Marines Seek to Pacify Fallujah (Marines Seal Off Falluja)

AP via Yahoo news ^ | 31-march-2004 | HAMZA HENDAWI

[epluribus_2]

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Newly arrived U.S. Marines are leaving no doubt as to their resolve to defeat militants. Iraqis are awed by the Americans' show of force but remain convinced that they'll fail to stamp out the insurgency in one of the most dangerous cities for American troops.

The fight against the U.S.-led occupation has strong religious undertones in Fallujah, reflecting the Sunni Muslim city's conservative nature, its reputation for piety and deep anti-U.S. sentiments.

Fallujah, some 30 miles west of Baghdad, a city so steeped in Arab and Islamic traditions that its famous kebab restaurants have the unusual feature of prayer rooms and women are rarely seen in public. It also is part of Iraq (news - web sites)'s Sunni heartland, a large swath of land that stretches north and west of the Iraqi capital where armed resistance to the U.S. occupation is fierce.

"We are all suffering from what the Americans are doing to us, but that doesn't take away anything from our pride in the resistance," said Saadi Hamadi, a 24-year-old university graduate and resident of Fallujah.

Five U.S. military personnel were killed Wednesday when a bomb exploded under their vehicle in a village near Fallujah, the U.S. military said. Inside the city, gunmen attacked two civilian cars that residents said were carrying at least four foreign nationals, including an American. The occupants of the cars were killed and their vehicles were set on fire. Their bodies were dragged in the streets.

Some of the slain men were wearing flak jackets, said Safa Mohammedi, a resident. The identities of the slain men were unclear. One resident displayed what appeared to be dog tags taken from one body.

U.S. military commanders, however, say the insurgents and their supporters in the city of 500,000 are a minority and most people are tired of the violence.

The California-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force assumed responsibility for the city from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in a troop rotation on March 24.

Two days later, Marines and insurgents fought a lengthy street battle in the city's working-class al-Askari district that killed one Marine and wounded seven others. Five Iraqis, including a freelance ABC News cameraman, also died.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of U.S. military operations in Iraq, on Tuesday blamed the violence in Fallujah on insurgents trying to test the willingness of the Marines to fight so soon after their arrival. A total of eight Marines have been killed in two weeks.

On Tuesday, the Marines used tanks and armored fighting vehicles to block the main exits and entrances to Fallujah for the fourth day running. They lifted their blockade on Wednesday.

The deployment forced thousands of motorists off the main roads and onto bumpy dirt tracks where traffic moved slowly under the watchful eyes of soldiers crouching in the sand behind their guns or atop military vehicles. Other Marines dug foxholes along the route, while some took partially concealed positions behind bushes and sand berms.

Tanks trained their guns on the al-Askari district. Residents also said Marines rolled through the neighborhood and shouted warnings in Arabic through a bullhorn against harboring insurgents.

Several families heeded the warning and left, according to residents who stayed behind.

The Marines also reportedly staged door-to-door house raids in search of weapons and suspected insurgents on Monday night and again on Tuesday.

The Marines issued a statement Saturday, saying they were "conducting offensive operations ... to foster a secure and stable environment for the people."

"If they find more than one adult male in any house, they arrest one of them," claimed resident Khaled Jamaili, 26. "Those Marines are destroying us. They are leaning very hard on Fallujah."

House raids have been a sore point with Iraqis, and are viewed as a violation of women's privacy. Many believed that the Marines would drop the tactic and apply a "soft touch" to win over Iraqis, showing more cultural sensitivity than their predecessors in Fallujah.

But Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, who commands the Marine forces in the area, said his men received cultural training before coming to Iraq and some of them took intensive Arabic language courses.

But he said that only when the insurgency ended would a "soft approach" be used.

"You will see that soft approach when we can walk the streets feeling safe and not risking being attacked," Conway told reporters last week. "Essentially our mission is to create stabilization and security."

[epluribus_2]

Blocking exits and streets and having a good old fashioned crackdown. I think the Good Cop method has gone on long enough and we are now seeing the Bad Cop hammer that the fallujians will understand. USMC is perfect for this job - find bad guys, kill bad guys, go home. Hope the american public understands we are fighting back in the sunni triangle and that we expect and intend to win there. You would not think this reading most of the news reports.

[The Mayor]

MOAB

[grobdriver]

Many believed that the Marines would drop the tactic and apply a "soft touch" to win over Iraqis, showing more cultural sensitivity than their predecessors in Fallujah.

Roger that - We got your "soft approach" right here!

