Marines Encircle Fallouja (Operation Valiant Resolve commencing)

LA Times ^ | 4-4-04 | Tony Perry and Edmund Sanders

[BurbankKarl]

FALLOUJA, Iraq — Thousands of Marines surrounded this anti-American stronghold early today in preparation for a complex raid to retake control of the city and apprehend those responsible for last week's slayings of four U.S. security contractors.

The highly anticipated action, dubbed Operation Valiant Resolve, was expected to be one of the biggest military offensives since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government a year ago.

All roads leading to this city of 300,000 were cut off and barricaded with tanks and concertina wire. Working through the cold and windy desert night, under a large moon, Marines set up camps for detainees and residents who might flee any fighting. Before dawn, several Marine positions were hit by mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Bursts of automatic gunfire could be heard throughout the city.

[Getsmart64]

"This wouldn't be a problem is those worthless Turks had of let us invade "


That hurt us bad.....and the Turks know it.....have they started kissing our butts yet or are they waiting for the outcome of Iraq...gonna be funny when we support the Kurds and they get their own soverign nation......screw the Turks!!!

[The KG9 Kid]

Semper Fi, Marines.

[tort_feasor]

Excellent point. I think a lot of people misundertand Somalia. Less than 200 Rangers inflicted 5000 casualties with no armor and no effective air support. The Marines are going to kick a$$ and not even bother to take names.

[in the Arena]

Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt: "It will be at a time and a place of our choosing. It will be methodical, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming."

Prayers up...this won't be easy...MOUT's a MFr on both ends...

[church16]

And you're damn right about the litening II, wait til you see the AT version. The ER we've got is frighteningly good TV image. AT is even better, and the IR stuff is superb too.... Oh it sucks to be a dumba** terrorist these days. If only we can defeat the defeatist press, we will win!

[scarface367]

I think the Iraqi terrorists are about to find out the hard way that you don't mess with the Marines.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Thanks! THIS time I'll bookmark it.

[TrueBeliever9]

Prayer ping for our troops!

[Getsmart64]

"Entire Mrine divisions replaced the 101st and 82nd Airborne"


Correct me if I'm wrong....but it isn't "marine division(s)...but a marine division...as in singular...I wish there were more than one division in the area....

[bonfire]

Wouldn't you think one of the major stations would wake up SOMEBODY UP??

[Travis McGee]

OH MAN, HOW do you doom and gloom types ever get thru any day? Given how EVERYTHING is always a disaster waiting to happen for you guys, I am surprised you even get out of bed!

Spoken like a true chairborne ranger, ready to fight to the last Marine in Iraq from the safety of your Lazyboy recliner, watching it all on TV.

Of course I want payback, but on OUR terms, and not on THEIR terms. What they WANT is a "Jenin Massacre" TV spectacular, right between the hospital and the mosque. Tanks driving over children. That's what they WANT. We should play to OUR strength, not theirs, and take a page from the IDF playbook, and use missiles from helos and Predators to take out the targeted individuals. But now it looks like we're going to send the bull into the china shop instead. Well, we can only wish the Marines the best of luck.

[dobberkcd]

Robin Moore wrote a book on the Afghan campaign detailing that less than 100 special forces did that set sucessfully(plus air power)...wonderous but these people are primitives...mash them like roaches...

[lavrenti]

Here, here. That oft-ignored fact was one of many reasons I kept my mouth shut and didn't post a "nuke 'em" rant since this massacre.

2-5K Marines against a bunch of ill-trained yahoos with RPGs and AKs? Uh, no contest.

I am satisfied with this response and its timing. As for the Shia following that nutjob cleric. They're next.

[america-rules]

U.S. Marine Cpl. Jeffrey Burgess, 20, of Plymouth, Mass., appears in this recent undated family photo. Burgess died Thursday, March 25, 2004, due to enemy action near Fallujah, Iraq

[Travis McGee]

Urban warfare is a different ballgame entirely. Apples and oranges.

[MNJohnnie]

Would that it was so easy. Each "slice" will be full of innocent civilians, hardworking Iraqis. And as the Marines "pacify" each grid and move on, they'll get shot in the back from the area full of "innocent civilians" they just pacified. And when we return fire, you just know we'll be hitting the Iraqi Crippled Children's Orphanage, and it's guaran-damn-teed every bleeding baby will be filmed on CNN.


OH MY! Yes, We are all doomed! It's hopeless! The Media is going to show our troops shooting Iraqi children. IT's hopeless!!!!

MAN, don't you doom and gloom types EVER get tried of spewing out this crap over and over and over? Frankly, I am sick of this constant negativity by uninformed amateur's being stated as if it were the Divine word of GOD. Frankly, why don't you doom and gloom crowd run back to Democrat Underground where this kind of Chicken Little hysteria is not only welcome but encouraged?

[McGavin999]

UMM.....If somethig is really happening, why is nothing on the wires or cable t.v.??

I would imagine the Marines have told them to stay away. Considering the "journalists" were the ones taking the pictures of the desicration, it really wouldn't be too wise of them to be anywhere there are Marines and guns.

[SendShaqtoIraq]

Make em strip as they come out or be shot.

[church16]

Yep, I'm sure it will be a "Fallujah Massacre" this time by the twits in the BBC and such. Amazing these people are related to the same bulldogs that single handedly stopped Hitler's unstoppable war machine in the Battle of Britain. Makes you wonder how a whole country (save Tony Blair and few die hards) can lose its collective spine in only three generations. Sigh..... I guess we're next, but I'm going out swinging goddammit.

[BushMeister]

The 1st Marine division is in the fallujah area:

2-21-2004 The Marine Corps yesterday released the list of units for the 25,000 Marines and sailors who are going to Iraq for a March-to-September deployment.

About 20,000 of them will come from the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton and the 3rd Marine Air Wing at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. Others are from Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Marine Forces Reserve, New Orleans.

Defense experts said that the force is notable for the number of infantry and engineers and that each will counted on to help quell what appears to be a broadening insurgency.

The Marines will relieve the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Anbar province in western Iraq