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Marines in Fallujah trade 'culturally sensitive' training for bullets
AP | 4/15/04 | LOURDES NAVARRO

Posted on 04/15/2004 12:45:08 AM PDT by kattracks

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- On a rooftop overlooking Fallujah's industrial wasteland, Lance Cpl. Tom Browne pokes his machine gun muzzle out of a hole in a barrier wall, singing to himself to pass the time.

In the street below, the corpse of an insurgent suspect lies baking in the sun. Browne, from Boston, says he has killed several rebels, probably Iraqis, so far.

"I don't even think about those people as people," he says.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

The band of Marines in this insurgent stronghold received two big orders this year. They were told to return to Iraq to stabilize the Sunni areas west of Baghdad, Iraq's toughest patch of territory. The normally clean-shaven Marines were also told to grow mustaches in an attempt to win over Iraqis who see facial hair as a sign of maturity.

"We did it basically to show the Iraqi people that we respect their culture," said Lance Cpl. Cristopher Boulwave, 22, from Desoto Texas.

But after the brutal killing of four American contractors in Fallujah on March 31, they tossed aside such pretenses. First to go were the mustaches.

"When you go to fight, it's time to shoot -- not to make friends with people," said Sgt. Cameron Lefter, 34, from Seattle.

In the fight for Fallujah -- which has killed more than 600 Iraqis, according to city doctors, and around a dozen Marines

-- the Marines now seem to be following the second half of their famous motto: "no better friend, no worse enemy."

The Marines say it's easier to cope with the daily work of killing inside Fallujah, where a seemingly unending supply of rebels continues to fight, if they don't think about the suspected Iraqi rebels they are targeting as people who, under different circumstances, they might have been trying to help.

"If someone came and did this to our neighborhood I'd be pissed too," said Capt. Don Maraska, of Moscow, Idaho, a 37-year-old who guides airstrikes on enemy targets in the town. "I've never had people look at me the ways these people look at me. I don't know what came before, but at this point, what else can we possibly do but fight?"

The Marines were hoping to lull Fallujah and al-Anbar province into a state of well-being by passing out $540 million in rebuilding funds, and showing off a more educated attitude about Arab sensitivities than they believed their U.S. Army predecessors displayed.

Before returning to Iraq, the Marines took a crash course in cultural training that included a video teleconference with an Arabic studies professor and the distribution of a culture handbook with tips warning against showing the soles of their feet or eating with their left hands.

Around three dozen Marines from one unit took a three week intensive language course in Arabic. And of course, they grew mustaches.

"We grew them for the Iraqi people. We shaved them off for us," Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, who originally ordered his men to sport the facial hair, said.

These days, the Marines are speaking a more familiar language.

"We didn't initiate this," said 1st Marine Regiment Commander Col. John Toolen. "I came in here with more money than bullets. Now I'm running out of bullets but the money is still in my pocket."

The Marines are frustrated with the negotiations to halt the firing in Fallujah. Many say they want to finish the battle, take control of the rebel city by brute force -- whatever it takes -- rather than wait for Iraqi negotiators to thrash out a deal to stop the fighting.

"We're the guys that go in and put out foot in the door," said Maraska, a veteran of the first Gulf War and Somalia. "We'll do any mission. But we're better at pushing and fighting."

Behind the front line, Marines are trying to supply the holed-up locals that they encounter with food and water, one of the few areas their cultural training is put into use.

But Cpl. David Silvers, based in a front-line building nicknamed "the tower," says his experience with Iraqis has been limited to dodging bullets from a persistent and shadowy gunman he dubbed "Bob the sniper."

"He's the guy who wakes us up every morning and fires at us all day. He hasn't got anyone yet but he's come close a few times," Silvers said.

Even though the Marines have given Bob his name, they say they still want to kill him.

"This is the closest relationship I have with an Iraqi right now," Silvers said.



TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: fallujah; iraq; marines; vigilantresolve
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To: kattracks
"I came in here with more money than bullets. Now I'm running out of bullets but the money is still in my pocket."

"I came here to kick ass and chew gum...and I'm all out of gum!"

21 posted on 04/15/2004 7:48:38 AM PDT by Redleg Duke (Stir the pot...don't let anything settle to the bottom where the lawyers can feed off of it!)
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To: kattracks
What an incredibly bigoted article. Would the Associated Press have run a story during WW II about abandoned efforts to "get along" with the Japanese or Germans?

