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| Iraq-Jordan | |
| In Falluja, Young Marines Saw the Savagery of an Urban War | |
| 2004-11-20 | |
By DEXTER FILKINS
"Miller!" the marines called from below. "Miller!" With that, the marines' near mystical commandment against leaving a comrade behind seized the group. One after another, the young marines dashed into the minaret, into darkness and into gunfire, and wound their way up the stairs. After four attempts, Corporal Miller's lifeless body emerged from the tower, his comrades choking and covered with dust. With more insurgents closing in, the marines ran through volleys of machine-gun fire back to their base. "I was trying to be careful, but I was trying to get him out, you know what I'm saying?" Lance Cpl. Michael Gogin, 19, said afterward. So went eight days of combat for this Iraqi city, the most sustained period of street-to-street fighting that Americans have encountered since the Vietnam War. The proximity gave the fighting a hellish intensity, with soldiers often close enough to look their enemies in the eyes. For a correspondent who has covered a half dozen armed conflicts, including the war in Iraq since its start in March 2003, the fighting seen while traveling with a frontline unit in Falluja was a qualitatively different experience, a leap into a different kind of battle. From the first rockets vaulting out of the city as the marines moved in, the noise and feel of the battle seemed altogether extraordinary; at other times, hardly real at all. The intimacy of combat, this plunge into urban warfare, was new to this generation of American soldiers, but it is a kind of fighting they will probably see again: a grinding struggle to root out guerrillas entrenched in a city, on streets marked in a language few American soldiers could comprehend. The price for the Americans so far: 51 dead and 425 wounded, a number that may yet increase but that already exceeds the toll from any battle in the Iraq war. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #10 The sunnis have, in no way, given up the fight. If wishes were fishes, I would have started this by dropping a 1000lb bomb on each mosque and flattening every "villa", i.e. wealthy, upper-class, house. That is where the real support for the insurgents lies. |
| Posted by: Crerert Ebbeting3481 2004-11-21 12:03:22 AM |
| #9 Yes, thank God for the Men of this great nation that have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Semper Fi, Lance Corporal Miller. Semper Fi. |
| Posted by: Mac Suirtain 2004-11-21 12:03:58 AM |
| #8 http://www.nola.com/ Article "Hometown Hero Is Buried with Honors" |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-11-20 11:45:37 PM |
| #7 Matt, do you have a link to an account of Justin's funeral? with more quotes from Archbishop Hannon's sermon? thanks in advance, lex |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-20 11:36:39 PM |
| #6 A small town in southeast Louisiana buried a Marine, Lance Corporal Justin McLeese, yesterday. Archbishop Philip Hannon, the former archbishop of New Orleans and a paratrooper-chaplain with the 82nd Airborne in WWII, said at the funeral: "Justin did not die in vain. He died in a war that we must win and will win in order to save civilzation as we know it." Several hundred people were at the funeral. Thank God for men such as this. |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-11-20 10:59:13 PM |
| #5 A friend of my son's from kindergarden died the Falluja attack. I don't care how brave the rules of combat required them to be. We should have just leveled the town with a dozen MOABs. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2004-11-20 10:33:46 PM |
| #4 Not sad here but humbled. And elated to hear yet again of the extraordinary competence of our professional military, that finds and trains and motivates such exceptionally brave and talented young men. This inspires great confidence. One more reason to be cheerful: this appeared in the NYTimes. Apparently Exec Editor Bill Keller took note of the election results. Or, more likely, the shareholders did. Could this be the start of a trend? |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-20 10:23:42 PM |
| #3 Yes it is sad. But they do not die in vain. As you can see in the other posts US forces are finding things of inteligence value that will save lives down the road. Even the identity of the terrorist bodies is proving useful. When ever we identify a Saudi national it gives us a little more wedge. Also there are some civilians in there and this is important. They will and are spreading very negative opinons on the terrrorists and their actions durning the last days. The terrorist leadership who cut and ran so fast are not looking good to the Sunnis. To cut it short the sacrifies of today are going to make the sacrifices of tommorow smaller. Also compared to what happed to the Russians in Grozny which is a comparable situation we are having really low casualties. As usual the MSN is doing it's darndest to snatch a save defeat from the jaws of victory. |
| Posted by: toad 2004-11-20 10:02:17 PM |
| #2 I don't know, I felt kinda sad reading this. Just level the damn place. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2004-11-20 9:24:37 PM |
| #1 What an incredible group of young men!! God love 'em and watch over 'em. This is the kind of reads we need everyday from the battlefield, telling their stories. Honoring these guys.... God bless them.... and those "Angels" who have checked in with St. Peter for their orders and are now guarding the streets of heaven. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2004-11-20 9:05:53 PM |