Iraq Sets Election Despite New Violence

[thedrifter]

Iraq Sets Election Despite New Violence
Associated Press
November 22, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi authorities set Jan. 30 as the date for the nation's first election since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and pledged that voting would take place throughout the country despite rising violence and calls by Sunni clerics for a boycott.

Farid Ayar, spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said voting would push ahead even in areas still wracked by violence - including Fallujah, Mosul and other parts of the volatile Sunni Triangle.

The vote for the 275-member National Assembly is seen as a major step toward building democracy after years of Saddam's tyranny.

But the violence, which has escalated this month with the U.S.-led offensive against Fallujah, has raised fears voting will be nearly impossible in insurgency-torn regions - or that Sunni Arabs, angry at the U.S.-Iraqi crackdown, will reject the election.

If either takes place, it could undermine the vote's legitimacy.

Ayar insisted that "no Iraqi province will be excluded because the law considers Iraq as one constituency, and therefore it is not legal to exclude any province."

To bolster Iraq's democracy, 19 creditor nations - including the United States, Japan, Russia and many in Europe - agreed Sunday to write off 80 percent of the $38.9 billion that Iraq owes them. U.S. and Iraqi troops have been clearing the last of the resistance from Fallujah, the main rebel bastion stormed Nov. 8 in hopes of breaking the back of the insurgency before the election.


Secretary of State Colin Powell said he believed the battle of Fallujah did "serious damage" to the insurgency, adding that "it remains to be seen how severe it was" and whether the guerrillas will be able "to regenerate."

In Fallujah, Marine Maj. Jim West said Sunday that U.S. troops have found nearly 20 "atrocity sites" where insurgents imprisoned, tortured and murdered hostages. West said troops found rooms containing knives and black hoods, "many of them blood-covered."

Marines from the 1st Marine Division shot and killed an insurgent Sunday who opened fire after pretending to be dead. The U.S. military is investigating a Nov. 13 incident in which an NBC videotape showed a Marine shooting a wounded man lying in a Fallujah mosque. Marines could be heard yelling that the man was pretending to be dead.

The storming of Fallujah has heightened tensions throughout Sunni Arab areas, triggering clashes in Mosul, Beiji, Samarra, Ramadi and elsewhere.

In Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, insurgents ambushed an Iraqi National Guard patrol, killing eight guardsmen and injuring 18 others, police said.

U.S. forces conducted a raid to capture a "high-value target" associated with Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Haqlaniyah, 135 miles northwest of the capital, a U.S. spokesman said Sunday. Six people were detained, although the military did not say whether the target was among them.

Witnesses said U.S. troops raided a Sunni mosque in Haqlaniyah, arresting cleric Douraid Fakhry and detaining dozens of residents in nearby homes. The U.S. military denied that a mosque was raided.

South of Baghdad, a convoy of Iraqi National Guard and police in Latifiyah were attacked by insurgents armed with guns, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs, the U.S. military said. There were several Iraqi casualties.

To the north, American soldiers in Mosul discovered two more bodies, including that of an Iraqi Army soldier, near a site where the bodies of nine Iraqi soldiers were found a day earlier, said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings with Task Force Olympia.

The nine, all shot in the head execution-style, were identified as soldiers based at al-Kisik, 30 miles west of Mosul. Four decapitated bodies, still unidentified, were found in Mosul Thursday.

In an Internet statement posted Sunday, al-Zarqawi's terror group, Al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed it killed 17 Iraqi National Guardsmen from al-Kisik. The claim could not be independently verified. Hastings said he had no report of missing Iraqi guardsmen.

Four large explosions shook the area near Baghdad's U.S.-guarded Green Zone - a frequent target of insurgent mortars and rockets - after sundown Sunday. There was no word on any damage or casualties.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's office announced that his cousin, Ghazi Allawi, 75, has been released by his kidnappers, nearly two weeks after being abducted along with his wife and pregnant daughter-in-law. The prime minister's office had no other details.

The two women were released Nov. 15. Their kidnappers, who identified themselves as the militant group Ansar al-Jihad, threatened to behead them unless all Iraqi detainees were released and the siege of Fallujah halted.

The clerical leadership of the country's Shiite community, believed to comprise about 60 percent of Iraq's nearly 26 million people, has been clamoring for an election since the April 2003 collapse of the Saddam regime, and voting is expected to go smoothly in northern areas ruled by the Kurds, the most pro-American group.

