Mark Phillips: The American Question

4/9/04: Stalingrad

After five days of intense assault resistance fighters in Fallujah have stopped the U.S. Marines cold.

It wasn't because they didn't try.

The intensity of the U.S. operation in Fallujah prompted one of the most pro-American members of the U.S.-picked governing council, Adnan Pachachi, to condemn the U.S. assault on the city, which for some Iraqis has become a symbol of resistance. 'These operations were a mass punishment for the people of Fallujah,' Pachachi told the al-Arabiya satellite television network. 'It was not right to punish all the people of Fallujah and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal.' (Washington Post, 4/9/04.)

The U.S. government narrative is different:

L. Paul Bremer, head of the U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq, announced the "suspension of offensive operations" in Fallujah Friday morning, saying that it was designed to allow local residents to tend to the dead and wounded and to receive food and medicine as talks get underway. (ibid.)

Bremer's spin is patently false. Days of all-out assault have left the Marines bogged-down in abandoned industrial zones outlying the city, while the nationwide uprising is increasingly threatening the occupiers' long and vulnerable lines of supply. The attack has halted because it cannot continue.

This is an extraordinary victory for the resistance, proving conclusively that Iraqi cities can be denied to the occupiers.

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