User:Pbfreespace3/Article Refutation 6

This is a point-by-point refutation of an article by John McCain and Lindsey Graham about how to defeat ISIS. WRONG!! YOU MUST REWRITE!

John McCain/Lindsey Graham

PBfreespace

Introduction

It is said that the siege of the city of Fallujah, which is situated nearly 60 kilometres from Baghdad, has been ongoing for the past two years. We are also being told that those who enter the city are allowed to do so for good reason as part of the effort to save it from the terrorist organisation known as Daesh. There is also the argument that bombing the city, and its destruction, as well as the expulsion of its women and children, is all meant to liberate the residents from the siege, hunger and illness.

Alright. It should be immediately clear from this first paragraph that Zangana is a Sunni that prefers ISIS to Shia Iraqis. Put in the most simple way possible, I think this is a bad, wrong, and stupid position to take. She mocks the 'destroy the city to save the city' notion that the evil Rafidi Shias/Americans are purportedly advancing, even though they aren't saying that. If you asked me, I would rather every single building in Fallujah be flattened and all residents permanently expelled if it meant killing all of the ISIS thugs inside. The elimination of the threat from these gangs is more important than the property of thousands. Now, I don't believe the city will be destroyed, just as it wasn't in 2004. It'll be liberated with moderate damage.

Who's lying?

The narrative of the latest invaders — US mercenaries and Iranian militias — is that they are fighting the so-called Islamic State and that its stronghold is Fallujah. They also claim that they are there to ensure the stability of the city, which negates the claim that the people of Fallujah have the right to remain in their homes; after all, they are considered to be terrorists by those on the outside who give the invaders a mandate to destroy them. This takes us back to the narrative of the British occupiers in the 1940s and the Americans after them who claimed to have come to Iraq as liberators and not occupiers. The use of this type of rhetoric shows us that the term “occupation” now means that the occupiers no longer necessarily come from the outside.

She claims that the Americans are invading Fallujah is total bullshit. There is not a single Caucasian or American involved in entering the city at all, and the presence on the outskirts is little to nothing. Iranians? No! The attacking force is around 14,000 fighters. 10,000 of them are Iraqi soldiers, who are all Arab. The remaining 4,000 are Shia militiamen, who are almost all Arab in ethnicity. The closest the author has to an actual point is that Iran controls around a fifth of the attacking force, but she instead makes it out as if the task force is made of mostly Caucasians and Persians, which is false. The point she makes about liberation vs. 'invasion' is also wrong. The people of Fallujah indeed did actively support ISIS for a long, long time. This may seem like I'm exaggerating, but really I'm not. In 2004, after the Americans invaded, the people of Fallujah openly welcomed al-Qaeda in Iraq, which later became ISIS. They let them use their houses to fight Americans. In 2014, when the Shia government tore up a Sunni protest camp, the people again openly welcomed the presence of a foreign illegal terrorist armed force, ISIS, into the city to fight the government. The people did not do their civic duty and join the militia to fight foreign terrorist domination of their city, all because they did not want to be ruled by a different religious group that didn't treat them well. That's treason, and collective guilt applies as much here as it did to the German people 1933-45. They supported the terrorists. Maybe the majority don't today, now that they've seen the brutality of the foreign gangs, but they need to be held accountable.

Resistance?

Fallujah is not besieged and bombed because it is a Daesh stronghold; was Daesh there in the 1940s when the people of Fallujah rose against the British occupier? Did Daesh have a role when the Americans tried to impose their will on the city? The people paid the price with their lives for resisting the invasion, not only for their own dignity but for the dignity of the whole of Iraq.

The publicly stated reason that Fallujah is being besieged and bombed from 2014-today is that an illegal terrorist group controls the city and is using it as a base to launch attacks that kill hundreds of innocent citizens. The siege and bombing is meant to weaken the terrorists' hold so a ground assault will liberate the city more quickly. Regarding her other point about resisting foreign occupation, I do think that resistance to Britain from 1910s-1940s is permissible. That was a different, imperialistic scenario. What about 2004, you ask? That's a little different. Let's imagine that al-Qaeda in Iraq never existed, and the Fallujah resistance developed entirely naturally without any involvement from groups based outside the province. If the local group did not have a religious or terrorist component, and was authentically a local "Fallujah Resistance Brigade", then you'd actually would've found me on their side. The problem with 2004 is that the Fallujan people openly welcomed a group led by a terrorist Jordanian who wanted to create a theocratic dictatorship that would conquer the Muslim world. When you make that your main fighting force, you've lost your legitimate right to fight back.

