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| Iraq-Jordan |
| US biding its time on Fallujah |
| 2004-09-21 |
| From the porthole of his bunker just outside the city, U.S. Marine Capt. Jeff Stevenson could see no more than the first few rows of brick-and-concrete homes along Fallujah's urban fringe as he squinted into the setting desert sun. But his obscured view was enough to sense trouble. A half-dozen houses were flattened. Others were punched with tank rounds. Each of them, Stevenson said, had been used by insurgents to fire at his bunker, which is fortified with dirt-filled mesh barriers. Iraqi police officers and National Guardsmen, who should have been patrolling the streets, were nowhere to be found. A dusty pile of canvas 100 yards away provided the only reminder of the Fallujah Brigade, the now-disbanded Iraqi security force that was supposed to restore order here. The canvas had been one of brigade's tents. It was gunned down after several members took potshots at Stevenson's men. "Fallujah has become a cancer," declared Stevenson, echoing a metaphor used by several senior U.S. commanders in Iraq. A collection of anti-American forces -- former Baath Party loyalists, Islamic extremists and foreign militants -- have been expanding their presence in Fallujah since the Marines withdrew from positions in the city in April and handed over responsibility for security to the Fallujah Brigade. According to U.S. military officials and residents, the insurgents have since taken over the local government, co-opted and cowed Iraqi security forces, and turned the area into a staging ground for terrorist attacks in Baghdad, located about 35 miles to the east. But the U.S. military command in Iraq is in no hurry to order the Marines back into the city. Officers such as Stevenson, a tall Californian whose unit, the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment, would be among the front-line forces in an offensive, are biding their time in bunkers and observation posts outside Fallujah. Most of their days are spent keeping a highway around the city free of roadside bombs. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #26 Get this! [delete space in URL] http://www.g oogle.ca/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=Jews+and+their+lies+incite+hatred+that+turns+brother+against+brother%2C+one+people+against+another%2C+nation+against+nation&btnG=Search&meta= |
| Posted by: Anonymouse 2004-09-21 11:17:35 AM |
| #25 Super Hose, it may be the case that Zarqawi slips between places. Which may indicate that his ego got inflated as he considers himself invincible. That is the beginning of his downfall. |
| Posted by: Memesis 2004-09-22 6:25:20 PM |
| #24 (I'm still running clutching Bulldog's Segway Theorem) Can you picture the Marines riding triumphantly into Fallujah on Battle Segways to the thundering sound of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries? Legendary and iconic. To be immortalised in a scene from the yet-to-be-made Apocalypse Now of the post Sinclair-C5 generation. Da da da DAAA DAA... |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-09-22 6:16:05 PM |
| #23 Old Spook, are they stuck there? My impression is that Zarqawi is in Baghdad. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-09-21 11:55:34 PM |
| #22 Dien Bien Phu - for the Terroirsts/Baathists. Kind of neat how they boxed themselves in. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-09-21 11:15:15 PM |
| #21 Ooooh, don't tease us! What is it? Zionest Death Rays? Teleporting Jarheads? Black Helicopters of Ultimate Doom and Terror? :) |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2004-09-21 10:31:11 PM |
| #20 I think what AC is talking about is somehow Rummy has gained control of the giant spiders of the desert(tm) and convinced them to kill all Allan followers! |
| Posted by: BA 2004-09-21 9:44:16 PM |
| #19 Brett, We went in to stop the development of WMD, not to expand it. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-09-21 7:47:39 PM |
| #18 Could this new secret weapon be ........ Jimmah and Amah Cartah? |
| Posted by: Brett_the_Quarkian 2004-09-21 7:33:40 PM |
| #17 Good heavens! We're gonna drop a C-5 on their asses? It seems so wrong. Calling Sgt. Stryker. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-09-21 7:32:32 PM |
| #16 Memesis and Bulldog are both on the right track. Do y'all remember that special reverse-JATO C-130 they cobbled up for a second Iran hostage try back in 1980? It crashed during flight-test and the mission was cancelled, but keep in mind that this was 24 years ago. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-09-21 7:16:53 PM |
| #15 I'm onta ya, AC. You're talking Segways. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-09-21 6:52:49 PM |
| #14 I think the next, and last, offensive in Fallujah will be quite different from the last one, and may involve a substantial element of surprise. Thunder Run, part 3? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-09-21 6:45:29 PM |