However, Sunni Arabs, estimated at about 20 percent of the population, fear domination by the Shiites. Sunni clerics have called for a boycott of the vote because of the Fallujah attack.

But Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it was important that elections be held as promised.

"If they are delayed, it would be a sign that the chaos, terror, can succeed in destroying whatever chance we have for democracy in Iraq," he said.

The government has launched a campaign against some hardline Sunni clerics accused of fueling the insurgency or allowing weapons to be hidden in their mosques. On Friday, Iraqi and U.S. forces raided Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque - one of the country's most important Sunni mosques.

During the January election, Iraqis will choose a National Assembly to draft a new constitution. If the constitution is ratified, another election will be held in December 2005.

Voters in January also will select 18 provincial councils and in Kurdish-ruled areas a regional assembly. Iraqis living in at least 14 foreign countries also can vote for the National Assembly.

A stable, legitimate government could enable the United States to begin drawing down its 138,000-strong military presence and gradually hand over security responsibility to Iraqi forces.

"Having elections in Iraq are very important, and having them on time is also so important for the Iraqi people to have more security in Iraq," said Salama al-Khafaji, a Shiite member of the interim Iraqi National Council, a government advisory body.

Ayar, the election commission spokesman, said 122 political parties were registered for the elections. The commission has asked the United Nations to send international monitors, and 35 experts already have arrived.

Also, one of Iraq's leading Shiite Muslim politicians said he was convinced Saddam Hussein would be executed if an Iraqi court heard his case.

"Absolutely Saddam will be executed," Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, told Al-Arabiya television. "He cannot be given amnesty because of all the crimes he has committed."

No trial date has been set for Saddam, who was captured near Tikrit in December.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The soldiers' story: the war the video cameras do not see <br />
By News Article <br />
Nov 21, 2004, 14:37 <br />
<br />
<br />
The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit has moved on from Fallujah to a bloody and largely unreported...

[thedrifter]

At Mahmudiya, where the 2nd Battalion are based, the marines are very much in the front line of the current operation. There are daily and, at times, fierce clashes with insurgents. The commanding officer, Lt Col Mark Smith, had just returned from an all-night operation and still had his camouflage "war paint" on. The raid, on a farm, followed information that Zarqawi was hiding there. They did not find him, but, he said, they caught two senior members of the insurgency.

"We have had lots of engagements and we have killed lots," he said. "With Fallujah over, the action has moved here. The people we are killing are Zarqawi's, and, let me tell you, I don't mind killing beheaders at all. Hell, if Zarqawi wants to have a knife fight with me, one to one, I'd be happy to oblige."

Conversations over dinner of chicken and mashed potatoes moved on to politics. The debate was whether there would ever be peace in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East as long as the Palestine dispute remains unsolved. One officer storms off, saying: "It seems to me that Israel can do whatever it wants and then come up with some bull**** excuse, and then the rest of us have to pick up the pieces elsewhere." Another officer shrugged: "We are the marines, not the army, so we encourage debate. But it's best not to do it over dinner, you only get indigestion."

A raid took place on Mahmudiya in a hunt for targeted suspects, arms and distribution centres for insurgent literature. Nine men were arrested, and guns and ammunition, including a Dragonov sniper's rifle, taken from two shops which had allegedly been supplying militant factions.

Large crowds gathered as roads were sealed off, the mood unhappy but resigned. There were only two interpreters, and they were both busy in another location. One of the officers shook his head in exasperation "I can't talk to these people. That is the biggest problem, we can't communicate." He asked me whether I could go and buy some pastries for him and his men from a bakery. Wouldn't it be better if he came along as well and actually met the people in the shop, I asked. In an ideal world, he said, but it is considered just too dangerous here.

In the shop people said they had no idea what the Americans were after, the reason for the disruption of their lives. "They do not really talk to us," said the shopkeeper. "I did not even know they liked our food."

He refused to take money for the pastries. The marines were getting increasingly apprehensive. The longer we stayed on the streets, the more the chance of getting hit by mortars and car bombers. There was sporadic gunfire in the background, but no one was quite sure who was firing at whom.

"I keep on thinking in these situations that if I am going to die, I want to savour these last moments, what I see, what I feel," said a young marine. "And right now, I feel I don't really understand these people, and they don't really understand us."
21 November 2004 14:38

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Milblogs: dispatches from the front <br />
<br />
Every day, we witness the war in Iraq through television. We hear of car bombs, booby--trapped schools and dead marines. The picture painted by the mainstream...

