Several members of the U.S.-appointed governing council criticized the US offensive in Fallujah. Adnan Pachachi said “These operations were a mass punishment for the people of Fallujah. It was not right to punish all the people of Fallujah and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal.”

Meanwhile another member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council admitted publicly that the so-called governing council essentially had no say in how the US attempted to put down the Iraqi resistance.