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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Day-to-Day with that Marine Fox Company |
| 2004-04-29 |
| EFL Monotonous, militaristic chants rang out in Arabic from mosques throughout the northern rebel-held neighborhoods, all praising Allah and urging residents to slay the American infidels in Fallujah’s dusty streets. The calls for holy war did not go unheard by Marines around the city; nor were they unheeded by insurgents. Wednesday was another day of so-called cease-fire in Fallujah. Another day that rebels tried to kill Marines with rocket-propelled grenades and rifle fire. Another day that Marine snipers picked them off, helicopters mowed them down, and jets blew them up with 500-pound bombs. Still, the insurgents kept coming. snip Fallujah has become the focus of America’s war in Iraq, they say. And what happens in the flat river town could paint a picture of America’s future in Iraq. "Even the president is thinking about Fallujah right now," said Lt. James Vanzant, a spokesman for the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. snip Around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, about 10 rebels attacked Marines from Fox Company in a former Iraqi Special Republican Guard compound on the northwest corner of town near the Euphrates. The Marines fought them off with machine guns and small arms until the rebels either died or broke contact. A couple of hours later, Marines in another position saw men running down nearby streets carrying AK-47 rifles. When snipers fired on them, commanders nearby questioned why they would shoot armed men in the streets of Fallujah. They were told to go review the "rules of engagement." The troops shrugged, relaxed and went back to searching for an enemy that they may ---- or may not ---- be allowed to shoot that day. Now that Fallujah is a household name and the world seems to await the conflict’s climax, the rules of war have such wide swings that Marines are free to bomb neighborhoods to oblivion one day, but are kept from shooting armed men running in the streets the next. It’s a confusing, dangerous place, and young leaders say keeping busy is the key to staying alive and sane. snip Later that day, a long silence in a Marine-held home was broken by giddy laughter and rapid boot stomping on the stairs. Marines, all sweaty and smiling, rushed up to the bombed-out, second-level deck with full sandbags drooping from chiseled and tatooed forearms. Even in the soggy midday heat, they turned the drudgery of filling and hauling the heavy sandbags to their defenses into a boys’ game ---- a simple competition and team effort full of laughing and taunting and encouragement. It was the kind of fraternal spirit that seems to push the Marines through the long slog of each day in the field, gets them through the dark valley of night, and helps them reach the peak of the next day together to face whatever comes next. "Laughing about it helps," said one Marine, panting after the climb. "Itmakes the time go by fast," another said with a sigh. ’’It keeps the Marines on their toes," said Cpl. Peter Madrigal of the effort to bolster the troops’ defenses on a rooftop where rebels have tried to land mortar rounds day after day. Madrigal, of Tucson, Ariz, was one of the young leaders who recently led Marines on a deadly ambush. On Wednesday, he led them in a boyish game. "We try to do something to improve things every day," he said as huge explosions sent mushroom smoke clouds climbing the sky in the east. "It helps us stay on top. We can’t get complacent." On Wednesday, they had some rewards to look forward to after toil and stress: a rare hot meal and mail. snip About CNN footage And late Tuesday night, the crew captured the near-nightly visit from the Air Force AC-130 Spectre gunship as it blasted vehicles and buildings where suspected insurgents were hiding. Military officials Wednesday said the footage was played over and over during Tuesday’s news reports in the states and was being billed as the much-ballyhooed "big offensive." It was no such thing. snip The officer agreed that even in a best-case scenario, the situation might just return to how it was when the Marines arrived in March ---- when they were only hit with the occasional mortar or roadside bomb. But for the guys on the ground, in the streets and on the rooftops of Fallujah who daily are fighting off rebel attacks and trying to stay somewhat in the deniable bounds of the cease-fire rules, politics seemed to mean little Wednesday. Marines from Fox Company ducked behind their doubled-up sandbag barriers when rebel mortar rounds crashed to the ground 100 yards away around sunset. They’d tweak and add to the defenses tomorrow, they said. First, let’s get through the night. Mail arrived, then hot chow. Then it was dark again and the second shift slept or read letters from home while the first shift donned helmets and flak vests and headed upstairs to their posts. Rebels struck up the jihad tunes from local mosques and, at 9:45 p.m., the gunship "Slayer" arrived for its nightly rounds over Fallujah to enforce the cease-fire with cannon. Lots left out -- you might want to go read it all |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #2 Associated Press "FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. Marines negotiated a "tentative" agreement Thursday to pull back forces from Fallujah, a deal that would lift a nearly monthlong siege and allow an Iraqi force led by a former Saddam Hussein -era general to handle security." Who are we negotiating with? Is the Islamists (and the Dems) strategy is working? Is our will is wilting, our resolve melting? They cranked up the heat in April, and before the end of the month, . . . |
| Posted by: Sam 2004-04-29 6:32:44 PM |
| #1 I think we're going to have to kill these guys, and bringing in an Iraqi force will only delay the inevitable. These guys think it is ok to women and children as shileds, or to strap bombs to their (or more likely their neighbor's) kids. You can't reason with them, you can't negotiate with them, you just have to kill them. That's what we're going to have to do. |
| Posted by: Hank 2004-04-29 6:25:30 PM |