Posted on 11/10/2004 4:07:27 AM PST by Dog
Earlier in the week the terrorist were solicting journalists, etc. to embedded with them in order to get their story out.
It appears that they had some takers.
I just came back from our local Wal Mart. There was a large binder where we can write personal messages to our soldiers.
I wrote a page for our family and tomorrow will go again to write a page for freepers.
We owe them everything we have.
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - The rapid U.S. push into Fallujah has come without the sort of fateful showdown that would break the back of the insurgency. In fact, advance U.S. and Iraqi government warnings gave the militants plenty of time to get out of town, and it appears many did just that.
Military reports say small bands of guerrillas, with no more than 15 members each, fled the city in the weeks before the U.S.-led onslaught — which was widely telegraphed by public statements and news reports.
"That's probably why we've been able to move as fast as we have," one officer in the Army's 1st Cavalry Division said Wednesday.
Insurgencies typically succeed by avoiding face-to-face battles with stronger military forces and by staging attacks where armies are weakest. The guerrillas who fled Fallujah may simply be repositioning themselves to fight elsewhere, said the officer, who agreed to discuss the Fallujah situation only if not quoted by name. Under embed rules, military officers have the option of refusing to be identified in news reports for security reasons.
The development may mean the world's most powerful army is chasing a smaller band of insurgents than previously thought. Before the assault, the 1st Cavalry estimated 1,200 guerrillas were holed up in Fallujah, with as many as 2,000 more in nearby towns and villages. It was unclear how many were left inside or had been killed.
U.S. military leaders, including Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski, commander of the Fallujah operation, and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi gave plenty of warnings that the assault was imminent, in part to encourage civilians to leave. Authorities also didn't hide the movement of U.S. reinforcements from elsewhere in Iraq to take up positions around the city.
"We gave them so much fair warning that the only ones who stayed had a death wish," the 1st Cavalry officer said.
There were unconfirmed reports that two top insurgent leaders, Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi and Omar Hadid, had been killed. But the officer said prominent insurgent leaders and fighters were thought to have fled the city, leaving behind defenders willing to fight to the death with a force of 15,000 American soldiers and Marines and Iraqi troops.
There was no word on the whereabouts of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida-linked extremist believed behind a wave of car bombings and beheadings of foreigners across Iraq and thought to be using Fallujah as a base. Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, commander of the multinational force in Iraq, said Tuesday he believed al-Zarqawi had left the city.
U.S. commanders built up a big attacking force to prevent a repeat of April's failed siege of Fallujah by 2,000 Marines, when insurgents were able to leave the city to mount attacks on U.S. bases outside the city and also resupply themselves with manpower and weapons.
This time, planners brought in the 1st Cavalry's 2nd Brigade, which blocked bridges and choked off routes into and out of the city seeking to trap fighters inside, but only a few days before the offensive began Monday.
There is little conclusive evidence that guerrillas who fled Fallujah are behind a surge in attacks on U.S. forces and supply convoys elsewhere, the 1st Cavalry officer said. Islamist Web sites have been full of calls on militants across Iraq to attack U.S. facilities in retaliation for the assault on a city that had become the symbol of Iraqi resistance.
U.S. troops have advanced relentlessly from Fallujah's north side, fighting through two of the three rings of insurgent defenses. The fighters, mainly local Sunni Muslims with a few foreigners among them, were reported bottled up in Fallujah's sparse southern neighborhoods Wednesday.
It isn't clear how many foreign fighters were among the insurgents in Fallujah. Before the attack, U.S. military officials estimated foreigners comprised about 20 percent of a militant force in the low thousands, while Iraqi government officials insisted the percentage was much higher.
Fallujah's defenses have crumbled faster than U.S. analysts expected, with resistance lighter than expected. Intelligence indicated fighters' defenses in disarray, and command networks broken down, with bands of three to five guerrillas fighting for self-preservation rather than as part of a larger, coordinated force.
Some militants have surrendered. At a prison camp at the main U.S. base outside Fallujah, troops dropped off more than a dozen men and boys, appearing to range in age from around 12 to around 50. Most were wearing traditional Arab dishdasha robes, including the black robes the U.S. military says is characteristic of the insurgents.
A video grab image shows U.S. soldiers firing through a window from inside a building during fighting in Falluja in iraq, November 10, 2004. The military said U.S. and Iraqi forces had 'fought their way through half of the city, including the Jolan District, suspected of being the epicentre of insurgent activity.' It said those forces had met light resistance from 'small pockets of fighters' on their way through the city. REUTERS/Pool
Cowards to the strong, tyrants to the weak.
