[link|http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html?ex=1371441600&en=df33e96a749ff836&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND|What's all this about?]

Excerpt:

Kimmitt told reporters that the new Iraqi force will be ``completely integrated'' with Marines. He insisted that the Marines were not ``withdrawing'' from the city.

On Friday, convoys of troops and equipment could be seen heading out of the area.

``Initially it appears that the transition to the Fallujah Protective Army is working. It's a delicate situation. The Fallujah Protective Army is the Iraqi solution we've all been looking for in this area,'' Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said.

The commander of the new force is Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, a veteran of Saddam's Republican Guard. He shook hands with Marine commanders at a post on the southeastern entry to the city.

Kimmitt said he had no information on Saleh's background, but that the commander had been vetted by the Marines who had full confidence in him.

A senior defense official at the Pentagon said the Iraqi soldiers' initial mission is to man checkpoints around the city. Marines will remain on or near the city's perimeter and plan at a later stage to conduct their own patrols inside the city, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Iraqi force will be all volunteer and will consist of former Iraqi soldiers from the Fallujah area who are vetted by U.S. authorities, the official said.

Marines went into Fallujah to find those responsible for the March 31 killing and mutilation of four American contract workers, whose bodies were burned and dragged through the streets.

However, the United States has been under intense pressure from the United Nations, its international partners and its Iraqi allies to end the bloodshed, in which hundreds of Iraqi civilians are believed to have died.

I say:

This doesn't smell right. I'm all for turning it over to locals over time, but shouldn't we starting them off with easy stuff? And shouldn't it be locals we can trust? Weren't the thugs in Fallujah [link|http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/fallujah.htm|in thick with] the erstwhile oppressors of Iraq?

It's good we precision bombed these bastards. But are we sure we softened them up enough to turn them over to less experienced hands? Is there a compelling reason to let any of the ghouls who murdered and desecrated those [link|http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4651943/|aid workers] escape with their lives? Shouldn't we follow through ourselves?

And do we really let the United Nations have any influence on us anymore? It's not like they have any credibility, least of all regarding Iraq. There's a [link|http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20040429-085643-3429r.htm|big scandal brewing] over the Oil for Food program, and the UN is stonewalling the investigation.

Well, it's the New York Times, so maybe what really going on isn't nearly this bad.

Oh, and [link|http://messopotamian.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_messopotamian_archive.html#108328306762866956|an Iraqi blogger] thinks this makes us look weak, and that we need to be tougher right now.


[link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/#20040430|Home link]

than this? Weren't you just falling over yourself to demand that something be done about it?

Oh wait. You weren't, you hypocrite. But never mind. The Great Satan Uncle Sam is taking descisive disciplinary action in both cases.