Under fire, US marines hand off battered Fallujah (only 300 Marines left)

[Barrett808]

Under fire, US marines hand off battered Fallujah
Just 300 marines now patrol key Sunni city as Iraqi military takes over.
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

FALLUJAH, IRAQ – From Observation Post Blazer, marines view Fallujah through a thick sheet of bullet-proof glass - already tested with numerous impacts. Or they stare through night-vision goggles or a thermal imaging scope that can pick up the heat of a dog hundreds of yards away.

The marines still patrol key roads. The US military, which still travels boldly through town despite a surge in deadly sniper attacks and roadside bombs, is spending $200 million on 60-plus projects to rebuild the city, heavily damaged in fighting two years ago.

But with just 300 marines, the US military footprint is smaller in this Sunni stronghold of more than 300,000 than it has been in two years. As the marine presence shrinks and Iraqis take more control, Fallujah - once a template for counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq, where US forces have controlled all the variables - is likely again to set a standard for the rest of the country.

"A lot of us feel like we have our hands tied behind our back," says Cpl. Peter Mattice, of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment. "In Fallujah, insurgents know our rules of engagement - they know when to stop, just before we engage."

(more)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1124/p01s04-woiq.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. This is what Fallajah looked like a couple of years ago

after the first major offensive.



It must be really bad at this point.

[Barrett808]

11. C'mon, there's $200 million of reconstruction money thrown at that problem

I'm sure we taxpayers got our money's worth.

[mcg]

16. aerial view of Fallujah showing an area leveled

http://nhindymedia.org/mod/columns/display/24/index.php

Falluja is at 33.20N, 43.55E, I don't know what part of Fallujah
this is, Falluja can bee seen via Google Earth, don't know how
old the photos are.

A charity helping to reconstruct:

http://www.jsintl.org/gallery/view/11

[grytpype]

2. A chilling moment in this article...

"Fallujah has an iconic value to the Marine Corps," says Colonel Nicholson, commander of the Regimental Combat Team 5, which covers Fallujah and a populated swath of Anbar Province, in an interview. "Fallujah falling would be like Iwo Jima falling to the Japanese again after World War II - it would be intolerable."

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Or like Hue City falling to the DRV

Oh, wait a second...

:eyes:

[grytpype]

4. "This is my weapon, this is my gun!"

[Dhalgren]

5. Doesn't Iwo Jima belong to Japan? It is their property, isn't it?

With every city taken in combat, it has to be understood upfront that the city will go back to the rightful inhabitants at some point - unless the conquest is for permanent settlement. Right?

[saigon68]

6. Unless you KILL all the INHABITANTS

and bury their SKULLS

[uppityperson]

7. yes, but the theory is that the "bad guys" lost. Oh, wait a minute, perhaps...

they did.

[brentspeak]

21. What's that supposed to mean?

[Red1]

8. Our Best, Our Proudest, Bush Doesn't Care

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/22/us.marines/index.html

[okoboji]

13. this has got to stop

remember during the last 4 years during the Clinton Administration, the Repugs, did nothing but bitch and moan, how Clinton, was destroying our military?

bastards .... who is doing it now? Walt Disney?

[Warren Stupidity]

9. "A lot of us feel like we have our hands tied behind our back"

as in 'can't we just massacre them again like we did two years ago?'. Get our troops out of there. Now.

[Zhade]

10. As if napalm and white phosphorous would break the Iraqis' will to survive.

We saw what it did - it just enraged them even more, made the resistance against the illegal occupation even fiercer.

[Solo_in_MD]

12. Actually it slowed the resistance significantly, as did the scout.sniper teams

The reality is that one the enemy knows your ROE, they will push to just that point. Reintroducing snipers into the mix would cause considerable pause. Its one of the tactics the insurgents really fear.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

14. i like the idea of getting the fuck out of Iraq better.

then again I have those pre-9/11 values of not being an empire, so what the hell do i know.

[Warren Stupidity]

15. Why not just take a page from Joe Stalin's playbook?

Just haul out 1/100 of the locals and execute them on the spot. Let it be known that any more incidents and another round of decimation will follow. Or better yet how about we get the heck out of their towns and cities and country and stop messing with their lives and killing them?

[file83]

17. Actually, our snipers have become less of a factor the last year or so...

...the insurgents have figured out all the best sniper positions, and they know how to evade our scout snipers. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/22/world/middleeast/22sniper.html "> Read about it here - New York Times November 22, 2006

[xchrom]

20. the insurgents don't ''fear'' us at all.

they simply change tactics, regions, whatever it takes -- they change, morph, whatever -- and we can never, ever do that.

we are ''stuck'' as it were -- and we know we are in possesion of less than creative, mobile minds leading our troops -- is it a signal for the future and future combat situations -- who knows?

but THIS empire has been beaten twice now by ''insurgents''.

[4bucksagallon]

18. Much Progress Made in Fallujah, Marine Commander Says

This is the crap the military is spouting. I remember all to well receiving letters from home when I was in Nam, asking me how come we were still there with all the success we were having. Then the stories in the Stars and Stripes about how much progress we were making in winning the "hearts and minds" of the insurgents. LOADS OF BS.
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,119124,00.html?ESRC=marine.nl


WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2006 – Two years ago, much of the Iraqi city of Fallujah had suffered severe damage after some of the hardest fighting seen since the country was liberated by U.S. and coalition forces in the spring of 2003.
Today, construction across Fallujah is booming, and the city's 400,000-resident population is growing, Marine Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commander of Regimental Combat Team 5, told Pentagon reporters today from Fallujah during a satellite-televised news conference.


To illustrate Fallujah's progress, Nicholson pointed to the reduced number of U.S. troops stationed in the city. In March 2005 at the end of his previous duty tour in Iraq, the colonel recalled, about 3,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers were operating in Fallajah. Upon his return to Iraq this February, Nicholson observed, about 300 U.S. troops were operating in Fallujah.

"That is a significant measure of progress under any scale," he pointed out.

Also, Fallujah had no police force in March 2005, Nicholson recalled. Today, he noted, the city boasts more than 700 Iraqi police officers.

Routine teamwork and pragmatism employed by U.S., coalition and Iraqi officials has greatly contributed to the city's success, Nicholson said.

Fallujah's progress has made it a beacon of hope for many beleaguered Sunnis fleeing the violence in Baghdad, Nicholson pointed out.

"While the fleeing of Sunni citizens from Baghdad is in itself a tragedy, the fact that Fallujah has become the overwhelming destination of choice for those seeking refuge and peace is a great testament to the work done here in Fallujah by the coalition forces, the Iraqi forces, and the local government," Nicholson said.




What a load of crap................................ this is why reporters need to be in the military units.

[Barrett808]

19. Wow. Propaganda of the purest ray serene.

I don't think Fallujah is "boasting" about anything.

[RagingInMiami]

22. So much for the roses they were supposed to toss at us