Wipe out myth

The misinformation campaigns that were both created and broadcast by successive occupation governments, beginning with that of secular Iyad Allawi to Nouri Al-Maliki and Haider Al-Abadi (both from the Islamic Dawa Party), have shown that there is a government programme to obliterate Fallujah and wipe its people from the face of the earth. This belief holds true, from the sectarian commentary to the honest calls for the obliteration of the citizens of Fallujah, who are often described as “cancerous” and must be removed through siege, starvation and bombardment. All of the details point to a fear that the city of resistance will continue to stand against the national policies of the Iraqi government, or because it is standing up against Iran and America among other factors.

The calls to kill all Fallujans come mainly from small Shia militiamen who don't by any means represent the goals of the operation. The calls for genocide are mainly a reflection of the hatred of the people of Fallujah for openly welcoming foreign terrorist invaders. Furthermore, mass killings won't happen. They didn't happen in Time it, they didn't happen in Baiji, they didn't happen in Ramadi, and they won't happen here. Do you know who does kill Fallujans? ISIS! They shoot them if they flee! I don't hear Zangana complaining about that! Makes you wonder, huh? I think she supports ISIS.

By whose request?

Although the Iranians claim that Major General Qassem Soleimani of the Iranian Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution is in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government, Iran’s interference and clear role in trapping and terrorising the people of Fallujah has not hindered their resistance. In any case, isn’t such a claim also made by US forces? Aren’t the claims that foreign forces are there “at the request of the host government” also made in other Arab countries?

In 2003, the government of Iraq did not request assistance from the US, and therefore it was not legal in that sense. However, the Iraqi government did invite and request Iranian and American military involvement in the military campaign to defeat ISIS. It is permissible in this sense. ISIS took Mosul, Tikrit, Fallujah, Baiji, and Hawijah, and the Iraqi government issued a request for airstrikes, training, supplies, and military advise. America and Iran obliged, as they are allowed to do under international law. In Syria, the government requested military assistance from Russia to help fight terrorist and rebel groups. It obliged, legally. Ironically, Russia's intervention, ehich killed more civilians, is legal, whereas the American one technically isn't legal.

Those poor people

The humanitarian situation for civilians is dire, reported Mustafa Trabouli, a spokesperson for the besieged city. “We are currently exposed to artillery shelling, mortars and military aircraft,” he said in a recorded message. “A few days ago we were struck by 2,000 rockets and this led to the destruction of many homes while the inhabitants were still inside them. We are no longer able to remove the bodies of the dead from under the rubble. We are unable to get the wounded to the hospitals. Doctors in Fallujah are conducting surgical operations without any anaesthesia. We are suffering from a lack of medication and food supplies. There is no water and no electricity. When a few supplies were sent to us the army took control of them.” Trabouli begged the world to stop the tragedy in Fallujah, to deliver aid to the civilians and end the barbaric bombing. Too many people are still in need of food, fresh water and medicine.

Fuck 'em! They should've left in the 2 years that they had a chance to leave! Why'd didn't they leave in 2014? What didn't they leave when the Iraqi army said they would be conducting military operations? Thousands left weeks ago when the Iraqi government said "Hey, civilians, you should leave the city now before we conduct the military operation. If you stay, you will be dead by the end of the month". Those that die chose to stay rather than leave. Look, the alternative to liberating the city would be to just sit there on the outskirts, let food and supplies go in, and allow the city to remain under the control of an illegal terrorist group that actively is plotting to kill more Shias in Baghdad or Khan Bani Said using trucks packed with explosives. That's unacceptable. The security risk posed by having an entire city right next to your capital being controlled by the enemy warrants a liberation operation, as there is a direct threat to the nation's people. I'd your house happened to be bombed because ISIS was using it as an ammunition depot, well TOUGH SHIT. We'll build you a new house with aid money the Americans so graciously gave to you as they were bombing terrorists so you could be free. You're fucking welcome.