Rearguard Action

Yup, here we go:

Massive US military might is useless against a mosque network in full gear. In a major development not reported by US corporate media, for the first time different factions of the resistance have released a joint statement, signed among others by Ansar as-Sunnah, al-Jaysh al-Islami, al-Jaysh as-Siri (known as the Secret Army), ar-Rayat as-Sawda (known as the Black Banners), the Lions of the Two Rivers, the Abu Baqr as-Siddiq Brigades, and crucially al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Unity and Holy War) – the movement allegedly controlled by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The statement is being relayed all over the Sunni triangle through a network of mosques. The message is clear: the resistance is united.

Remember when street-to-street warfare was predicted for the initial invasion of Baghdad? Seems like either the resistance needed time to find its bearings, or was actually giving the United States a chance for a few months to make things better after Hussein's fall. Not anymore:

Badrani also disputes the Pentagon spin: “It is misleading to say the US controls 70% of the city because the fighters are constantly on the move. They go from street to street, attacking the army in some places, letting them through elsewhere so that they can attack them later. They say they are fighting not just for Fallujah, but for all Iraq.” The mujahideen tactics are a rotating web – Ho Chi Minh’s and Che Guevara’s tactics applied to urban warfare by the desert: snipers on rooftops, snipers escaping on bicycles, mortar fire from behind abandoned houses, rocket-propelled-grenade attacks on tanks, Bradleys being ambushed, barrages of as many as 200 rockets, instant dispersal, “invisible” regrouping.

And this will make us wildly popular:

Dr Muhammad Ismail, a member of the governing board of Fallujah’s general hospital “captured” by the Americans at the outset of Operation Phantom Fury, has called all Iraqi doctors for urgent help. Ismail told Iraqi and Arab press that the number of wounded civilians is growing exponentially – and medical supplies are almost non-existent. He confirmed that US troops had arrested many members of the hospital’s medical staff and had sealed the storage of medical supplies.

The wounded in Fallujah are in essence left to die. There is not a single surgeon in town. And practically no doctors as well, as the Pentagon decided to bomb both the al-Hadar Hospital and the Zayid Mobile Hospital. So far, the International Committee of the Red Cross has reacted with thunderous apathy.

How is this going to get better? More force? Can this administration be this stupid? Yes, I know the answer. Who's going to be the last soldier to die for this mistake?