[thedrifter]

Marines shoot insurgent who was 'playing dead'
The US military says marines in Fallujah have shot and killed an insurgent who engaged them as he was faking being dead, a week after footage of a marine killing an apparently unarmed and wounded Iraqi caused a stir in the region.

"Marines from the 1st Marine Division shot and killed an insurgent who while faking dead opened fire on the marines who were conducting a security and clearing patrol through the streets," a military statement said.

The point-blank shooting on November 13 of a wounded Iraqi was caught on tape and beamed around the world.

It raised questions about the degree of military restraint and fanned Arab resentment.

The marine was withdrawn from combat and an investigation launched.

Military sources had said that the rules of engagement were looser during the operation launched in Fallujah, for fear that rebels would be disguised, fake death or wear suicide explosives belts.

The US military and Iraqi government troops are still carrying house-to-house searches in the rebel bastion but two weeks after it was launched, the largest post-Saddam military operation in Iraq is all but over.

According to US military figures, more than 1,200 insurgents have been killed in the intense fighting, as well as 51 US troops and eight Iraqi personnel


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Fallujah attacks expose new risks

WHITE FLAG: Some insurgents have feigned surrender to lure marines into danger.
SCOTT PETERSON/GETTY IMAGES



Fallujah attacks expose new risks

Marines face threats from fake surrenders even as they shift to rebuilding and handing out aid to civilians.

By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

FALLUJAH, IRAQ – The white flag may be an international symbol of surrender, but in Fallujah it has become another tool of guerrilla war.
US marines on a foot patrol this weekend paid little attention to a man walking along the road and holding a white flag - a common sight as the conflict dies down and civilians pop up to scavenge for food and water.


But this time, US officers say, as the marines came by, the man dipped into an alley, returned with an AK-47 assault rifle, and sprayed the marines with bullets. Two Americans died, and others were wounded.

In a separate incident, marines were lured into an well-coordinated ambush by men with white flags who appeared to signal that they needed help. When marines got close, gunmen began firing from buildings high above.

The attacks expose the new risks in Fallujah as US forces begin shifting in coming days from combat search-and-destroy missions against insurgents, to fighting an enemy that can easily blend into an increasing number of civilians.

"I've been telling my marines: We are entering the most dangerous period now - even more dangerous than the breach [into Fallujah] itself," says Capt. Jer Garcia, commander of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 3rd Marines. "It's too easy to think, 'We're not getting shot at all the time,' and take off flak jackets and [helmets]. Then, 'Wham!' "

So far, the gates of the city have yet to reopen to those who fled before the US assault. Even now, civilians are only permitted onto the streets from 8 a.m. to noon, and then only to collect food and water at distribution points or to take part in a nascent jobs program.

Some 300 men visited the Hadra Mohamadiya Mosque Sunday to get supplies - the largest number in a week. During the 20-hour-a-day curfew - an effort to prevent insurgents from coordinating with each other to mount attacks - anyone on the street is arrested.

Now US forces are viewing white flags with far more suspicion. "We're going to see these bogus surrender tactics. We're going to see more IEDs (improvised explosive devices). We've found many suicide vests, but I'm sure we have not found them all," says Lt. Col. Michael Ramos, commander of the 1-3 Marines, who control northeast Fallujah.

"They want a spectacular media event - they want a high number of civilian Iraqi or US military deaths," says Lt. Col. Ramos. "We're trying to deny them that opportunity."

The presence of civilians will "absolutely" change tactics, Ramos says. "There is a sense of urgency now to do as much as possible, and to do this right."

Indeed the hope is that progress in rebuilding Fallujah will lessen support for insurgents and help boost the standing of the interim Iraqi government, which announced Sunday that national elections would be held Jan. 30, 2005. The US has committed about $90 million to rebuilding Fallujah, and the interim Iraqi government has pledged $50 million toward the effort, according to military officials.

But over the weekend, insurgents in Baghdad and elsewhere in the Sunni Triangle stepped up bloody attacks. To the north, in Mosul, where the city was tense after a spike in violence a week ago, nine Iraqi soldiers were shot execution-style on Saturday. Sunday, US forces found two more bodies, one of an Iraqi soldier.

In Fallujah, commanders say that, so far, their tactics appear to be having some effect. The number of gun battles and mortar attacks has dropped in recent days, and over the weekend, troops here uncovered more weapons.

Marines found an IED factory over the weekend, laid out like an assembly line. Mortar and artillery bombs were lined up, then treated with solvent and their detonators taken out. Explosives could then be scooped out with scales to weigh the replacement blast.

