現在地 HOME > 掲示板
> 戦争54 > 384.html
★阿修羅♪
|
現在地 HOME > 掲示板
> 戦争54 > 384.html
★阿修羅♪
|
|
| Tweet |
ファルージャでへとへとの米軍はイラクの将軍に頼った。
ニューヨークタイムズの表現によれば、米軍は、窮地に追い詰められたのである。
ところが、日本の大手紙報道は、短く、薄味、実感に乏しい。現地のアメリカの英語の報道の原文を玩味されたし。
用語解説：Exhausted：疲れ切った。へとへとになった。
last ditch：直訳すれば「最後の溝」であるが、英和事典：be drive to the last ditch ：窮地に追い詰められる。進退きわまる。
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/international/middleeast/01MILI.html?th
May 1, 2004
SIEGE
Falluja Choices Exhausted, U.S. Turns to Iraqi Officer
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, April 30 -- The hastily improvised plan to send a small Iraqi force into Falluja, led by a former general in Saddam Hussein's army, is a last-ditch effort to avert a violent and politically charged urban battle, senior Pentagon officials and American commanders said Friday.
Privately, senior military officers expressed skepticism that dispatching an untested 900-man Iraqi battalion into Falluja would pacify the embattled city of nearly 300,000 people.
But the move is an important shift to a tactic that these same officers have urged for months: the immediate reconstitution of Iraqi forces under a seasoned Iraqi commander.
"What we have there is an opportunity and not necessarily an agreement," said Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top American commander in the Middle East. "The opportunity is to build an Iraqi security force from former elements of the army that will work under the command of coalition forces."
But General Abizaid, mindful of the disastrous performance of many American-trained Iraqi security forces earlier this month, cautioned that the new recruits would not "necessarily calm down the situation in Falluja tonight or over the next several days."
"It's a step by step process," he added.
Nonetheless, the tenuous plan represents a possible face-saving alternative to two onerous options the American marines confronted: a prolonged assault on the city that would leave hundreds if not thousands of civilians dead, or the continuation of a seemingly endless series of shaky cease-fires that have exposed marines to guerrilla attacks and emboldened the insurgents the longer they stood up to the superior force.
"We are doing what we can to find the least violent possible outcome to the situation in Falluja," said a senior administration official. "We've done that for three weeks, and the troops are responding only when attacked."
But this official noted that, so far, none of the interventions by Falluja civic leaders, tribal sheiks and former military officers have resolved the standoff, and he warned that military action might ultimately be needed.
On Capitol Hill, the military's plan drew tentative support from some who have criticized the Bush administration's Iraq policy.
"We have to give the deal a chance to work," said Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. "If it doesn't, then we may well have to use force, but that should be our last option. We don't want to generate more Fallujas."
It was just a week ago that Marine Corps commanders were on the brink of ordering an all-out offensive against what they estimated were 2,000 foreign fighters, former Hussein loyalists and other insurgents. But with pressure building from United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and his envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, to avoid a violent confrontation, the commanders began looking for a way out.
"It's hard to get the pendulum set just right," said one senior Defense Department official.
The new plan emerged from discussions by the top Marine commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. James T. Conway; other American officers; officials from the American-led civilian administration in Baghdad, and a group of retired Iraqi Army generals in the Falluja area.
American officials familiar with the meetings said the prospect of having the former generals reconstitute a reliable and effective paramilitary force against the insurgents was worth pursuing. These officials expressed cautious optimism that if the Iraqi generals could form a battalion-size force in a relatively short time, it could enhance the chances for resolving the standoff.
The Iraqi force will be under the command of the Marine Corps, which will keep more than 3,000 troops around the city and remain poised for a major offensive should the Iraqi force fall apart under attack, senior military officials warned. "We cannot allow Falluja to be a safe haven for Baathist militants," one Pentagon official said.
The Iraqi commander, Maj. Gen. Jasim Muhammad Saleh, is said to be the former head of the Iraqi Army 38th Infantry Division, but not even Pentagon intelligence officers had heard of him, suggesting that he was not a high-ranking Baath Party member or favorite of Mr. Hussein.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the American military in Iraq, said General Saleh had been "initially vetted" by the Marines, and had the confidence of the two top Marine generals in Iraq, General Conway and Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis.
In an e-mail message on Thursday night, General Conway said the new Iraqi unit, which he called the First Battalion of the Falluja Brigade, would be made up of "mostly former Iraqi Army officers and men," presumably from the Falluja area.
He said a small group of marines would be assigned as liaison to American forces. General Conway said General Saleh "will take mission, taskings and timings from the M.E.F. commander," referring to his own position as head of the First Marine Expeditionary Force.
Until the new Iraqi battalion demonstrates it can operate checkpoints and other positions, marines will continue to maintain a strong presence, military officials said.
Establishing strong Iraqi leadership for security forces is a top priority for American officers.
"You can't expect in this part of the world for Iraqi security forces to fight for the United States of America," General Abizaid said in an interview last week. "They need to fight for Iraq, an Iraq that has a defined leadership that's legitimate, and that's broadly supported."
Senior American officers said their goal was still to eliminate the insurgents in Falluja, collect all their heavy weapons and track down the killers of four American private security contractors.
But they acknowledged that those guerrillas and other militants might have already slipped through the cordon the marines threw around the city earlier this month. "We will get the murderers of the contractors and we will find them," General Abizaid said on Friday, "but we may not necessarily find them in Falluja."
題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。