There were unconfirmed reports that two top insurgent leaders, Sheik Abdullah al-Janabi and Omar Hadid, had been killed.
I think there will be some HVT killed or captured in Fallujah, not to mention a treasure trove of Intel.
Re #64 -
Rush mentioned this image today - he said the Soldier had "war paint" on, but to me that facial discoloration looks more like "eccymosis" or bruising, as if something recently blew up in his face. The pattern of bruising is more consistant, IMHO, with concussion than with impact trauma.
I think that whatever happened, he's darn lucky to still have eyes!
And even though I havn't smoked a cigarette in over 25 years (still fire up a pipe on occasion) I think I'd be glad for one after what this young Warrior just went through!
This, alas, is how Veterans are made. And no amount of training, however realistic, can substitute for "seeing the Elephant" of actual combat.
A lot of them will have that "Thousand Meter stare" when they come home - but these are the Soldiers and Marines that a Field Commander will want to take into Battle if they can.
For they have been tested, and tempered like steel in the hellfire of War.
Thanks, Peach. That is appreciated.
By Lisa Scheller, News Editor
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
U.S. Army officer Capt. Jay Harty never expected to be greeted by a celebrity at a Dallas airport.
In September, when Harty was on his way from Iraq, where he is stationed, to Tonganoxie to see his wife, Krista, and their 2-year-old son, Noah, he welcomed a chance to clean up and change uniforms in the Dallas Airport.
When leaving the restroom, he recognized writer/actor Ben Stein approaching him.
"He said, ‘Captain Harty,'" Harty recalled.
The two visited for a few moments, and then Stein asked if he could buy lunch for Harty and a couple other soldiers who were nearby. The other soldiers couldn't stay because they had flights to catch, but Harty, who had a two-hour wait, accepted the invitation.
"As we walked down the airport toward the food court, numerous people stopped us and asked for his photograph," Harty recalled in an e-mailed letter to The Mirror. "And what has stuck in my head to this day is this: A man who stopped and asked for a photograph said to Ben, ‘You are my hero.'
"And he (Ben Stein) quickly said to the individual, ‘I am not the hero -- this soldier is the hero.' At that moment I felt that all we were doing in Iraq was all worthwhile."
During lunch, Stein asked Harty about what he did on a daily basis in Iraq, what his background was, what his family was like.
Stein was curious about the "good news stories" from Iraq that don't make their way into news stories.
"So I added him to our ‘unclassified' newsletter that we put out monthly," Harty said.
The visit with Stein was the start of a great trip home, Harty said, adding: "That is because I was with my wife and son for 15 wonderful days and I wasn't in Iraq."
Harty has been in the Army for 10 years -- an officer for four years and an enlisted soldier for six years.
He was deployed to Iraq on Feb. 6, and is stationed north of Tikrit.
"I am back and my battery is recharged and ready to finish this deployment," Harty wrote after returning to Iraq. "And hopefully I'll be home soon after the new year."
I bet their slaughthouse victims cried less than the terorists will, when a Marine executes Gods judgement on them.
Re your #77:
" Can you imagine the idiot terrorist seeing *this thing* coming right at him ?"
Better make that last "Allahu-Achbar!!" a quickie, Achmedd!
I loved the story..I am always amazed at how grateful for good words our military is..
We see those good words for our armed forces a lot here..I wish they all knew they are our heroes.
bttt
Kill them all. Kill every man. General Stonewall Jackson
I heard a report that there were no/few blockading forces on the south side of the perimeter because "the terrain was inpenetrable"
Any comments?
A
SAMURAI!
Clashes break out in center of Ramadi in Sunni Triangle west of Fallujah
LAST UPDATE: 11/10/2004 2:14:55 PM
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Explosions shook the center of the Sunni Triangle city of Ramadi on Wednesday and U.S. troops clashed with insurgents, residents said.
Witnesses said they saw a U.S. Humvee on fire. Some of the clashes, which were continuing at sunset, erupted near the local administration building. Smoke was seen rising from a street in the center of the city.
http://www.woai.com/news/world/story.aspx?content_id=D2992375-4E9A-4807-A6D8-7FB5500EF495
Check out my post 87! Who would have thought in 1940 that the Japanese would be fighting on OUR side 64 years later?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.