Also included were what US officers said appeared to be materials for producing homemade napalm - a recipe that could have been drawn from the "Terrorist Cookbook," a favored text for Al Qaeda affiliates like the networks in Fallujah.

But the recent surge of violence across Iraq raises questions about the vitality of the guerrillas. Some houses used by the insurgents here have been smashed by airstrikes, and Sunday the trenches and spider holes dug for rebel defense remained empty.

But aggressive US searches - which have left some houses on fire as marines used grenades and even rockets to clear them, thus avoiding US casualties from hidden machine gunners - are yielding fewer guerrillas. As of today, marines will use mostly nonlethal means of breaching and clearing rooms and houses.

"It is still possible that the current wave of attacks is a 'one shot' effort that will burn out many insurgent resources," writes Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, in a recent analysis.

"It is still unclear how many of those killed and detained in Fallujah were really hard-core cadres, and how many were recruited and trained only to stay and fight," he adds. "If most cadres left or escaped, and Fallujah and the other fighting acts as a major recruiting base, the military impact of Fallujah and tactical victories elsewhere could be limited."

Even in Fallujah, flushing out insurgents is no easy task, despite overwhelming US firepower. The Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) company launched two concerted attacks over the weekend, clearing blocks of suspect houses in conjunction with other units across the city.

Some weapons and a few people were found. In one case, four gunmen engaged a marine fire team and then escaped, marines believe. Another gunman popped his head over a rooftop twice and was engaged by marines.

The building was marked with smoke and rifle fire, and a Maverick rocket fired from a jet fighter crashed into the house. But a delay in approval for the air strike meant that, when the team returned to the site, the gunman had vanished.

Still, every raid and attack yield more weapons caches and intelligence about how this insurgency gripped Fallujah.

While US tactics will become more limited when civilians return, some aspects of the conflict may improve.

"The white flag is a big incident, a big security risk," says a US intelligence officer. "The risk will multiply [when civilians return], but so will the gains. That's when we can talk to people, and they can identify [insurgents]."

"It's going to be hard to get people to come forward, to cooperate," he adds. "But they will, because people do not want foreign fighters, and also they don't want Americans here. They are going to choose the strongest side - whoever has the power at the time, is who they are going to side with."




Ellie

[thedrifter]

Terrorist Training Stepped Up
Evansville Courier & Press
November 22, 2004

WEST POINT, N.Y. - As their plane passed over New York City, some of the 100 paratroopers from Fort Bragg, N.C., peered out at the site of the World Trade Center attack three years ago that began a new era of American warfare. Later, in the twilight along the Hudson River, the same members of the 82nd Airborne Division's quick-reaction force fanned out over the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy.

Some spent the night at traffic checkpoints. Others patrolled the campus. One sniper team huddled in the freezing weather under a camouflage drape. Their mission: to thwart a terrorist plan to kill West Point cadets with a bomb.

The scenario was fictitious, but the training very real for soldiers in the war on terrorism who are increasingly preparing for attacks at home.

About 80 percent of the soldiers in this unit have seen recent action in Iraq. But homeland security concerns mean a unit like this could be sent anywhere in the United States to help deal with a domestic emergency.

"An enemy within the states would be a whole new experience," said Spc. John Tharp, 20, of Michigan City, Ind., a veteran of a year's duty in Iraq.


The 82nd's core mission is rapid response - the ability to load a battalion of paratroopers onto airplanes for any destination within 18 hours of getting orders.

But the division's last combat jump that originated from Fort Bragg was in 1989 in Panama. In recent years, in Afghanistan and Iraq, 82nd soldiers have performed smaller jumps. Historically, all deployments have taken place outside of the continental United States (CONUS in military jargon).

"After 9-11, we have to be prepared to go get these bad guys," said Capt. Adam Barlow, 27, of West Jefferson, commander of Charley Company that went to New York. "It's a new thing for me. It's pretty new for most of the guys."

The 82nd's quick-reaction force is one of an undisclosed number created after Sept. 11 to respond to missions designated by the military's Northern Command, which covers the 48 contiguous states. The military won't disclose how many bases have quick-reaction forces.

"You're probably always going to need somebody to react quickly, no matter where it is, in a foreign country or the United States," said Sgt. Brian Cunning, 23, an infantry team leader from Chicago.

University of North Carolina history professor Richard Kohn said detailed planning for defense at home and abroad is only prudent.

"The one thing history truly teaches is that we are likely to be surprised by the future," said Kohn, who specializes in peace, war and defense. "This the more flexibility and capability we possess, the more likely we are to meet the challenge successfully."

