Gyroscope

A newsletter for those unmoved by spin.
No. 54, November 29, 2004

Subscribe

Change Address

Unsubscribe

Comment
by John Nordin
Falluja, part 1

There is a long history of the US forces and the city of Falluja, Iraq, a history that is necessary to understand why our recent "conquering" of the city may not have the impact on the insurgency that we so confidently expect it will. Before we invaded, the city had been left alone as an insurgent strong hold, and before that it was the place where four contractors were killed, their bodies dragged through the streets and burned.

But before the that televised event brought our attention to the city, there was the demonstration.
April 2003: the demonstration
On April 29, 2003, US troops occupying a school in the city say there were fired at by snipers in a largely peaceful crowd demonstrating against their presence. Townspeople say there was no provocation on their side. Whatever the case, the soldiers fired back, killing 15 demonstrators. (Financial Times, April 24, 2004, p. W2)
The US had occupied the school for use as a barracks. The crowd wanted the school back. So at first the problem appeared to be local - not a demand for the US to get out of Iraq, but a demand for some of that 'reconstruction' we've promised them. So they demonstrated, a few days after US Marines had fired on a demonstration in Mosul, killing an estimated 10 people.

What happened after that is contested. The US claims have been doubted.

Significantly, Human Rights Watch did not find conclusive evidence of bullet damage on the school where US soldiers were based during the first incident, placing into serious question the assertion that they had come under fire from individuals in the crowd. In contrast, the buildings across the street facing the school had extensive evidence of multi-caliber bullet impacts that were wider and more sustained than would have been caused by the "precision fire" with which the soldiers maintain they responded, leading to the civilian casualties that day. Witness testimony and ballistics evidence suggest that US troops responded with excessive force to a perceived threat.
...
US military and political authorities who placed combat-ready soldiers in the highly volatile environment of al-Falluja without adequate law enforcement training, translators, and crowd control devices followed a recipe for disaster. They entered a town that had to some extent been traumatized by the air campaign, and they apparently had not adapted to the post-conflict role of policing, crowd-control and community relations they were required to perform

(Human Rights Watch, based on their first-hand investigation. They did interview US commanders)

Figures vary slightly, but an estimated 13 people were killed and 70 wounded by the 82nd Airborne in this incident. Two days later another protest demonstration occurred. This was fired on by a convoy from the Second Squadron of the Third Armored Calvary Regiment. Officers of that unit are on record stating that they were being fired upon and had sustained some light damage to their vehicles, and a minor wound to one soldier. Demonstrators interviewed have admitted to throwing rocks but deny they had weapons.

The Justice Not Vengeance site refers to another investigation of this incident by the UK-based Independent newspaper that further cast doubt on the US version, but also suggested that at other locations in the city during the April 28th demonstration that there was "celebratory firing" into the air. The implication is that the US forces might has mistaken that for directly hostile fire. This point is not further explained and I cannot find the original report by the newspaper.

It might suggest a more plausible theory: troops just out of battle and still in battle mode heard firing and became edgy. They see a crowd moving toward them, a crowd shouting and waving. They have no idea what is being said by the demonstrators and no idea what the real issue is. Nervous, feeling cornered, perhaps with no guidance from higher-ups, still operating under rules of engagement for a battlezone, they shoot first to eliminate any possible threat. That's a more plausible theory to me than that US troops initiated a massacre out of the blue, but I can't prove it.

If so, it would be yet another of the myriad cultural miscerptations that have opened the disaster of Iraq.

Whatever the cause, these incidents incited more violence, and US troops were often attacked in the months after this.

(Sources: BBC, first hand report at Countercurrents)
March 2004: Blackwater security

Around the edges of the Iraq story have been accounts mentioning various 'private security firms' or 'contractors.' Blackwater, a significant company in this field, was, according to a press release "a US government subcontractor providing convoy security for food deliveries in the Falluja area". Their website advertises a contract they have with the U.S. State Department to provide security in Iraq and invites people to submit their resumes.

Other reports have the contractors responsible for Jerry Bremer's personal security, and engaged in combat operations, at least when high security targets are attacked. (reports The Irish Times, April 10, 2004, p. 10, quoting the Washington Post)

How the contractors got to Falluja, what they were doing exactly and even their names seem to be unknown. How they came under attack has not been discussed anywhere I've found. What followed is not unknown: murder and mutation.

Falluja's streets were thick with men and boys and chaos. Boys with scarves over their faces hurled bricks into the burning vehicles. A group of men dragged one of the smoldering corpses into the street and ripped it apart. Someone then tied a chunk of flesh to a rock and tossed it over a telephone wire. "Viva mujahadeen!" shouted Said Khalaf, a taxi driver. "Long live the resistance!" Nearby, a boy no older than 10 put his foot on the head of a body and said: "Where is Bush? Let him come here and see this!" (NYT, quoted in Back to Iraq)

As has been noted, Islamic law and custom forbids the mutilation of a corpse. Islamic authorities in Iraq condemned the mutilation, but not the actual killings.

For such a public outrage the lack of investigation is striking. Why were they targeted? Only speculation seems to be available.

I've been in Falluja when the entire city has been under collective punishment, which occurs nearly everytime someone attacks a US patrol there. People are enraged, and rightly so. So when one of those white, shiny SUV's with the big black antenna drives by with guys with crew cuts in them wearing body armor holding guns (yes, it is THAT obvious and easy to see), what do you think might happen to them?
(Dahr Jamail, independent journalist from Alaska, reporting from Iraq)

If the Defense department, the CIA, or even Blackwater has issued any statement giving details or making claims, I've not found it. That is odd, given our modern propensity to investigate the minute details of any tragedy. You would think the incident was ripe for propaganda use by the administration, but perhaps the televised pictures were all they wanted. You'd think the victims families would be on TV, but we haven't heard a peep. What would be uncovered by investigation or calling attention to what happened in the hours before the murders? I have no evidence, but the absence of interest in knowing what happened is worth remembering.

(Sources: BBC, Al-Jazeera)
The value of history
Until the killing of those demonstrators, not a single bullet had been fired at US soldiers in Falluja or any of the cities north of Baghdad. But, remorselessly, little-known Falluja became a world-renowned centre of defiance, where a poor and poorly armed people has courageously faced the military wing of the new empire.
(Sami Ramadani, the Guardian, Nov. 10, 2004)

I'm not sure of the accuracy of the statement "not a single bullet had been fired", but it was certainly the case the violence against US forces has accelerated throughout this period.

We live in times where history is ignored. So the violence directed at us is see to be without context, simply the irrational manifestation of a degenerate culture that needs our civilizing touch.

Next week, we'll see the history we made in Falluja in the past year as this special two part series concludes.
Gyroscope Home