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NYT：米軍ファルージャ撤退イラク旧軍人警備交代の秤量
大きく見ると、日本の旧軍人が警察予備隊から自衛隊に再編され、米軍の指揮下に入ったようなことである。
しかも、陰には、部族指導者の要請もあり、昭和天皇が、マッカーサー元帥を訪問したような経過でもある。軽率に一喜一憂すべからず。
この記事の投稿は、諸般の事情で遅れたが、意外に真相を突いているようである。
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/30/international/middleeast/30IRAQ.html?th
April 30, 2004
SIEGE
U.S. Weighs Falluja Pullback, Leaving Patrols to Iraq Troops
By JOHN KIFNER and IAN FISHER
FALLUJA, Iraq, April 29 -- United States military commanders here moved to loosen their siege of this city on Thursday, proposing to turn over the task of ending a fierce anti-American insurgency to a new force of Iraqi soldiers, led by officers once loyal to Saddam Hussein.
The plan seemed tentative at best, with conflicting statements from commanders here and military officials in Washington.
News of the proposal emerged as fresh American airstrikes and skirmishes were erupting late on Thursday inside Falluja. Pentagon officials, who often hear of decisions by battlefield commanders several hours later, said that negotiations on a number of possible solutions had been under way to end the three-week siege here, and that the plan was one under discussion.
If it goes forward, the plan would mark a shift in the strategy to end weeks of violence that have cost many American and Iraqi lives as well as support for the war among ordinary Americans.
The top Marine Corps officer in Iraq, Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, explained in an e-mail message on Thursday night that the new Iraqi unit, which he said was formally called the First Battalion of the Fallujah Brigade, would be made up of "mostly former Iraqi Army officers and men."
General Conway said a small group of marines would be assigned to the unit as a liason to American forces. The head of the Iraqi force would be the former commanding general of the 38th Iraqi Infantry Division, and would report to General Conway.
Even as details of the plan leaked out, 10 American soldiers were killed on Thursday, 8 by a huge suicide car bomb south of the capital, Baghdad, and two others in separate attacks, one in Baghdad and one in Baquba.
Under the plan, which officials say was proposed by tribal leaders and former Iraqi military officers, Marine units would pull back from in and around Falluja, to be replaced in stages by some 900 Iraqis under direct command of former Iraqi officers.
Placing Iraqis, and not Americans, on the front lines to control thousands of insurgents would seem to help ease several problems for the occupation force. Heavy fighting here early this month transformed Falluja into a symbol of resistance to the occupation, and officials here worried that any new battles, especially ones in which Iraqi civilians died, could stir mass uprisings.
Moreover, the plan would seem to give a greater public role to Iraqi authorities, something United States officials are eager to display amid doubts here about the true extent of power that will be ceded to Iraqis on June 30. Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne here called the plan "an Iraqi solution to an Iraqi problem." He said: "They know the populace. They know the terrain."
Another Marine commander also called the arrangement a way to "enfranchise" the Sunni Muslims, the minority that lost its favored position with the fall of Mr. Hussein. The insurgents here are largely Sunni. In addition, he said, it could be a way to pacify the city "without the butcher's bill of having to clear it block by block."
In answer to a question about whether Falluja was a decisive battle, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday on MSNBC's "Hardball," "Well, there's no question that, for success in Iraq, you can't have a city taken over by a bunch of terrorists and the former regime elements and have that persist over a sustained period of time."
He added: "The marines on the ground are the ones that are making those judgments. And that's why they calculated that it's in our interests to do it the way they're doing it and to have these discussions with the Sunni tribal leaders."
It is unclear, however, how much power the new Iraqi force will be able to exert over the embattled insurgents, who have shown some military skill and are said to include foreign fighters. There is much skepticism among United States forces about the effectiveness of Iraqi soldiers, many of whom refused to fight alongside Americans in Falluja.
The plan emerged on an especially deadly day for American troops. The deaths brought to 126 the number of American soldiers to have died in the Iraq conflict this month, the most of any month so far.
