Southwest Asia News Digest
So-Called 'Success' in Fallujah Looks Like a Disaster
Even if U.S. forces in Iraq succeeded in clearing out and actually securing Fallujah, it is increasingly clear that the insurgents are exacting a heavy price for every inch of ground they are yielding, and with incredible skill and tenacity.
In the seven days between Nov. 5 and Nov. 12, the Defense Department reported 41 American troops killed in Iraq, 22 of those in the Fallujah battle. Spokesmen at the U.S. Army hospital report that 412 wounded have been flown out of Iraq just last week, including 73 on Nov. 13 alone. This compares to an average of 30 to 50 per day prior to the assault. And, since only the most severely wounded are flown out, the actual total could be as high as 800 to 1,000.
In addition, seven U.S. helicopters were knocked out by gunfire in separate attacks in three days, four of them going down on one day, Nov. 13, alone, near Fallujah. Two of the four were OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopters that were lured into an ambush just northeast of Fallujah; the other two were Apache gunships hit by small-arms fire southeast of the town. In all cases, the pilots managed to fly back to their bases, but the incidents underscore the difficulties the U.S. forces are having.
Iraq Insurgents Use Advanced Tactics, Including Psy-Ops
Iraqi insurgents are "getting into the heads" of the Marines fighting in Fallujah, the New York Times reported in a front-page story Nov. 13. Among other things, some insurgents are wearing Iraqi National Guard uniforms, making it that much more difficult for the Marines to distinguish between them and the real ING troops, which don't have much of a reputation as good fighters, anyway.
The Marines now hesitate when they see Iraqi national guardsmen, and in fact, have orders to consider as hostile, anyone in they see in ING uniforms who is not accompanied by Marines. The insurgents have also found a way to zero in with their mortars on the beacons the Marines use to make their positions to other friendly forces, beacons they thought were invisible to the enemy. "You can tell that the quality of the fighters has improved as we've moved south through the city," said one Marine lieutenant. "They shoot better, they move better, they cover themselves better."
An earlier report from the Los Angeles Times noted that there is no real pattern to the fighting in Fallujah, "But if there is any accepted truth, so far it is this: The insurgents are not going away easily." It further reports that guerrillas crouch in buildings and amid rubble, and that small squads of insurgents rush Marine positions with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire. Snipers on rooftops are able to tie down entire infantry companies of 150 Marines, for hours at a time."They seem to be communicating with each other," said one Marine. "It makes it harder to get at them." Another Marine said "The enemy just pops out of anywhere and fire off rounds and RPGs," said another.
Israeli Peace Movement Leader's Eulogy for Arafat
Shortly before his death, Israeli peace movement leader, Uri Avnery, a former Israeli army fighter, wrote a eulogy of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, titled, "A Man and His People."
It begins: "Wherever he may be buried when he passes away, the day will come when his remains will be reinterred by a free Palestinian government in the holy shrines in Jerusalem. Yasser Arafat is one of the generation of great leaders who arose after World War II. As the years pass, his stature will grow more and more in historical memory...."
Avnery recalls Arafat's history at some length. He writes: "Historic justice demands that it be clearly stated that it was Arafat who envisioned the Oslo Agreement at a time when both Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres still stuck to the hopeless 'Jordanian Option,' the belief that one could ignore the Palestinian people and give the West Bank back to Jordan. Of the three recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, Arafat deserved it most.
"From 1974 on, I was an eye-witness to the immense effort invested by Arafat in order to get his people to accept his new approach. Step by step, it was adopted by the Palestinian National Council, the parliament in exile, first by a resolution to set up a Palestinian Authority 'in every part of Palestine liberated from Israel,' and, in 1988, to set up a Palestinian state next to Israel.
"Arafat's (and our) tragedy was that whenever he came closer to a peaceful solution, the Israeli governments withdrew from it. His minimum terms were clear, and remained unchanged from 1974 on: a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount but excluding the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter); restoration of the pre-1967 border with the possibility of limited and equal exchanges of territory; evacuation of all the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory, and the solution to the refugee problem in agreement with Israel....
"Perhaps Yitzhak Rabin came close to this solution toward the end of his life, when he declared on TV that 'Arafat is my partner.' All his successors rejected it.... They resisted every effort to fix a final border, since their kind of Zionism demands perpetual expansion. Therefore, they saw in Arafat a dangerous enemy and tried to destroy him by all means, including an unprecedented campaign of demonization....
"No liberation fighter in the last half-century has faced such immense obstacles as he. He was not confronted with a hated colonial power or a despised racist minority, but by a state that arose after the Holocaust, and was sustained by the sympathy and guilt feelings of the world....
