable to annihilate, but are intent on retribution, or armed "pacification", to borrow a weighty word dispassionately uttered today byBrig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20040401/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq).

For supporters of these occupations, Fallujah and Ramallah must be broken as symbols of resistance, even as the attempt creates yawning chasms of vicious resentment.

A noticeable difference between parallel situations is that the United States is not so intimately locked into conflict with Iraqis, as are the Israelis with the Palestinians. America will not have the staying power where the opposition is 10 flight hours - and not a stone's throw - away. This will accelerate a shift to a new phase in the case of Iraq, after the shredded bodies are picked up and buried.

Israel will ultimately reach the same political dead-end that the USA is rushing headlong into in Iraq. Without a committment to total war, the militarily weaker parties will not be compelled to accept the will of the stronger, because annihilation is never imminent.

As in Ramallah, where Israeli destruction impacted more than Arafat's PA, the US raid on Fallujah will not only resonate with true remaining Saddam Loyalists. Fallujah and Ramallah are battle-hardened places. Putting down resistance in both cases requires considerably more cruelty than a wired world will stomach, and the overlords cannot escape the gaze of the cameras, if not in action, then in aftermath.

Strategists surely can see these objective-denying limitations, but are professionally compelled to press forward regardless. Military organizations do not possess the means to deal with these problems, but they are nevertheless the only organizations charged by their governments with discharging measured viciousness on command.

Before the grinding up of Fallujah begins, we can consider an alternative, even knowing it has been scarcely broached in the "discourse" within the occupying "democracies". Due to the culture of present US leadership, a deft touch is not likely to be given serious consideration within their inner circles.

Fallujah for the near future should be recognized and acknowledged as an American-free zone. In the interest of national unity, Iraqi employees of the provisional government should handle all interface, with an emphasis on providing these residents with the best possible, even preferencial, security and infrastructure. Fallujah requires reassurance and not threat.

As does Iraq. But in the larger scheme, the damage is already done regarding Iraqi perception of American intentions. We have crafty polls competing with headlines, but in any honest gut check, we know the score: American arrogance has irrevocably delegitimized our dubious mandate.

When this is fully accepted by American leadership, and withdrawal begins, it will very likely be too late for any effective safety net for Iraq. The UN will be forced to wait out the most violent chapters of the civil war, as they must in all such calamities, and only begin picking up what pieces we can after the fall.

If you are still in any doubt as to what will become of America's occupation of Iraq, watch Fallujah.

Hypewanders.. Your posting it’s always a pleasure to read, not necessary because there maybe new
stuff in it, but by the pragmatic approach to it.

I guess with Iraq, if it wasn’t broken… shit happens.

Fallujah is where the 4 contracters were torched right?
Yeah, I doubt americans will be "staying out" of there.

When this is fully accepted by American leadership, and withdrawal begins, it will very likely be too late for any effective safety net for Iraq. The UN will be forced to wait out the most violent chapters of the civil war, as they must in all such calamities, and only begin picking up what pieces we can after the fall.
More like the UN would abstain from intervention because they're all talk and no action, as witnessed in Rwanda. Go UN!

But let's be honest. Your scenario will not happen, because the US military does not deal with armed insurgencies like the Russians do, in spite of what a few categorically unqualified internet pundits taking potshots from the cheap seats would have you believe.

So, preemptive apologies to all of you who want to see things go to shit over there to validate your political agenda, but you're going to be let down.

I think if you even scratch the surface, Stokes, you will learn that the people who are most critical of the US occupation of Iraq, and especially those who were compelled to participate in the largest worldwide antiwar demonstration in human history that preceded the invasion, can not be dismissed as cynics or ghouls speaking out in gleeful hopes that things will "go to shit".

Quite the contrary. It is reasonable to expect with both sadness and shame (for patriotic Americans) a tragic failure in Iraq. It is also reasonable to expect supporters of the disastrous misadventure to attempt to deflect blame for the failure onto those who have opposed this intervention all along, and I think that your opinion above is a precursor of this. I've explained in many other posts how the failure of this US intervention will have a negative effect on my life, but if you really believe I wish misery on the US and Mideast, then I would like to explain myself in another thread- But you should be able to understand this: If I could snap my fingers right now and magically give Iraq an instant unified, rejoicing brotherly alliance with the USA, I would not hesitate to do so.

Anyhow, the motivations of critics or proponents of not magical, but bombsight and gunpoint US hegemony in Iraq are not the subject at hand: I am postulating that the writing is already on the wall, for anyone who cares to read it, that escalation in Fallujah will clearly demonstrate that scaled American force, as in Vietnam, will not only be incapable of solving the most pressing problems of present Iraq- such escalation will rapidly worsen these problems.

The reasons for failure were quite apparent before the invasion ever began: A ideological-cultural gap (American one-sidedness pertaining to Israel and corrupt Arab partners has generated a more intense ideological conflict than existed during the Cold War in Southeast Asia); a neocolonialist misfire, where it has been sensed from the start by occupiers and occupied that their relationship is not amicable; a power vacuum (the US is incapable of weilding sustained power as brutally as Saddam did) and internal conflict Iraq (which equals or exceeds the explosive potential that mangled Lebanon).

I am not enjoining you to ghoulishly watch a train wreck. I am urging those who care about their future to wake up and look what is happening to us, because it will impact us all.

Hype,

Once again, your peace loving friends are full of shit. They didnt protest the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandians. They are nothing but a bunch of modern Isolationists who scream ME ME ME.

I am not ashamed to admit humanitarian reasons for protesting the US invasion of Iraq, but there are many reasons to oppose this intervention that don't involve your convenient "bleeding-heart" straw-man. If you would like to discuss Rwanda some more, start a thread.

Leaving humanitarianism aside, Americans have many practical, self-serving reasons to oppose this occupation. Fallujah unfortunately is the kind of place where blowback will be significant, and as I have already offered, it will be indicative of the inapplicability of US force in the wider strategic situation. This problem also holds true for the entire occupation because its legitimacy is falling apart.

Americans can completely turn their backs on Iraqi suffering, and still have reason to oppose this colossal blunder: Stupid policy costs dearly in international clout, and no amount and quality of military assets can make up for a serious credibility deficit as pertaining to future American pre-eminence. The USA cannot maintain our standing with bullying. Don't think so? Watch Fallujah.