What we gain in Fallujah

As we celebrate our "victory" in Fallujah, it is important to realize all that we have gained:

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s decision to dismantle the city’s terrorist fiefdom ahead of January parliamentary elections may have backfired, observers in Washington and Baghdad said this week. Instead of paving the way for polls, the American-led assault in Fallujah strained military resources, enraged prominent Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and unleashed fresh violence throughout the country.

As every student of military history knows, there is no purely military solution to an insurgency.

Yet few Iraqis outside Allawi’s administration were optimistic that Operation Dawn had disabled the insurgency sufficiently to help pave the way for successful political solution, which depends on staging credible elections by a Jan. 31 deadline.

Rebels have spread attacks to the cities of Mosul, Samarra, Baiji, Taji, Ramadi and Baghdad. Large swaths of the country are still under curfew. Allawi has declared a nationwide state of emergency to last through January.

"It’s not possible to hold elections in areas of such unrest," said Waleed al Hilli of the Dawa Party, an influential Shiite political faction with several members serving in Allawi’s government. "If the situation stays this intense, for sure elections will be delayed. If calm isn’t restored soon, they should be postponed."

So let's see. We damaged the already weakened credibility of Allawi and turned more of the country against him, all the while spreading the insurgents throughout the country. And we seem to have done nothing overall to secure legitimate elections come January.

That's what I call "w"ictory.

*UPDATE* This should do good for our public image when it gets out:

A second group of Marines entered the mosque on Saturday after reports it had been reoccupied. Footage from the embedded television crew showed the five still in the mosque, although several appeared to be already close to death, Sites said.

He said one Marine noticed one of the prisoners was still breathing.

A Marine can be heard saying on the pool footage provided to Reuters Television: "He's fucking faking he's dead. He faking he's fucking dead."

"The Marine then raises his rifle and fires into the man's head. The pictures are too graphic for us to broadcast," Sites said. No images of the shooting were shown in the footage provided to Reuters.

The report said the Marine, who had returned to duty after being shot in the face a day earlier, had been removed from the field and was being questioned by the U.S. military.

Sites said the shot prisoner "did not appear to be armed or threatening in any way."