Tal Afar: Crackdown in the Sunni Heartland  

By Mike Whitney

Al-Jazeerah, September 14, 2005

The siege of Tal Afar follows a familiar pattern of brutal American
incursions into densely populated areas under the pretense of fighting
terrorism. It is a ritual that is repeated endlessly despite the dismal
results. The Pentagon seems to prefer these grand displays of military
strength to anything that might produce a political solution. It brings to
mind the old saw, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over
and over again; expecting a different result.” This appears to be the
guiding principle of the Defense Dept. with Tal Afar serving as the most
recent example.

In the present case, a city of 250,000 has been almost entirely
evacuated following weeks of artillery bombardment, aerial bombing raids,
downed power-lines and water-system, and house-to-house searches.

Ho-hum. Such paltry events never even reach the front page of American
newspapers where the ceremony of American suffering is the only topic of
interest.

The remaining occupants of the city have reported the killing and
maiming of innocent women and children, the use of chemical weapons, and the
predictable destruction of Mosques and holy sites. In Tal Afar the
Pentagon’s “Hearts and Minds” program seems to be running at high-gear.

There was no doubt that Donald Rumsfeld would use the cover of Hurricane
Katrina to mount a massive attack in Iraq, and he didn’t disappoint. The
military conducted a 10,000 man invasion only to find that the city had been
abandoned and that the Iraqi resistance had slipped away without incident.
Not one foreign fighter was captured during the siege despite claims that
the city was a haven for foreign terrorists.

Colonel Greg Reilly told Al Jazeera that the resistance “went into
hiding, avoiding us. That’s why there’s no fighting….They are not putting up
a fight”.

Did O’Reilly really expect the poorly-armed resistance to march into
battle against Abrams tanks, helicopter gun-ships, and F-18s?
The resistance applied classic guerilla tactics and “melted away” before
they were confronted by the greater force leaving the Marines with nothing
to show for their effort except a few random prisoners. Nevertheless, this
hasn’t persuaded the Pentagon to modify their plans of savaging the
remaining cities in the Sunni heartland. They still cling to the vain hope
that increasing the violence will quash the resistance.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Al Jaafari has shown a surprising enthusiasm for
the Rumsfeld’s blitzkrieg against the Sunnis. He gave the siege of Tal Afar
his personal blessing and said that the hostilities were being conducted “on
his orders”. He also announced that he was contributing thousands of
newly-graduated Iraqi soldiers to the war-effort, even though his decision
is bound to be unpopular among the Iraqi public. Al-Jaafari has now put
himself in the same position as his predecessor, Iyad Allawi, who lost all
credibility when he authorized the invasion of Falluja.

This shows the shortsightedness of the current plan. If Rumsfeld wants to
pass off al-Jaafari as a viable political candidate, he must appear to be
independent of American influence. By endorsing the attack on Tal Afar,
al-Jaafari looks like just another American stooge carrying water for the
occupation. Ultimately, this will undermine his legitimacy and disrupt the
plan to create a credible “Arab façade” to disguise the administrations
intentions.

There’s very little to discuss about the botched siege of Tal Afar. The
assault follows the same basic blueprint of jack-boot tactics we’ve seen in
similar acts of American aggression. Tens of thousands of lives were
disrupted and possibly ruined through forced evacuation, massive property
damage has been sustained throughout the city, the mayor resigned in protest
of the invasion, the public is more polarized than ever, 152 people were
killed in the bombing with countless others detained indefinitely, the
resistance fighters escaped unscathed, and the Red Cross reports that the
offensive has created a humanitarian crisis that is beyond their limited
resources.

In other words, the entire operation was an utter failure.
The media has kept Tal Afar off the front page and framed the debacle
as another crucial step in liberating Iraq from the disparate forces of
terrorism.

What nonsense. Apart from the conspicuous immorality of the action, the
stupidity is almost too hard to bear. Tar Afar is simply a duplication of
the same failed policy we have seen over and over again for the last two
years.

Has anyone in the Pentagon ever read Che Guevara or any of the other
classic tomes of guerrilla warfare?

Why are the same futile policies being replicated day by day when we
already know that they are doomed to failure?

Is the fog of hubris so thick at the Defense Dept that they believe that
the assault on Tal Afar accomplished anything?

Rumsfeld’s simian theories of warfare have proved to be the greatest
boon to the burgeoning Iraqi resistance. Like all headstrong amateurs he
soldiers-on; ignoring adversity or experience, determined to demonstrate the
wisdom of his own narrow vision. Regrettably, that vision is comprised of
nothing more than ever-increasing levels of violence erratically extended
across the region.

There’s nothing more dangerous than a well-armed dilettante who is
convinced of his own genius. Tal Afar leaves no doubt about that.