"IRAQI MILITARY FORCE DISBANDED, MANY NOW TURNING ON U.S. FORCES"

AmericaBlog has more good news:

Bush's record on just about everything in Iraq is so soft I don't know why the Dem's are not more aggressive on the issue. How many of us have heard the wingnuts talk about how great the Iraqi forces have been now that we brought them into the fight? It looks as though yet another neocon theory is going down the drain and the people that we recently armed will soon be fighting against US troops. WE HAVE ARMED AND PAID THE OPPOSITION AND THEY WILL BE TRYING TO KILL US TROOPS. Since Dubya likes to say that he lets the military run operations, I would be interested in hear why exactly the military pulled back from Falluja in the past only to go back in now. Surely it wasn't a political move from above, was it? After all we know that Dubya does not like to interfere with military plans.

The Iraqi military force formed by the Marines in a last-ditch effort to pacify the restive city of Fallouja has been disbanded in the face of continuing violence, assaults on government security forces and evidence that some members have been working openly with insurgents.

"The Fallouja Brigade is done, over," said Marine Col. Jerry L. Durrant, who oversees the 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit's involvement with Iraqi security forces. "The whole Fallouja Brigade thing was a fiasco. Initially it worked out OK, but it wasn't a good idea for very long."

Marines remain based as close as two miles from Fallouja, but the insurgents — local and foreign fighters backed by firebrand Sunni Muslim clerics — have had several months to dig in and make it more difficult for American troops or Iraqi government forces to launch a ground attack.

Judging by members' comments, it seemed likely that some would openly rejoin the insurgency, in which many had been involved before joining the brigade. In doing so, they would be able to fight with weapons provided to them by the Marines, who also paid them monthly salaries.

The brigade made no effort to restrict insurgent activities, members and the Marines said. Fallouja became even safer for insurgents, who could take refuge, plot attacks and run manufacturing centers for car bombs and other explosives.