When the paratroopers got their orders to go to West Point, they donned Kevlar helmets and body armor and strapped bayonets to their chests. Some wore neck gaiters pulled over their ears for warmth in the pre-dawn chill.

"This sends a message," said Lt. Col. Tom Hiebert, the soldiers' battalion commander, said in a brief speech to soldiers before leaving North Carolina. "If a group anywhere has in mind going anywhere in America to inflict harm, we are going to stop you."

On the C-130s, the soldiers crowded shoulder to shoulder in red nylon sling seats, holding their weapons and battle packs in their laps. If one man coughed, everyone on his side of the plane felt it.

Arriving in New York, there was downtime that would not exist in a real deployment, while commanders ironed out details of the exercise. Soldiers trooped into a hangar for a bathroom and smoke breaks and to buy snacks before the trip to West Point. On the bus, they sang rock songs and at West Point they lunched in a barracks on plastic pouches of Meals-Ready-to-Eat.

But when it was time to go to work, the soldiers turned serious.

First Lt. Patrick Walker, 24 and leader of the 38-man 3rd Platoon, said his soldiers look forward to exercises like this because they get to train in the real world.

But Walker said he would be disappointed personally if the focus of soldiering changed to domestic security, which he thought the National Guard could handle well.

"Hopefully, we can eliminate these threats before they get within our border," he said. "That's the focus of our training."

On Interstate 95 near Fort Bragg, a billboard showing paratroopers training reminds travelers that the soldiers are committed to protecting them at any time.

"Sleep well tonight," it reads. "The 82nd Airborne, America's strategic response force, is on point."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Baskets bound for Iraq
November 22,2004
KELLY CANER
DAILY NEWS STAFF

by kelley caner


When Linda Johnson wanted to send a birthday present to her son stationed in Iraq, she skipped the department stores and turned to a neighbor.

"Everything I sent was something he needed and could use," said Johnson, whose son, Larry, Jr., is stationed at Kirkuk Air Force Base with Air Force Security Forces. "He really enjoyed it."

Johnson bought the care package from Deborah Hall, manager of Finders Keepers, a thrift store located on New Bridge Street.

Hall began making the personalized gift baskets about three years ago and has since transformed her hobby into a small business, which she operates out of her home and the thrift store. Today, her baskets have become a popular choice for families sending gifts to loved ones stationed overseas.

However, Hall enjoys making them for any occasion.

"I've made birthday baskets, bereavement baskets, Easter baskets," said Hall. "Anything the customers want, I can put together."

Each basket consists of the common necessities - deodorant, Chap Stick, Q-tips, razors - as well as trademark Americana: crossword puzzles, chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter crackers.

Hall also learns a little bit about each recipient before making the basket. For example, some of her kids' birthday baskets are made up like their favorite cartoon characters. She added a crossword puzzle book in Johnson's basket to help him pass time in the desert.

The idea of making personalized gift baskets came about one Easter season when Hall noticed some items in the store weren't being sold.

"I saw all those baskets and all those bunnies and decided to start making Easter baskets," said Hall. "It just took off from there."

While Easter is Hall's busiest season (one year she sold 150 Easter baskets in two weeks), she has also noticed a growing need for her specialty year round - especially around Christmas time.

"She's had tons of people tell her she should open her own business," said her husband, Dennis, who helps deliver the baskets. "She really needs to."

Iraq baskets, as Hall calls them, are a way for family members to send troops the basics as well as some keepsakes and reminders of home. So far this year, 15 have been sold.

"They are what I call 'flat baskets' because they are packed flat and are stuffed with goodies," said Hall. "That way, they don't cost the customer much money to ship."

For the Iraq baskets, Hall attaches Teddy bears instead of traditional bows. Troops and soldiers deployed in the desert can keep these in their pants' pockets as a good luck charm, Hall said.

"(Johnson's) basket had a red, white and blue bear on it that sang the national anthem when you pressed his belly," Hall said. "It was the sweetest thing."

Hall said she has 20 Christmas baskets on order so far this year, but a recent elbow injury has left her unable to start on them until her cast comes off Dec. 14.

"They'll take a little longer to do," said Hall, "but I'm gonna start working on them as soon as I can get this thing off my arm."


Contact Kelley Caner at kcaner@jdnews.com or at 353-1171, Ext. 237.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines prepared for urban warfare
November 22,2004
ERIC STEINKOPFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF

For the past two weeks, America has followed reports of Marines fighting Iraqi insurgents block by block in the city of Fallujah.

