Tell It To The Marines

Lt General James Conway says in Today's Post that he was opposed both to the Marine's attack on Fallujah and the abrupt cessation. Anonymous officers in Iraq say the original order came from the White House. To a certain extent, this is the defence of the founder of the Fallujah brigade in a story about how it didn't work out so well, however it is striking how close to the edge uniformed officers are willing to go in denouncing the Bush administration.

I personally was most struck by the second to last paragraph of the story

"Conway's successor, Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, suggested that another incursion into the city would require not just the approval of Iraq's interim prime minister but also likely would involve the joint participation of Iraqi army units. "When we approach it next time, we will approach it a little bit differently," he said."

Sattler is evidently a simple man of action, who does not understand the concept of sovereignty as applied by the Bush administration to the "sovereign" transitional government of Iraq. It is odd that the organization which celebrates its actions "from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli" is the only body in the current executive which displays any respect for the concept of sovereignty.