[2banana]

"If they find more than one adult male in any house, they arrest one of them," claimed resident Khaled Jamaili, 26. "Those Marines are destroying us. They are leaning very hard on Fallujah."

You ain't seen nothing yet...

[goldstategop]

I would advise any Jihadist and Saddamite to tangle with the "Devil Dogs" at their own risk. They've been warned.

[murdocj]

I DO think that there's some value in "friendliness" training, even for Marines, even in Fallujah. If there are some simple things that they can do in their normal day-to-day operations that don't actively piss off the locals, that's a very good thing. No point in antagonizing Joe Iraqi if we can avoid it.

At the same time, our soldiers need to be soldiers first, peacekeepers second, and humanitarian aid workers last. I doubt the Marines (or any other US troops) are going to react in a kinder, gentler way to these events, and that's the way it should be.

Although much has been made of the "soft approach" training the Marines received, the Corps said all along that it would be more friendly when it could and more violent when it had to. The Marines also received more urban helo training ( http://www.murdoconline.net/archives/000848.html ) and other training that incorporated lessons from the invasion. The "soft approach" is just one of the tools that we're using in Iraq, and it will have its uses. Right now, the tool of choice in the Fallujah area will be force.

USMC - No better friend, no worse enemy.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The soft touch is reserved for civilized people and children, not murdering pigs.

[KriegerGeist]

There are some very badly abused (oppressed?) dogs, that when you rescue them, give them food, medical attention and a good home will lay down their lives for you.

Then there are wild animals, that when rescued from injury and given food and medical attention, will turn on you and bite you or kill you simply because it's their nature.

Some people that are led by or filled with the devil fall into this latter catagory of wild animals. You don't attempt to nurse them back to health (so to speak). You have to put them down. They can never be "domesticated".

That is just my opinion. You can't help people that won't be helped. It's just like appeasing the Palestinians: Israel can give them half of the land or most of the land and still they will not be satisfied until every Jew is dead everywhere... it's in their nature.

[MEG33]

The hard cases have to be dealt with.I am appalled at the violence and celebration over mutilated bodies.May God rest their souls.May the perps meet justice.

[thoughtomator]

We should just raze the city to the ground and move on.

[TXBSAFH]

Nuke em.

[goldstategop]

They'll sing the first five verses of the Marine Hymn in Iraq's "Sunni Triangle" before spring's over:

To the shores of Tripoli,
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean...

[NC28203]

Or we could just gas them like Saddam did to his enemies and place them in mass graves. Oh wait, that is why we went to war against him, isn't it?

[Alberta's Child]

This is exactly why it is utterly asinine to have the U.S. military serving in any kind of an occupation role like this. The most destructive trend in U.S. foreign policy over the last 50 years has been our willingness to carry out half-@ssed military campaigns against "enemies" who aren't clearly defined.

[Da Mav]

Seems at the very least we ought to take down the bridge where the bodies were hung and let the terrorists explain it to their neighbors.

[Da Mav]

Seems at the very least we ought to take down the bridge where the bodies were hung and let the terrorists explain it to their neighbors.

[petercooper]

Firebomb the whole stinking town

[IGOTMINE]

The baton has been passed and next sprinter in the Jihadist Killing relay is pulling further from the field!

[conservativeharleyguy]

This really hits home for me. My boss, for whom I'm currently filling in, is one of the Marine officers (LTC.) right there, right now. He is in the thick of it, but like all good Marines, is ready to give them the fight of their lives (probably the last fight of their worthless lives).

As an ex-Army NCO, I never thought I'd say this, but I have a lot of new-found respect for the USMC. If we (the people) let them, they kick some serious ass everywhere they go.

Anyways, pray for all of our sons and daughters, but save a special prayer for the Marines.

[epluribus_2]

There are 500,000 civilians there with maybe 5,000 hardcore dead-enders. Those dudes really think that we will ultimately go home and that Saddam will be back in power. We might and He might.

It does not take a wizard to come up with scenarios, many involved JFingKerry, that could lead to this. Heck, he might even be sprung during his trial if enough iraqis are allowed near him, especially since they will have their sovereignty back in June. The bad guys are good at planning deception and at backstabbing. Al Qaeda is also crawling in this muck. They are good at making political changes via brutality. Combine that with half of the world's democracies on Saddams side (without admitting it) out of hatred of American style freedom and power, the bad guys have about a 50/50 chance. The sheep there know it. The VC knew it when they CLOSELY tracked our political opportunites and election cycles, playing us like a fiddle.

I am optimistic - but the best chance we have is to find and kill evil men in Iraq rather than going with the flow which is mostly designed to flow against the forces of good.