The U.S. forces, most from the West Coast but many from Camp Lejeune, have pounded the pockets of opposition using city-fighting capabilities developed over the past decade or more, said retired Maj. Gen. Ray Smith, a former Camp Lejeune commander who lives in Jacksonville and is widely recognized as an expert on urban warfare.

Smith said he knows what the Marine forces are going through in Fallujah. He survived urban combat in Hue, Vietnam, during the Tet Offensive in 1968. It was a time when the military had little formal training in block-to-block combat.

"The number one difference between fighting in the city and the countryside is how dramatic the change is from safety behind a building to exposure in front of a building," Smith said. "You can feel completely safe but you step around the corner and you're in danger. One wrong step and you're out in the open in front of your enemy. In natural terrain you go into (danger) gradually. A lot has changed since Hue City."

Smith received two Silver Stars, one for that operation and another for coming to the rescue of another unit the same year. He also was given a Bronze Star for action near Con Thien and a Navy Cross as one of 28 survivors out of 450 stationed at a South Vietnamese fire base during the war.

Smith said the ability to fight with greater success in Fallujah stems from changes made in Marine Corps policy by former commandant Gen. Charles Krulak in the 1990s. Krulak identified that missions for Marines would change rapidly in a relatively small period of time and space.

"The Marine Corps - when General Krulak became commandant - made a big push on the fact that 80 percent of the world's population lives in cities close to the coast," Smith said. "Krulak developed an operational concept of the three-block war."

Smith, who worked in 2002 as a military consultant in the California desert before Operation Iraq Freedom started in 2003, said that Marine expeditionary units are now trained to provide relief, keep the peace or fire upon an enemy - all within an area of just a few city blocks.

"That has prepared the young Marines to expect to find this kind of fight," Smith said. "That is a huge contrast to Hue City - we weren't prepared for it."

Smith was able to watch some of the 2003 combat while traveling in Iraq with Bing West. Smith and West, a Vietnam veteran and former assistant secretary of defense, co-authored a book about their Iraq experience entitled, "The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division." They compared the house-to-house fighting in Hue to the fall of Baghdad.

But Baghdad fell so quickly that it was tough to make a comparison. Fallujah might be a better example, Smith said.

Smith said some of the most notable changes in urban fighting are in the technology. American forces can see around corners, over buildings and sometimes right through walls.

In addition to the manned or unmanned aircraft and satellites that look down upon the city from high altitudes, there have been advances in smaller remotely piloted model-size airplanes, ground robots and optics.

"Dragon Eye is the battalion-level version of an (unmanned aerial vehicle)," Smith said. "It's essentially a four-foot model airplane with cameras to look over buildings and into the next courtyard. They've also used unmanned ground vehicles to look around corners or trip booby traps.

"They've been working on efforts at seeing through walls with body heat and X-ray capabilities," Smith said. "Another significant part is the night vision capability of U.S. forces allowing them to be affective at night. That is a huge step forward."

Smith said many of these air and ground "drones" have the ability to use different types of sensors to detect enemy troops moving into or out of unseen positions.

"None of it alone seems like all that much, but if you take them together it's significant," Smith said. "It's gotten some bad press, but our intelligence is still way better than it used to be."

Smith said today's troops use a "firm base" concept developed by the British in Northern Ireland to launch assaults targeting key positions such as command areas, supplies or communications.

"You go for things that are important to the enemy - the key nodes first - you take out their cohesiveness," Smith said. "They're obviously doing that - swarm tactics thrusting from firm bases."

Smith said modern-day Marines compare favorably with those of previous generations. The urban capability, however, gives them an edge when it comes to dealing with modern situations.

"I've got nothing bad to say about those I served with in Vietnam," Smith said. "But these guys are mighty good today too. They have better preparation, support and equipment."

Contact Eric Steinkopff at esteinkopff@jdnews.com or 353-1171, Ext. 236.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted on Mon, Nov. 22, 2004





Lejeune Marine killed in Iraq

Associated Press


CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - A North Carolina-based Marine was killed last week in Iraq, the Department of Defense said.

Lance Cpl. Dimitrios Gavriel, 29, of New York, was killed Friday in Anbar province.

Gavriel was assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

As of Saturday, Nov. 20, 2004, at least 1,221 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 946 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said as of Friday. The figures include three military civilians.

