The Washington Post has an interesting piece on how the insurgency in Fallujah is beginning to come apart:
Relations are deteriorating as local fighters negotiate to avoid a U.S.-led military offensive against Fallujah, while foreign fighters press to attack Americans and their Iraqi supporters. The disputes have spilled over into harsh words and sporadic violence, with Fallujans killing at least five foreign Arabs in recent weeks, according to witnesses.
“If the Arabs will not leave willingly, we will make them leave by force,” said Jamal Adnan, a taxi driver who left his house in Fallujah’s Shurta neighborhood a month ago after the house next door was bombed by U.S. aircraft targeting foreign insurgents.
This is what happened in Najaf to Moqtada al-Sadr. The people of Najaf were so sick of the fighting that they started killing members of his Mahdi Army and demanding he step aside. While the media barely reported on it, there were large and widespread anti-Sadr protests in several major Iraqi cities and towns, including Najaf.
It appears as though Fallujah is heading in the same direction. The Iraqis in Fallujah are getting sick and tired of having foreign jihadis ruining life in that city. It’s one thing to wish for independence and freedom for your people. It’s quite another to have militants who are killing your people and are one of the primary reasons why foreign troops are still in Iraq using Fallujah as a terrorist base.
For all the talk about how Iraq is a quagmire, etc, the reality on the ground is somewhat different. The Iraqi people are fighting back. They have every interest in seeing to it that their country does not become another Lebanon, and the Allawi government remains popular. The more the Iraqis take control of their country, the better off they’ll be, and the fewer US troops we’ll need to station there. If a place like Fallujah turns from a terrorist safe haven to a place in which Iraqi troops can keep the peace and work with us to fight off foreign jihadis like Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, the possibility of all of Iraq engaging in free and fair elections in January may not be farfetched at all.
