Ineptness in Iraq

Boston Globe:

The outgoing commander of US Marines in Iraq said yesterday that he disagreed with the order that sent his troops to invade the restive city of Fallujah in early April and with the decision to halt the attack days later, when he believed they were within days of victory.

Lieutenant General James T. Conway said the abortive assault, launched in response to the brutal killing of four US civilian contractors by a mob in Fallujah on March 31, spiked tensions in the area and helped make the region more hostile to US forces today than when his forces took charge of the area six months ago.

(snip)

"We felt like we had a method that we wanted to apply to Fallujah, that we ought to probably let the situation settle before we appeared to be attacking out of revenge," Conway told reporters yesterday at Camp Fallujah, the Marine base on the city's outskirts.

Instead, under orders from superiors, Marines launched a major offensive into the city, only to receive new orders to pause after three days of intense fighting and cordon off the city in what became a three-week standoff. Television images of destruction, civilian casualties, and refugees fleeing the city sparked outrage among Iraqis. The crisis ended only when Marines left the city and handed control to the Fallujah Brigades, a group of former Iraqi army officers from the area, some with ties to insurgents. That experiment failed, Conway said. The Fallujah Brigade never took effective action -- some of its members cooperated with insurgent attacks, Iraqi and US officials say -- and was dismantled this month. Fallujah remains in chaos, with rival insurgent groups using the city as a base.

"I wonder how this might have developed if we had been able to continue the way we were," Conway said. "We follow our orders. We had our say, and we understood the rationale. We saluted smartly and went about the attack." Asked for his personal feelings about the order to stop the attack midway, Conway said, "I would simply say that when you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, you really need to understand the consequences of that, and not, perhaps, vacillate in the middle of that. Once you commit to do that, you have to stay committed." He added that at the time the Marines were ordered to halt their offensive, "We thought we were going to be done in a few days." Conway's remarks were the strongest yet from Marines who have said privately for months that they were frustrated at the stop-and-go assault, which they believe shattered their rapport with Iraqis, yet brought no resolution and left the Marines appearing indecisive.

And where are things as a result of all this? Back where they started. I must say I respect the Lt. General for following orders and for doing what he thought was right by speaking out. Shouldn't some of these decisions be made by the men on the ground, though? Just curious.