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Apr. 13th, 2004 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrphSo, the 2nd Battalion of the Iraqi Armed Forces refused to fight in Fallujah.
At the time, the Washington Post quoted Major General Paul Eaton (who is "overseeing the development of Iraqi security forces") as saying members of the battalion insisted that they "did not sign up to fight Iraqis."
General John Abizaid, much more widely quoted in the press, has a different view on things. He says the battalion "did not stand up to the intimidators", and he has a solution in mind: "In the next couple of days you'll see a large number of senior officers being appointed to key positions in the ministry of defence and the Iraqi joint staff and in Iraqi field commands.".
A lot of onlne news sources don't really elaborate on that statement, but the BBC site spells it out very clearly:
At the time, the Washington Post quoted Major General Paul Eaton (who is "overseeing the development of Iraqi security forces") as saying members of the battalion insisted that they "did not sign up to fight Iraqis."
General John Abizaid, much more widely quoted in the press, has a different view on things. He says the battalion "did not stand up to the intimidators", and he has a solution in mind: "In the next couple of days you'll see a large number of senior officers being appointed to key positions in the ministry of defence and the Iraqi joint staff and in Iraqi field commands.".
A lot of onlne news sources don't really elaborate on that statement, but the BBC site spells it out very clearly:
A number of top brass from Iraq's Baathist former regime would shortly be appointed to "key positions in the ministry of defence and the Iraqi joint staff and in Iraqi field commands", the top officer announcedYeah, I can see why that makes sense to Abizaid. I mean, if they were "top brass" under Saddam, they're unlikely to have any real problems with shooting troublesome Iraqis, are they? Or anyone else they're told to shoot, for that matter.
Another great day for freedom and democracy, then.
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[second attempt]
Date: 2004-04-13 07:18 am (UTC)As for democracy... well, the best (only?) local example would be Arafat, who was voted into office. That seemed to work until the last intifada took hold.
I think the main problem is actually showing the people that their vote will matter - if politicians are all the same, or if they're going to obey the US instead of the electorate, then why vote? If there's no chance achieving your aims through the ballot box, might as well try bullets and bombs instead...
[Which is why I'd much rather see Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly, incidentally - once you've got ministers and MPs, you've taken root and there's suddenly much more to lose by abandoning the democratic process...]
Note to self: always check who's logged in on the PC before browsing LJ and posting comments. :)