"As for me: I respected him as a Palestinian patriot, I admired him for his courage, I understood the constraints he was working under, I saw in him the partner for building a new future for our two peoples. I was his friend.
"As Hamlet said about his father: 'He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.' "
Palestinian People Lay Their Father to Rest
On the afternoon of Nov. 12, the Palestinian people laid the father of their cause of national liberation to rest. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians descended on Ramallah in the West Bank to witness the internment of Yasser Arafat in a temporary resting place in his old Muqata headquarters. Amidst the deafening sounds of chanting, cheering, and gunfire, the people expressed an indescribable outpouring of emotion, as Arafat's casket was borne slowly through this surging sea of humanity. Grief-stricken Palestinians leaped to touch his Palestinian flag-draped casket, as they bade farewell to the man whose very personage, for over four decades, was the embodiment of their hopes and aspirations to become a free people.
Throughout the event, people chanted, "With our blood and our soul we will redeem you, Yasser Arafat."
Although described in the media as chaotic and "unstately," the Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi told the press, "President Arafat would have wanted it this way, with exhilaration, feelings of loyalty, pain, sadness, and love, all at once. The people reclaimed him. They wanted to say good-bye without distance."
Arafat's funeral could only be compared to that of the great Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, since Arafat was perhaps one of the last of a generation of leaders who were truly loved by the vast majority of their people. Viewing it on a live television broadcast, one must ask what world leader could command such an outpouring of emotionor more important, what world leader would dare to follow a course of action that could command such loyalty?
Arafat's funeral ceremony began in the early morning in Cairo under the same protocols, with full military honors as that of Nasser over three decades ago.
The traditional Islamic ceremony at a mosque in Cairo was presided over by the Grand Sheikh of Al Ashur, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, a religious leader whose position is compared in Islam to that of the Pope. "He has served his people all his life, until he faced his God, with courage and honesty. Let us prey for his soul," the Grand Sheikh said.
The ceremony was witnessed by the heads of state of almost all Arab and Islamic nations. Many Europeans sent their foreign ministers. The United States only sent Undersecretary of State for the Middle East William Burns.
Iraqi Puppets, U.S. Launch Provocations vs. Sunni Scholars
The U.S. military and Iraqi puppet government have been launching provocations against the Association of Muslim Scholars, and other leading Sunni groups and personalities. The AMS has denounced these acts, and has also called on the Shi'ite religious authorities, to speak out against the ongoing military aggression in Fallujah.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Nov. 12, Muthanna Harith al-Dhari, head of information and cultural affairs of the Association of Muslim Scholars, said there is a political campaign to silence those critical of the "unjustified operation in Fallujah." He referred to recent acts in this campaign. "All the events that happened on Thursday [Nov. 11]the storming the houses of the AMS General Secretary Shaikh al-Dhari and Shaikh al-Qubaisi, raiding al-Shuhada mosque and arresting Shaikh Mahdi al-Sumaidai along with members of the Shura Councilcome in the context of a campaign aimed at silencing these voices and preventing them from exposing what is taking place in Fallujah now," al-Dhari told Al Jazeera.
ElBaradei: Israel's Nuclear Arms Block Mideast Peace
Mohammed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald that Israel's nuclear weapons are an obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
"This is not really sustainable that you have Israel sitting with nuclear weapons capability there while everyone else is part of the non-proliferation regime.... It is a very emotional issue in the Middle East," ElBaradei said. He was the keynote speaker at a Australian government-sponsored conference to discuss safeguards to prevent nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists.
Although he said he was encouraged by Iran's decision to temporarily suspend its enrichment program, getting Tehran to give up any ambition to develop nuclear weapons would depend on how Israel is addressed.
ElBaradei said he was not calling for pressure to be put on Israel but, "I don't thinks it's a matter of pressure. Its a question of providing Israel with a credible alternative that they are better off without nuclear weapons," he said.
Israel Arrests Nuclear Whistle-Blower Vanunu
On Nov. 11, Israeli authorities once again arrested Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu for alledgedly violating the terms of his release from prison, Ha'aretz reported Nov. 12. Vanunu was released earlier this year after serving 18 years for revealing the fact that Israel was producing nuclear weapons. The authorities claim he was again revealing nuclear secrets and speaking to foreign journalists, in violation of the terms of his release. Vanunu was later released to house arrest.
"This is a disgrace to Israeli democracy," Vanunu shouted to journalists as he was led into court. "They want to punish me again. They cannot punish me twice."
In making the arrest, 30 Israeli police officers descended on the compound of the Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem, where Vanunu lives. Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal sent a letter to Anglican leaders which was also sent to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying, "In the 100 years of the cathedral's history, such an event has never taken place. This type of entry into a sacred space must not be tolerated ... and we call for the respect of sacred places in the land of the Holy One."
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