Nicholas F. Benton's White House Report

The Bush administration's profound miscalculation and mishandling of the Falluja standoff marks a prospective historic turning point in the botched occupation of Iraq following last year's unprovoked U.S. invasion.

History books may well report that Falluja marked the point when marginal armed resistance to the U.S. occupation blossomed into a full-blown nationalist insurgency.

Even prior to Falluja, according to Ann Scott Tyson writing in the Christian Science Monitor, "The armed opposition to the U.S. occupation of Iraq reached the point where some experts say it threatens to become a full-fledged nationalist insurgency."

"Today's insurgents are at the least conducting increasingly sophisticated coordinated attacks," she writes. "They have built networks to recruit fighters, make weapons, and funnel funds from Iraqi businesses and charitable groups, military experts say. Insurgents are now motivated primarily by nationalism and Islam, rather than loyalty to Hussein."

She quotes Ahmed Hashim, an Iraq expert at the Naval War College, saying, "The insurgency has worsened immeasurably. The new insurgents showed a dramatic improvement in small-unit fighting skills. Insurgents in some areas are striking virtually as military units and withdrawing under covering fire. They have shown an ability to stand and fight, rather than merely `shoot and scoot' as in the past."

Also prior to Falluja came a scientific CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of the Iraqi people, the results of which were reported last night. The poll shows that a solid majority of Iraqis think the U.S. operation in Iraq has been "unjustified," and that 57% believe the U.S. forces should leave the country "immediately."

On top of this, 55% in the poll expressed an "unfavorable" view of President Bush, compared to only 24% "favorable."

The fact that the actions of an armed resistance to the U.S. occupation now represents the viewpoint of a solid majority of the Iraqi people – rather than a tiny fraction of Saddam remnants and terrorists, as the Bush administration claims – has led Syrian president Bashar al-Asad to declare that the armed resistance operations against the U.S. occupation forces "constitute a legitimate resistance because it represents the majority of the Iraqi people."

The remarks were made on the Aljazeera Network's Open Dialogue program, according to the network's web site.

In this context, the Eric Scmidt writing in the International Herald Tribute notes that the Falluja crisis now involves a debate within Bush's highest administration circles, where some "have voiced concerns that images of fierce fighting in Falluja will stir uprisings throughout Iraq and outrage throughout the Arab world."

"There is little sign that the resistance is softening," they note.

What the world is beginning to see, according to Christine Hauser's report in the New York Times, a soccer stadium in Falluja once known as the "Falluja Sports Club" is now known as the "Falluja Martyrs Cemetery," where hundreds of bodies of women and children, the victims of U.S. strikes on Falluja that have hit houses, have been taken.

As for the swelling ranks of U.S. military and civilian casualties, Newsweek magazine reports that up to 20% of them could have been avoided had armored, heavier vehicles been used to transport U.S. troops. Humvees, unlike more traditional armored personnel carriers such as Strykers, leave occupants fully exposed from the chest upward. An unofficial study by a defense consultant notes that 142 Americans were killed by land mines or improvised roadside bombs and 48 others by rocket-propelled grenades.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said Tuesday that his country's 485 troops in Iraq are "involved in a real war, which it was not prepared for," according to the Toronto Star.

Meanwhile, a British military expert in Baghdad quoted in the Italian publication Il Manifesto remarked that "American soldiers seem bent on doing all they can to alienate the population, and that's absolutely mad."

"They'll never win. We'll never win," he was quoted saying. "We, the British, think that we need to learn the lesson of the Iraqi revolt of the 1920s, back when we exercised a mandate in this country. In many ways, that rebellion was comparable to the one today. We also think that what is called for is a method similar to the one we used in Belfast. But the Americans are adopting the 'Jenin model,' which the Israelis gave them, and which will lead us all into hell with them."