[rlmorel]

I just finished reading an excellent book..."No True Glory", it is about the battle for Fallujah, the whole process both political and military that led up to it, and the great, sad and humorous stories of our Marines in the city.

In one scene, the Marines asked for flamethrowers and were turned down by the generals in charge. You can imagine, with the hubub from shooting an injured insurgent, what would have happened if there had been pictures of the insurgents being burned alive by Marines with flamethrowers.

There was a story about a bunch of Marines who had one of their favorite buddies killed by a bunch of insurgents holed up in a house. The Marines tried for a while to attack them with no success, then someone noticed there was a big fuel tank with cooking or heating oil on the roof.

They fired a round into it, let it all drain down into the house, then threw in a flare to ignite it. As I recall, the author said "The Marines smoked cigarettes and listened impassively to the screams from the insurgents within..."

I'll bet it was impassive. I wouldn't want to have to fight those Marines after I killed one of their buddies.

[ma bell]

Yep, don't piss off a fricking P.O'd Marine. I nearly got relieved from my position as Patrol Leader (I'm Army now and former Marine) for telling my rear gunner that if a vehicle closes in on any of our vehicles without stopping to "open up". The OIC said the gunners all have to go through the "4 S's" first. It was unbelievable!

The iraqies are POS that aren't worthy of our support.

Let it be known the troops nearly to a man say we shouldn't be here, but you talk to them and they say we should be here . Yes, we are pissed the Dems one, minus a Squid attached to my unit, but he is ok as he is a sharp troop (even for an officer ))

[ma bell]

forgot to mention that day we had 5 SVBIEDS and more threats in the immediate area looking for TOO's.