U.S. Marines Reflect On Past Battles For Fallujah

U.S. Marine patrol in the Iraqi western war-torn city of Fallujah. Picture released via Reuters on Nov. 27, 2004.

Margaret Warner, PBS: Marines say new fight for Fallujah sparks anguish over Iraq war

Watching TV images of Iraqi forces advancing on the ISIS-controlled city of Fallujah and U.S. airstrikes raining down from the sky is a bitter pill to swallow for many veterans of the Iraq war.

In 2004, some 125 American troops, mostly Marines, lost their lives in two brutal U.S. offensives to clear the city of Sunni insurgents. They were the bloodiest engagements of the entire eight-year Iraq war. Now a much smaller number of U.S. forces are back for what promises to be another ugly battle.

“When ISIS took over Fallujah two years ago, there was an existential debate among us: Had our fight been in vain?” said Elliot Ackerman, a novelist and writer who led a Marine platoon in the second 2004 battle in November and December. He said today’s fighting has reignited the same anguish Marines felt when ISIS hoisted its black flag over Fallujah’s city hall in January 2014.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The sad part of this story is that in the next few months the city of Fallujah will probably be completely razed and destroyed as the Iraqi army and Shiite militias move in to rout the Islamic State. That in the end .... there will be nothing left to rebuild a city that once housed 300,000 people.