Americans will speak of battles like Fallujah with same awe and reverence as Guadalcanal & Iwo Jima

[bigtree]

November 10, 2006



Bush Attends Dedication of the National Museum of the Marine Corps

". . . like the Marines who have come before them, this new generation is adding its own chapters to the stories of liberty and peace. And years from now, when America looks out on a democratic Middle East growing in freedom and prosperity, Americans will speak of the battles like Fallujah with the same awe and reverence that we now give to Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061110-3.html



Iraqis will speak of battles like Fallujah . . . "



'Lifestyle' in Fallujah: fear, death

"Bush didn't give us democracy; he gave us more new ways to be killed," said al-Rawi, whose complaints were first overheard in a shop by a McClatchy reporter and repeated later in an interview. "I think there is no future anymore. I believe the only future is to leave this country."

"We can win the war, but for now al-Qaida has won in Fallujah," said a police officer who didn't want his name used for security reasons. "They made the police force stop patrolling streets, and that's a victory."

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/special_packages/iraq/15957305.htm



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[bluerum]

1. Don't think so kool-aid monkey. nt

[wake.up.america]

2. Good men died for nothing - if that's his idea of a glorious battle.

[bigtree]

22. good men did indeed 'die for nothing'

[Floogeldy]

3. I don't think so.

We don't have an enemy in Iraq.

}(

[mike_c]

4. good lord, has he no shame at all...?

People will speak of Fallujah along with Liddice, Mai Lai, and Nanking.

[bigtree]

5. Fallujah, the Guernica of Our Times

from opednews.com: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mac_mcki_061010_fallujah_2c_the_guerni.htm


According to GlobalSecurity.org, on or around April 4, 2004, Operation Vigilant Resolve was launched, originally publicized as a combined US Marine-Iraqi National Guard operation, but the recently created Iraqi units had little stomach for combat. Most, if not all, deserted, some declaring that they did not sign up to fight fellow Iraqis. So this became, essentially, a Marine Corps operation, combining infantry and armored divisions, artillery, and Marine and Navy air support. The Marines had at their disposal Navy F/A-18 Hornet carrier-based Fighter-Bombers equipped with 20-mm cannon for strafing and 500-pound GBU-12 laser guided bombs, as well as lethal AC-130 "Spectre" gunships, F-15 Fighters and Cobra Attack Helicopters.
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/oif-vigilant-resolve.htm)

The huge AC-130 gunship is fitted with a battery of Gatling guns and cannons capable of saturating an entire football field with heavy fire in mere seconds, and incorporates an ultra high-tech fire control and night vision system second to none in the world. An earlier model was first employed in the Vietnam War with devastating effect and was nicknamed, with blackest humor, "Puff, the Magic Dragon", the title of a popular children's song by Peter, Paul and Mary.

On the ground, the Marines sealed off and cordoned Fallujah into four quadrants and began to cautiously enter the city, their stated intention, in particular, to arrest the perpetrators of the Blackwater slayings and other attacks, if that was even remotely feasible, and in general, to engage and neutralize active enemies of American forces and the Coalition-created Iraqi government.

As the Marines slowly plodded ahead, explosions and gunfire could be heard on Monday, April 5, as skirmishes between the Marines and random Fallujan gunmen began to break out. Monday's attacks could well be considered probing actions by both sides. On Tuesday, things began to intensify dramatically as the Marines drove toward the center of the city, drawing increasingly heavy hostile fire. The Marines soon realized that they were facing an enemy experienced in Russian-style defense-in-depth tactics, most likely led by army veterans from the Iran-Iraq war. The Marines' advance now morphed into a fierce battle against guerrillas holed up in a residential neighborhood and laying down fire that included mortars and RPGs (Rocker Propelled Grenades), a firefight that lasted for hours, causing exasperated commanders to call in an AC-130 "Spectre" that duly sprayed Iraqi positions with a hailstorm of bullets. How many insurgents or hapless residents were caught in this deadly fusillade is not really known, but the fact that the command was even willing to deploy the AC-130 over a residential neighborhood would serve as a grim omen for the city.

Casualties were now beginning to mount on all sides, including among non-combatants. The hospitals in Fallujah were starting to see a steady stream of the wounded and dying. As night fell, the Marines pulled back from their forward-most positions and called in air strikes, American warplanes, according to a Fox News report, firing rockets that destroyed four houses, with a doctor claiming, the report continues, that 26 men, women and children were slain in this attack, another 30 wounded. Throughout the night in various parts of the city, Marine squads weaved in and out of buildings, engaging guerrillas sporadically and trying to stake out posts, while the heavy whirl of rotary blades could be heard overhead as Marine helicopters circled, hovered or darted about above the rooftops, laying down intermittent fire against perceived enemy positions.


more: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mac_mcki_061010_fallujah_2c_the_guerni.htm

[Radio_Lady]

7. For those who may not be familiar with Picasso's "Guernica" showing scenes of war...

[damntexdem]

6. Well, Americans in future may someday speak of Fallujah ...

with the exact same awe and reverence that the Japanese now give Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.

