I have posted in this thread my opinion that we don't know how bad this surprise was to our forces. We should have an idea about that in 48 hours or so, when the results of today's attacks come in.
I know it's wrong to day "12 Marines were killed! Our intel blew it!" War always offers the possibility for setbacks and suprises.
My fear over the last few days was that the Marines engaging Fallujah would be hit in the rear. Maybe our brass had similar concerns, and discounted the possibility of a wider uprising.
I think you (and others) are behaving like scared chickens. You listen to the media, and expect the worst. It is as though you have no faith in our Marines at all. The word 'SURPRISE' has been thrown around like so much BS, it makes me ill.
There is no evidence of surprise at all, except from the media. NONE. Zip, zero, nada.
What I am being told is that the Marines have gone in, logged coordinates of the bad guys, took some fire, and have now cleared the area because Spectre is coming in tonight to make swiss cheese out of the places where we now KNOW the bad guys to be hiding.
If we kill 10 for one of ours, I call that a good day. Disorder is a living insurgent. Order is a dead one. If you really think that Iran, Syria or anyone else wants to give us reason to bring the fight to them, you are mistaken.
This is a punk who wants attention. Don't play along with the media looking for something to help the Democrats. You should know better than that by now.