| #13 AC can't say no more... You mean those african bees trained to recognize ragheads with kalashnikovs? :-) |
| Posted by: Memesis 2004-09-21 6:43:37 PM |
| #12 I think the next, and last, offensive in Fallujah will be quite different from the last one, and may involve a substantial element of surprise. The jihadis have prepared, as best they can, for another round of gradual street to street attrition. Other possbilities could well be outside their imagination at this point, which is another good reason to go for something completely different next time. I have good reason to believe that the US forces are about to introduce a rather dramatic new technology, one whose existence has not been publicly revealed and whose nature has not even been the object of speculation. Can't say more but it has to do with mobility. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2004-09-21 6:12:56 PM |
| #11 It may be useful to let the guerrillas build up a redoubt that grows in stature, and assumes mythical proportions. And then destroy them. The question is how? If an aerial bombardment is the preferred method, then that's fine, but what if it's necessary to send in ground forces? I'm thinking booby traps and the like, things that would be less likely if the enemy wasn't given all this time to operate in Fallujah unhindered. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-09-21 4:47:56 PM |
| #10 9 - Nice Aspirin reference. :) |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-09-21 1:17:58 PM |
| #9 Go away, troll. Or are you a trollop? |
| Posted by: jackal 2004-09-21 1:00:16 PM |
| #8 Can someone please delete #7? It's destroying the margins (at least in Mozilla). |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2004-09-21 12:59:09 PM |
| #7 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted] |
| Posted by: Anonymouse TROLL 2004-09-21 11:17:35 AM |
| #6 Anonymoose: Think of Fallujah as "Fort Zindernuf", an isolated outpost that accomplishes nothing, yet is a death trap for those who are sent there. It may be useful to let the guerrillas build up a redoubt that grows in stature, and assumes mythical proportions. And then destroy them. Only then will their illusions be shattered. They will then have been defeated not only in the physical sense, but spiritually as well. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-21 11:09:06 AM |
| #5 I see a two-way street. The boyz see Fallujah as a stronghold, from which to launch an ever-expanding territory grab. This is a traditional view. However, the *counter* to this is the realization that Fallujah can be used as a magnet to attract boyz from outlying areas. The masters in Fallujah keep calling in more and more reinforcements to support their "breakout" plan, and the US keeps cutting them down. What seems like a stalemate is actually an effective attrition of boyz. Think of Fallujah as "Fort Zindernuf", an isolated outpost that accomplishes nothing, yet is a death trap for those who are sent there. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-09-21 10:32:28 AM |
| #4 WaPo: Neighbors interviewed by an Iraqi journalist working for The Washington Post described a different outcome. They said six people were killed: two foreign fighters meeting in the targeted house and a family of four -- a father, mother and two children -- living next door. Note that WaPo will always mention that accounts could not be "independently verified", but neglect to mention that those who spoke out against the guerrillas have in the past been killed. It hasn't noted that these might be hostile civilians with a stake in exaggerating civlian casualties. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-21 10:23:16 AM |
| #3 Sounds like the US has found some ways of separating the nut jobs from the populace. While this sounds like a good tactic, the only nagging problem with this approach is that it exposes U.S. forces to hostile fire for a longer period of time, IMO unnecessarily. If American forces are going to take casualties, and there will be some, it would be preferable that they happen under a clear engagement where the enemy is in jeopardy of being thoroughly stomped, instead of under some sort of holding pattern where the enemy has the time to kill one soldier here, another over there, and so on. If this sounds familiar, well, it should. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-09-21 10:12:52 AM |
| #2 Love's overrated. Reciprocity's much more reliable. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-09-21 10:01:24 AM |
| #1 Interesting that residents are fighting with the "foreign fighters" because of the air strikes. Sounds like the US has found some ways of separating the nut jobs from the populace. I imagine UAVs and night vision equipment also play a role. I also find it interesting when there is a tidbit about Sufi Islam. Some people theorize that Sufism is a pre-Islamic remnant, perhaps of Christian or pre-Christian origin. Like Christianity, its emphasis is on love, very un-Islamic. |
| Posted by: V is for Victory 2004-09-21 9:20:44 AM |