From: Steve Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Tue Nov 23 2004 - 21:50:33 PST
Hi Ryan,
>Heh, tell that to the Marine who's father I work
>with at CNN. His father related to me Matt's take
>on the situation in Fallujah in round 1. "they
>had the city by the nut sack with every
>intersection locked down and every major point
>guarded and covered.
True from what I remember.
>They pulled out not because
>they were too exposed, but because the
>international community was complaining about the
>collateral damage.
Not from what I gather. They pulled out because it was hot in there
(i.e. we were NOT liked) and we couldn't afford to keep that many combat
troops in that one spot to keep it from boiling over. We had, and still
have, other fish to fry. So we let in the Iraqis to do the policing.
Big mistake. They disappeared, things went into chaos, and we couldn't
get back in nicely. We tried and tried, but it became clear that nothing
short of a major offensive would work. What followed was a long standoff
which the Marines were pissed about.
The Marines were held off from retaking Fallujah because they couldn't do
it on their own (no slight to them!!), we didn't have extra forces lying
around to draw from (the Brits had to move north to release US forces,
for example), the collateral damage would be major, and that collateral
damage works against our mission. No, not just because it makes it
harder to get some help from our traditional allies, but because
everytime we do something offensive we get another wave of resentment and
terrorist strikes. And guess what? The higherups were proven correct.
>Great cost?
Relatively, of course. Fallujah was a major battle in relative terms.
One can not compare this conflict to WWII in any way shape or form.
Different epoch, different scale, different enemy, different everything.
>Those lads are highly trained, highly
>motivated and have done a bang up job.
Agreed. But if there were more of them they wouldn't have had to do it
TWICE. I just hope that they don't have to do it a THIRD time.
Steve
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