What part of "We are at war" does the AP not understand?

Apparently, the AP doesn't understand what war is. For the benefit of apparently ignorant reporters and editors at the AP, "War consists of killing the enemy until those who survive decide to stop fighting." For sure it is bloody, destructive and expensive. But it is not hard to comprehend.

Congressman Billybob

Click here, then click the blue CFR button, to join the anti-CFR effort (or visit the "Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob" thread). Please do it now.

22 posted on 04/15/2004 8:20:51 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob (www.ArmorforCongress.com Visit. Join. Help. Please.)
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To: kellynla
Well, that's the version my USMC Tanker friend told me. I was USAF and ANG
23 posted on 04/15/2004 8:29:40 AM PDT by E.Allen
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To: USMARINE6
Correction. There is a morality in war among civilized warriors (i.e. spare women and children when possible). There is no morality among muslim scum!
24 posted on 04/15/2004 11:59:29 AM PDT by ChinaThreat
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To: EQAndyBuzz
how can they reinforce if there is a cordon?
we now hear that they are using supply convoys to bring in ammo.

No, the delay is more harmful than helpful.
Remember, the civilians are harmed more the longer it lasts.

Best would be to take 10,000 men and storm the town in a single night. Take every block, every street. Go through 10,000 homes. Kill or capture every Jihadist.

One night. 1001 Arabian deaths.

That would make a story wouldnt it???
25 posted on 04/15/2004 3:59:10 PM PDT by WOSG (http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com - I salute our brave fallen.)
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To: ChinaThreat
Correction. There is a morality in war among civilized warriors (i.e. spare women and children when possible)>>>>>>The vanquished do not judge the victorious. War is War. No words truly define its repulsive terrible horror, anger, fear, degradation and humiliation it produces. It is as indescribable as the taste of water yet just as all who have tasted water know its taste so do those who have tasted war. When in a life & death struggle the moments of morality are a luxury. Even the civilized want to stay alive. Not many of those that was to invade Japan argued against dropping the A-Bomb on Hiroshima. Morality is something we consider in a sane world. After the insanity of war we can consider it again...those of us alive.
I'm paraphrasing the following from something I remember ("Let the enemy know that when he wages war against mine that he has made his mother, father, sister, brother, wife and children my enemy also. There is no burden I will not bear, no hardship I will not endure to crush those that do war against mine.")
Peace comes when the enemy has no longer the means to wage war. In the recent past this required the destruction of their homeland but it did produce a lasting peace and an end to perverted ideologies. Just my view friend.
26 posted on 04/15/2004 4:40:15 PM PDT by USMARINE6 (www.usafreedomforum.com)
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To: kattracks
These so-called "negotiations" and "cease fires" are just being used to weaken us. The rag heads know they can't win militarily if the Marines are allowed to perform their mission. Thus, the rag heads create sham "negotiations" to try to prevail.

We should simply use all appropriate force, without concern for collateral damage, to finish the job and make an example of Falluja. Remember, one of the big reasons we won the peace in Germany and Japan was that we devastated each country and utterly cowed its inhabitatns before the war ended. General Sherman did the same thing to end the Civil War. We need to do it here.
27 posted on 04/15/2004 5:54:22 PM PDT by libstripper
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To: WOSG
Ooh. Like that thinking. Can you do this without Stormin Norman?
28 posted on 04/16/2004 4:06:34 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (60 Senate seats changes America. Who is your Senator?)
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To: JeeperFreeper
I profoundly disagree.

Fallujah has become the place for the terrorists to congregate if they wish to kill Americans. I strongly suspect that this battle has been delayed to allow as many insurgents as possible into Fallujah so as to close the trap. This is the battle of Stalingrad, all right, but the insurgents are playing the role of Germany's Sixth Army. They're being suckered into a huge trap. Now that Al-Sadr is out of the way, we can put Fallujah to bed.

A lot of valuable terrorists are going to die. Trust me on this.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

29 posted on 04/16/2004 4:15:16 AM PDT by section9 (Major Motoko Kusanagi says, "John Kerry: all John F., no Kennedy..." Click on my pic!)
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To: section9
I think you are correct in your assesments....have a little patience folks.
30 posted on 04/16/2004 4:18:27 AM PDT by rrrod (ok let's play cowboys and muslims)
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