The AP count is four higher than the Defense Department's tally, which was last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,083 U.S. military members have died, according to AP's count. That includes at least 837 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine gave all to serve
Former NYC analyst killed in Fallujah blast at age 29, just one year after enlisting to honor his sense of duty

BY DARYL KHAN
STAFF WRITER

November 22, 2004

When the United States Marine Corps refused to accept Dimitri Gavriel's request to join the war effort in 2003, he penned a letter pleading with the New York recruiting office to reconsider.

"He told them, 'I know I'm a little bruised, I'm a little older than the other guys. But I can do anything they can do,'" Gavriel's sister, Christina Gavriel, 27, recounted yesterday, from her parents' home in Haverhill, Mass.

At the time, Gavriel was 28 and was between jobs. But despite his age, and a torn ligament in each knee from a life spent as a wrestler, Gavriel wanted to be a Marine.

He eventually got his wish and was sent to boot camp in October 2003. Gavriel signed on to a four-year commitment with the Marines and hoped to return to New York City afterward.

On Friday, Lance Cpl. Gavriel, of the First Battalion Base Marines, died, the only casualty of an explosion in Fallujah, where American troops were waging warfare with insurgents. He was 29.

"Who enlists in the Marines in the middle of a war?" Christina asked. "I'm half hating him and half happy that he went out the way he probably wanted to."

The Marine's emotionally depleted mother, Penelope Gavriel, 55, said her son would be missed. "He was a great man," she said. "He was a person that everyone loved."

Gavriel did not have to join the Marines. An equity analyst who had lost his job, he had been offered a job in finance the day before heading to boot camp. His sister had offered to let him stay at her Manhattan apartment rent-free if he would stay in the city. His friends had steadily lobbied the Brown University graduate and wrestling champion to stay.

But he turned down the job, declined his sister's invitation and ignored his friends' pleas to remain Stateside.

"I work at Walgreens. I count pills all day," Christina Gavriel said. "But for him, that would have been a slow death. He wanted his life to live up to his standards. The military was the only thing that could meet his standards. It was the biggest challenge he could do."

Gavriel's decision to leave a comfortable life did not surprise those who knew him. As a 13-year-old he had a subscription to Soldier of Fortune. He enjoyed paintball battles and archery.

"He had a military fanaticism," his sister said. "We thought it was something that he got over ... but to him it was something more than that. It was coursing through his blood."

"He just felt it was his duty," said his best friend, Matt McClelland, 30. "He told me, 'If I don't do this now, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life.' After 9/11 he looked at the banking job and he thought there is so much more important things he could have been doing." Gavriel had lost four close friends in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Gavriel did not share his war stories with his family. In an attempt to assuage his parents' fears, Gavriel first told them that he was assigned to security at the Olympics, then that he was working in "intelligence."

His sister discovered the truth when she did a Google search for her brother's name and found him quoted in a newspaper story about the preparations for the invasion of Fallujah.

Almost 32 years ago to the day that Christina Gavriel lost her brother in Iraq, her mother lost a brother in a shooting accident while he was enlisted in the Greek Army. Out of respect for her dead brother, the mother named her first-born son Dimitri after him.

"It was just like history repeating itself," Christina Gavriel said. "It's like a cruel joke."
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Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

It Doesn't End With Fallouja
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Op-Ed
The Los Angeles Times
Nov. 22, 2004

A Marine general commented last week after his men ousted nearly all Iraqi guerrillas from Fallouja that the two weeks of fighting had "broken the back of the insurgency." If only it were that simple.

Marines did a good job of purging enemies from the city, but as the general spoke, flames and smoke rose in other Sunni Triangle cities in the north and west; foreigners and Iraqis were beheaded, shot or killed by suicide bombers; and political parties vowed to boycott national elections that the Bush administration has put forth as a harbinger of democracy in a nation where the concept is a stranger.

More than 50 U.S. soldiers were killed in the Fallouja fight, which began Nov. 8 in one of the cities where Sunni Muslims are the majority, and the U.S. death toll in Iraq has now passed 1,200. An estimated 1,200 insurgents were killed in Fallouja as well.

The difficulties of pacifying Iraq were obvious last week. Insurgents showed the depths to which they're capable of sinking when evidence surfaced that Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq, had been shot to death. And even as Marines tried to kill the last remnants of resistance in Fallouja, guerrillas stormed police stations in the northern city of Mosul, where more than 80% of police responded by abandoning their posts.

The U.S. goal is to get an Iraqi army and police force trained to provide the nation's security and let American troops come home; that objective remains elusive. Iraqi soldiers following Marines into battle in Fallouja did well, but their numbers are few.

