Election Showdown In Fallujah

Robert Dreyfuss

October 19, 2004

Yesterday I reported on the fact that the United States had inexplicably arrested the main negotiator for Fallujah, making it clear that Bush and Rumsfeld have no intention of trying to resolve the Iraq crisis. Instead, for electoral purposes, they are trying to show their "resolve" in an effort to win a war that is clearly not winnable.

During Vietnam, until the release of the Pentagon Papers, we didn't know that even the U.S. military considered the Vietnam War unwinnable. In this war, we pretty much know that they do—leading generals, even conservatives like Gen. William Odom, have said so. [See Far Graver Than Vietnam and Media Lost On Iraq .) Yet the Bush administration can't admit it, especially not before the election, so they are rumbling ahead, killing everything in their path.

The Times reports on the arrest of Khalid Jumali, the Fallujah negotiator, making it clear that it signals the start of the occupation of the city:

The American military confirmed Monday for the first time that they had detained and released Mr. Jumali, but it is unclear why they did so and what they did with Mr. Jumali when they had him. "He was detained for a short time," said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a military spokesman in Baghdad. The colonel gave no further details.

Back at home on Monday, Mr. Jumali said he had been picked up by American forces on Friday in the nearby town of Habbaniya and flown by helicopter to a military base, where he had been interrogated about conditions in Fallujah. He said the Americans had given him a toothbrush and a bar of soap during his detention. "They treated me well," he said.

His detention, which the Americans initially denied, seemed unusual, if only because some of the Americans and Iraqis involved in the negotiations said they regarded Mr. Jumali as well intentioned. It seemed clear enough on Monday that he was very much a man caught between two powerful forces that he could not control: the American military and the insurgents.

"I don't know why I was arrested, and the investigator told me he didn't know either," Mr. Jumali said.

But the fact is, the insurgents are split, and intelligent diplomacy could isolate the Zarqawi Al Qaeda circle by making a deal with the nationalists, the Baathists and the rest of the non-Islamist resistance in the Sunni triangle. No other solution will work for Iraq, in the long run, so why not make the deal now, instead of a year from now? November 2, that's why.