[uppityperson]

11. This is the truth. Thank you.

[KharmaTrain]

8. Fallujah = Khe Sahn & Iadrang Valley

When historians write the definitive words on this ugly war for profit, Fallujah will be the Waterloo for the American military...the point where our military might came up the determined resistance of the Iraqi people and it lost. It knocked a lot of tarnish off the invisibility of the American military and emboldened the opposition...as well as demoralizing our own troops.

[benddem]

9. Perhaps he didn't learn

while he was getting his degree in History that we won that war.

[Vorta]

10. Most Americans can't name two battle in Korea or Vietnam

and azzwad thinks Fallujah will be remembered fifty years from now?

Quick, who can name a battle in Bosnia? They just don't make battles like they used to.



This is amusing. Spellcheck (which isn't the brightest spellcheck on the planet) wanted to change Fallujah to Tallulah.

[Redstone]

12. I kinda fucking doubt it. They'll talk about it like they talk about Chosin Reservoir,

and Khe San and Hue during Tet, and Quang Tri City, and (I bet you don't remember this one, but I do) An Loc, where so many died for nothing.

For nothing.

Redstone

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

17. Truer words were never spoken Redstone.

Bush was and always will be a chickenhawk...

As I watched that performance of his tonight on the NBC Nightly News I said to Mr. Wonderful, "he doesn't the have right to even speak at this dedication. He has no conception of what being a Marine is or was."

It disgusted me to see him talking about Jason Dunham from that small town in NY who will be awarded CMOH posthumously who would have turned 25 today. If I was that young man's mother I would stood up and spit at Bush.

God I despise him, his family and everything they stand for. :puke:

[kath]

20. Hey, wait a minute!! They died for Halliburton and Big Oil. That's a glorious cause,

isn't it?

[eridani]

13. If we leave, then Al Qaeda will have the only foreign force there--

--and all the (quite justified, in view of recent events) local xenophobia will be turned on them. I think that would be a very good thing.

[bigtree]

27. that 'al-Qaeda' force is a band of Iraqi resisters who've taken on the moniker of the terrorists

there may be some outside individuals there, but, it's a sham for Bush to equate that 'al-Qaeda group in Iraq with the ones our government says orchestrated the 9-11 attacks that he's cut and run from in Afghanistan.

[eridani]

34. I thought that the propaganda announcement was Al Qaeda

The native resistance most likely doesn't give a rat's posterior about inflicting harm on us here in our own country--they just want us out of theirs.

[bigtree]

36. yep. the Afghanistan bunch wants to keep the fight going in Iraq

while they stir up resentment wherever they can. They benefit from the muckraking from the Iraqis who call themselves al-Qaeda because it give Bush a reason to stay. They play him every way they can and our soldiers are left in the middle.

[jgraz]

14. Really? Didn't realize we'd use White Phosphorus on children in Iwo Jima

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/08/1516227

[Phredicles]

15. Americans will speak of Iraq with the same incredulity and disgust as

Little Bighorn and the torching of the White House in 1814.

[TheBaldyMan]

16. So Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima were revenge attacks for 4 murdered contractors ?

Bush is such a fuckwit.

[Jacobin]

23. Little Hollow Man

Empty Suit.

Irrelevant.

Relegated to the Dustbin of History.

Iraq most catastrophic bumble in American Foreign Policy History.

Everyone knows it, but him

[madrchsod]

18. i was wondering if he would fuck up during this speech

and he did...his speech writer is even more clueless than him

[bigtree]

31. he couldn't resist the political prop for his shamful occupation

[muntrv]

19. Newhour's Jim Lehrer gave the best speech. He WAS a marine.

[Uncle Joe]

37. I agree, Jim Lehrer rocked the house. n/t

[bigtree]

21. kick

:kick:

[Generic Other]

24. They will speak of Bush like they do of Nuremberg!

Idiot boil.

[IndianaGreen]

25. Bush is as delusional as his followers

and using this solemn occasion as a platform for neocon propaganda was tasteless at best.

[in_cog_ni_to]

26. *sigh* I can't take his ignorance much longer.

PLEASE, would someone Impeach the psycho before I lose my mind?:(

[donsu]

28. yes, that was one of the cruel things he said in the speech

smack his mouth

[bigtree]

29. cram his mouth shut

by stuffing his own words down his throat until he stops saying such vile nonsense.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

30. Good lord, he couldn't even leave his shitbag politics out of this dedication.

[mmonk]

32. Some might without impeachment. History is easiest to

rewrite when matters aren't addressed in any real or lasting manner.

[TexasLawyer]

33. Bravely

ordering other people's children into his pointless war of choice.

[WinkyDink]

35. STILL deluded! STILL pushing his rejected "policy" and lies!

STILL trying to equate himself to Churchill, FDR, and Truman! OMG!!

Shut this NUT UP, Harry, Nancy, and Patrick!!