The eight soldiers were killed along a highway near the town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, as they conducted a foot patrol in search of roadside bombs. Brig. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, of the First Armored Division, said the soldiers noticed a car parked on the side of the highway, which leads from Baghdad south to Basra.
"They went to investigate why the car was there and it blew up," he said. A military statement said it was a suicide attack. Declining to release details, he said four other soldiers were injured by a bomb estimated to weigh 300 to 400 kilograms. He said roadside bombs had been a growing problem in that area. On Thursday night, the road south of Mahmudiya was blocked to traffic and crowded with tanks and soldiers warning away drivers.
In Baghdad on Thursday, the military reported one soldier killed by a rocket-propelled grenade attack at 5 a.m. Another soldier was killed on Thursday in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, by a roadside bomb.
In the surrounded cities of Najaf and Kufa, south of Baghdad, there were reports of continuing skirmishes between American soldiers and militiamen loyal to the rebel Shiite Muslim cleric Moktada al-Sadr. Seven mortars were also fired at an American base near Najaf, where Mr. Sadr is hiding out. No injuries were reported.
The standoffs in Falluja and Najaf have presented American officials with their most difficult test yet: how to quell two rebellions without stoking still greater anger in Iraq. Military commanders have all but ruled out storming Najaf, a city held holy to Shiites, to capture or kill Mr. Sadr, who led an uprising early this month in several cities.
And amid condemnation in Europe and elsewhere for what some leaders say are heavy-handed tactics in Falluja, American military and civilian officials in Iraq have shown much reluctance to return to all-out fighting here either, despite strong talk from President Bush and other administration officials about ending the insurgency.
On April 5, the Marines threw a cordon around this city of roughly 300,000, following the ambush murder of four American security contractors. Hundreds of Iraqis died in intense fighting, and Falluja emerged among many Iraqis as a rallying cry against the occupation.
Last week, American officials agreed not to restart a military offensive if local leaders could persuade insurgents to hand over their heavy weapons. So far, military officials say, few serviceable weapons have been turned in.
Despite that, American officials said Sunday they would defer any large-scale attack in favor of joint patrols with members of the American-recruited security force known as the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. Still, there have been repeated clashes, including an attack by an AC-130 Specter gunship on Tuesday night on a truck carrying ammunition or bombs that produced spectacular explosions on live television along with sniper activity. Dozens of Iraqis are believed to have been killed.
Even on Thursday night, after details of the new plan emerged, explosions and gunfire could be heard from the Jolan area in the northwest of the city, an insurgent stronghold. The Navy reported dropping three 500-pound bombs in the Falluja area.
News of the new plan came so swiftly on Thursday that some Marine company commanders were still glumly working over maps to coordinate the earlier plans for joint patrols with Iraqi forces when word reached them. The exact source of the new plan remained sketchy, but several military officials said they were approached by military and tribal leaders from Falluja looking for a way to end the violence here.
"They came to us," one ranking officer here said. "We would be foolish not to listen to them."
Under the plan, Colonel Byrne told reporters, his troops from the First Battalion, Fifth Marines would withdraw from positions in buildings in the southern industrial zone. The Falluja police chief, Saber al-Janabi, told the Reuters news agency that the Americans would withdraw troops from the city. Marine units on the northern edge of the city are staying put for the moment, an officer said. Several officers said the plan was to have 300 Iraqis report on Friday, 300 on Saturday and another 300 on Sunday.
Soon after taking control of the country last spring, the occupation authority disbanded the Iraqi Army, which many commanders now say was a mistake, and purged members of Mr. Hussein's Baath Party from many positions in society. In recent days, the chief occupation administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, has announced an easing of these rules, including allowing many senior military officers to return to their posts. In a sense, their return may be a first test of this policy.
"The Iraqi military was a respected institution in the society of Iraq," one officer here said. "Not every member of the Iraqi Army is a black-hearted individual."
The plan could also test the tolerance of the many Iraqis, especially among the majority Shiites, who resent any new role for former leaders of Mr. Hussein's government. The commander to be placed at the head of the new unit was identified only as a Gen. Salah.
In Basra, a South African civilian was killed in a drive-by shooting on Thursday.
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