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"They were in continuous contact with the enemy until 5/1. "

“Continuous contact” is what occurs with the restrictive rules of engagement that they were under (for all but the first eight days).

I don’t doubt that the Fallujahn attack started out misguided and that some units were initially in the desperate conditions that you mentioned, although I suspect any chicken chasing was more a result of Marines acting out from their restrictions rather than starving. (All that's irrelevent to the single point that I'm making.) The idea that they were in such desperate conditions from their own doing for a month is ridiculous. After 8 days, they were not allowed to fight the way they were prepared.

The significance of that is profound. It’s the clearest example to date of forcing restrictions on people, who should be setting those restrictions, that “coincidentally” favor the short term goals of politicians here and in Iraq rather than the long term victory that Marines suffered and died for. They didn’t die for this. This is verging on betrayal.

You want to call driving that point home to people unwilling to recognize it “tossing crap”? Brilliant…

Okay, good post. I disagree with some of it but I won't label it a "gross fraud", "kind of crap", "parroting the RNC","step beyond",or"fantasy" as you did with my post. If you disagree, tell me why, civilly. Offer something to elevate discussion not discourage it.

Now, regarding your post: The Marines went into Falluja more unguided than misguided. Their packs didn't come up for three days and they had no MRE's with them at all for most of that, so they scrounged. I didn't say they were starving, there was a lot of rice, beans, and flour in the homes they occupied along with cooking gear, etc. These are some young, ballsy Marines and a chicken dinner made sense to them, maybe not to us.

It is a matter of record that they took casualties nearly every day of that month, remember, the "ceasefire" started on the 14th after 10 days of heavy fighting. There was continuous contact until 4/26 when Echo Company of the 2/1 Marines had a KIA and 12 more wounded in an all day battle, some ceasefire. That was the day they dropped a minaret and cratered a mosque. The Marines had all the firepower they needed by then, it was just plain hard fighting all the way.

By the way, in the month of fighting Echo company had 47 wounded out of 140 in the Company. And, Marines always fight the way they're prepared.

What's "brilliant" (your term to me) is your own obscure responses when you're pinned down, and your labeling as "irrelevent" a discussion you don't want to continue. Again, I ask you to make your point rationally, back it up, and don't trivialize someone else's point by turning a cheap phrase.