November 21, 2004

Biggest Suppressed Stories of the Year: The Success of Our Operations in Fallujah

In my previous post, I mentioned a conversation I had yesterday with my friend, photographer Adam Taylor. We had an excellent discussion about politics, and another subject that came up was Fallujah. He questioned my assertion that our operations there have been successful; his impression was that they were incomplete at best. It appears to me that this shows how well mainstream media have, once again, hidden the facts from the public.

This great article by Jack Kelly discusses the achievements our troops have had there (via PowerLine ):

...the resistance in Iraq has had a bad week. American and Iraqi government troops have killed at least 1,200 fighters in Fallujah, and captured 1,100 more. Those numbers will grow as mop-up operations continue.

These casualties were inflicted at a cost (so far) of 56 Coalition dead (51 Americans), and just over 300 wounded, of whom about a quarter have returned to duty.

“The resistance has suffered a loss of more than 2,000 combatants, out of a total force estimated by U.S. Central Command at about 5,000 (other estimates are higher) as well as its only secure base in the country”

“That kill ratio would be phenomenal in any [kind of] battle, but in an urban environment, it’s revolutionary,” said retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, perhaps America’s most respected writer on military strategy. “The rule has been that [in urban combat] the attacking force would suffer between a quarter and a third of its strength in casualties.”

The victory in Fallujah was also remarkable for its speed, Peters said. Speed was necessary, he said, “because you are fighting not just the terrorists, but a hostile global media.”

Fallujah ranks up there with Iwo Jima, Inchon and Hue as one of the greatest triumphs of American arms, though you’d have a hard time discerning that from what you read in the newspapers.

The swift capture of Fallujah is taxing the imagination of Arab journalists and—sadly—our own. How does one portray a remarkable American victory as if it were of little consequence, or even a defeat? For CNN’s Walter Rodgers, camped out in front the main U.S. military hospital in Germany, you do this by emphasizing American casualties.

For The New York Times and The Washington Post, you do this by emphasizing conflict elsewhere in Iraq.

But the news organs that liken temporary terrorist success in Mosul (the police stations they overran were recaptured the next day) with what happened to the terrorists in Fallujah is false equivalence of the worst kind. If I find a quarter in the street, it doesn’t make up for having lost $1,000 in a poker game the night before.

The resistance has suffered a loss of more than 2,000 combatants, out of a total force estimated by U.S. Central Command at about 5,000 (other estimates are higher) as well as its only secure base in the country. But both the Arab media and ours emphasize that the attack on Fallujah has made a lot of Arabs mad. By this logic, once we’ve killed all the terrorists, they’ll be invincible.

“The experience of human history has been the more people you kill, the weaker they get,” Thompson noted.

...Journalists quick to judge the Marine are more forgiving when it comes to the terrorists. “They’re not bad guys, especially, just people who disagree with us,” said MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.

And journalists wonder why we are less popular than used car salesmen.

European Nations Find a Way to Make Some Financial Contribution to Iraq

I was having lunch yesterday with my friend, photographer Adam Taylor, who asked why the other countries of the world haven’t contributed more financially to the war in Iraq. I responded that it’s in part because they have far less discretionary funds available than we do. However, it appears that they may be about to make some contribution:

Iraq May Be Relieved of 80 Percent of Debt

PARIS—The Paris Club of creditor nations on Saturday was debating a plan to write off as much as 80 percent of the debts Iraq owes them, a key step in the United States’ push to ease the financial burden on the nation as it tries to rebuild.

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow and German Finance Minister Hans Eichel sealed the agreement, Eichel said earlier Saturday, adding that expected the Paris Club would approve the deal.

Iraq owes around $42 billion to the members of the Paris Club, a grouping of 19 countries including the United States, Japan, Russia and European nations.

An agreement by the Paris Club to forgive its Iraqi debt would be a significant step toward freeing the country from paying interest on the money owed just as it struggles to put its economy back on its feet.

Still, Iraq owes another $80 billion to various Arab governments.

“We agreed that there should be a write-off of debts in several stages amounting to 80 percent in total,” Eichel told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of finance officials from the Group of 20 industrial and developing countries.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder later stressed that “there is no final outcome—there are discussions, particularly with France,” which opposed last year’s U.S.-led war in Iraq and previously had called for a lower level of debt relief.

Still, the German-U.S. agreement was being discussed by the Paris Club and “our expectation is that it will be accepted,” said Eichel’s spokesman, Joerg Mueller.

In a sense, the creditor nations are just giving up what they are unlikely to get back anyway. This is somewhat like a bankruptcy court settlement in which the creditors agree to take 20 cents on the dollar.

But it is a first step toward the welcoming of a reconstituted Iraq to the family of nations.