U.S. Wins Battle of Falluja; Critics Call It a "Hollow Victory"

Interview with Christian Parenti, journalist and author, conducted by Scott Harris

The claim of victory by U.S. forces in the insurgent stronghold of Falluja came at a very high price. Half the residents of this now virtually destroyed city, once home to 300,000, have fled with an as-yet undetermined number of dead and injured civilians resulting from the weeks of American air strikes and the recent ground assault. The Pentagon says that 38 U.S. soldiers were killed and more than 200 were injured in the post-election Falluja operation, while killing 1,000 insurgents and taking some 500 prisoners.

Amnesty International declared that both sides may have violated international law in their conduct during the urban battle. The London-based human rights group urged investigations of incidents including a missile attack on a medical clinic killing 20 Iraqi medical staff; the shooting of non-combatants fleeing the city; the reported execution of a wounded insurgent prisoner by a U.S. Marine and the use of Mosques and flags of truce by insurgents to carry out attacks against American forces.

But as U.S. troops continued to secure Falluja, it became clear that a large number of the Iraqi rebels had fled the city in advance of the assault, moving across the Sunni Triangle to launch counterattacks against American soldiers and Iraqi police. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Christian Parenti, a U.S. journalist who spent four months in Iraq before writing a new book about the war titled: "The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq." Parenti assesses the battle of Falluja and the prospects for a U.S. military victory in Iraq.

"The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq" is published by the New Press. Read Parenti's articles online at www.thenation.com.

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