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.

[Triple Word Score]

I thought an old friend was in Baghdad. Sleeping in Saddam's palace, as a matter of fact...hearing bombs, living in what his wife told me was the green zone, which I guess is a phrase to make family back home think their breadwinner is relatively safe....

Turns out he's back safe (hooray!) and got his vasectomy reversed the week after he got back--trying to get his wife pregnant again. They're trying for the fourth, hoping for a girl. Just found out all of this! He's back to normal life. Doing Boy Scout stuff with his three sons. Ordaining his youngest a deacon. Mowing the yard. Isn't that a great thing? I thought he was still there in Baghdad...

I'm happy for him but he left a lot of friends behind. Maybe some of them died this week. I may not know anyone there anymore but no matter. My prayers for them are STILL personal. It's my sleeping butt they're protecting. It's my children whose world is being shaped by their courage and fidelity.

[lavrenti]

Then I guess he just signed his death warrant.

No way he should remain alive.

[Happy2BMe]

Thank you for your faithfulness in remembering our soldiers in harm's way in your prayers.

[BurbankKarl]

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/05/iraq.main/

[church16]

Do you have the link to WP????

[McGavin999]

Travis, look at my number 359 IMPORTANT DATA

[sheik yerbouty]

Must be gerbil stuffing day..

[McGavin999]

Washington Post Article

[Terp]

Not a single cable news channel is covering it, yet.

That's because it hasn't started yet. The Subject line of this thread is a bit misleading.

Instead of reading "Marines Encircle Fallouja (Operation Valiant Resolve commencing)".

In my opinion it should have been "Marines Encircle Fallouja (Operation Valiant Resolve commencing???)".

The LA Times article only mentions preperations for the operation.

[Travis McGee]

Yes, the Marines have been training for urban fighting ("MOUT") but it is well understood that it will involve high casualties. Ranges are so short, and IEDs can be concealed everywhere....

Getting back to Jenin: the IDF understood that IEDs would be hidden all over the place, so they used bulldozers extensively to clear paths, right through homes in many cases. This worked as a tactic, causing the IEDs to come unwired, or blow up harmlessly agains the blade.

But it came at a price: it made that one section of Jenin look like a rubble pile. Those were the pictures of Jenin the world saw.

When the IDF did send troops into alleys and homes, they took very hard casualties as entire squads were sometimes blown up. How can you find every IED, when they can be hidden anywhere? From grenade-sized, to multiple anti-tank mines stacked one on the other?

I don't expect we'll use the big dozers to clear safe paths, it looks too bad on TV. Instead we'll send squads of Marines.... I wish them only success.

But I really wish they were just kept on cordon and sniper duty, while the heavy work was done from the air... missiles they can't see, and can't defend against. Downloaded IDF style, to limit collateral damage. Like it or not, the "media front" is critical, since it can affect the American will to continue the war, or lead to disaffection, low home-front morale, and possibly a (shudder) Kerry victory.

[McGavin999]

Here, in case you aren't registered:

Immediately after the Kufa firefight, Sadr representatives arrived to consult with officials from the Badr Organization, the militia of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and a delegation from the Dawa party, the two most prominent Shiite parties represented on the U.S.-appointed Governing Council. But armed men from Fallujah and Baqubah -- centers of resistance in the Sunni heartland west and north of Baghdad -- also appeared at the mosque, offering their support.

[Woahhs]

Doesn't look like the bottom of the hour news is going near this. They led off with an Arafat story.

[John Lenin]

I thought I read that there were mortar attacks already happening in an earlier post.

[BurbankKarl]

Now you know why the Arab Summit was scuttled...!




>>>>Just read a very disturbing article in the WP. Apparently Sadar just had a meeting with a bunch of other clerics. At the meeting were some Sunnis from Falluja.
We may be about to fight the real Iraqi War.

[drjoe]

"Let us win your hearts and minds, or we'll burn your village down" ;0)

or more precisely:

"Let us win your hearts and minds, or we'll burn down your god-damned hut" ;0)

[Travis McGee]

I personally have no problem with the VC execution shot. But naked girls burning with napalm, or limbless faceless Iraqi kids.... those pictures must be avoided. They affect the course of the war via the home front morale.

[Getsmart64]

Oh jeez....wish I could buy you a clue...but that would cost millions in which I cannot afford....I have been in harms way...and will again...sooner or later....once as a member of the active duty....and the next, as a civilian working for the military.......you Sir...just sit back and enjoy your freedom..while others pay the ultimate price...but when the time comes.....I will let you die than have you live as a coward...

[archy]

2000 troops ain't much in a hostile city of 500,000, where the bad guys will use women and children as shields.

One shot, one IED, and that's all the excuse they need to cut loose. If the Marines back away from their usual *We can do it all ourselves, our way, we're Marines* attitude, and there are a couple of good reasons for them to consider a change from that SOP in this instance, it could be an example of the best possible world in Marine professionalism overcoming Marine image. We shall see.

[McGavin999]

I hope we're loading up those fighters about now.