Fallouja was thought to be the headquarters of militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi; if so, he left before the Marines arrived. Zarqawi's followers continue to try to terrorize Iraqis into opposing the U.S. occupation by beheading natives and foreigners alike. Zarqawi was born in Jordan, but Marines said most of the fighters in Fallouja appeared to be Iraqi. That could be a hopeful sign that although the Iraq misadventure has inflamed Islamic opinion against Washington, few foreign fighters have wanted or been able to enter the country. But it also may mean Iraqis are sufficiently angered by the invasion to be willing to fight and die in large numbers without outside help.

The brutality of battle was brought home in television footage of a Marine fatally shooting an Iraqi insurgent in a mosque. An inspection after the shooting indicated the insurgent was wounded and unarmed, and U.S. officials said they would investigate the incident. Soldiers faced with the possibility of booby-trapped corpses and suicide bombers trying to kill them are understandably on edge, but even if the shooting is found to be accidental, it will be used as anti-American propaganda, stacked next to the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison.

As the killing has spread, the political battle has suffered setbacks. Dozens of political groups, many with mostly Sunni members, announced plans to boycott January's elections, in part because of anger over Fallouja. A boycott would undercut the legitimacy of balloting; the interim Iraqi government should try to bring all politicians into the process. If that proves impossible, those elected will have to try to govern in a manner that makes all Iraqis feel they have a stake in the nation, regardless of religious beliefs.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine sacrifices his life for others in grenade blast
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Gordon Trowbridge
The Army Times

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Sgt. Rafael Peralta built a reputation as a man who always put his Marines' interests ahead of his own.

He showed that again, when he made the ultimate sacrifice of his life Tuesday, by shielding his fellow Marines from a grenade blast.

"It's stuff you hear about in boot camp, about World War II and Tarawa Marines who won the Medal of Honor," said Lance Cpl. Rob Rogers, 22, of Tallahassee, Fla., one of Peralta's platoon mates in 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.

Peralta, 25, as platoon scout, wasn't even assigned to the assault team that entered the insurgent safe house in northern Fallujah, Marines said. Despite an assignment that would have allowed him to avoid such dangerous duty, he regularly asked squad leaders if he could join their assault teams, they said.

One of the first Marines to enter the house, Peralta was wounded in the face by rifle fire from a room near the entry door, said Lance Cpl. Adam Morrison, 20, of Tacoma, who was in the house when Peralta was first wounded.

Moments later, an insurgent rolled a fragmentation grenade into the area where a wounded Peralta and the other Marines were seeking cover.

As Morrison and another Marine scrambled to escape the blast, pounding against a locked door, Peralta grabbed the grenade and cradled it into his body, Morrison said. While one Marine was badly wounded by shrapnel from the blast, the Marines said they believe more lives would have been lost if not for Peralta's selfless act.

"He saved half my fire team," said Cpl. Brannon Dyer, 27, of Blairsville, Ga.

The Marines said such a sacrifice would be perfectly in character for Peralta, a Mexico native who lived in San Diego and gained U.S. citizenship after joining the Marines.

"He'd stand up for his Marines to an insane point," Rogers said.

Rogers and others remembered Peralta as a squared-away Marine, so meticulous about uniform standards that he sent his camouflage uniform to be pressed while training in Kuwait before entering Iraq.

But mostly they remembered acts of selflessness: offering career advice, giving a buddy a ride home from the bar, teaching salsa dance steps in the barracks.

While Alpha Company was still gathering information, and a formal finding on Peralta's death is likely months away, not a single Marine in Alpha Company doubted the account of Peralta's act of sacrifice.

"I believe it," said Alpha's commander, Capt. Lee Johnson. "He was that kind of Marine."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Hampered by Security Fears in Falluja
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Nov 22, 2004 08:23 AM ET
By Michael Georgy

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines were conducting painstaking weapons searches in the Iraqi city of Falluja on Monday when they spotted a man with an AK-47 rifle on a nearby rooftop.

Armed only with a light weapon, he could never stand up to what they were about to unleash. But he was enough to distract Marines from a task that is key to stabilizing Falluja after a U.S.-led offensive crushed rebels controlling the Sunni Muslim city.

The angle of the rooftop could not quite accommodate the trajectory of a shoulder-launched Javelin missile so Marines fired the more direct, wire-guided TOW missile after a debate.

Then they fired hefty .50 caliber machinegun rounds at the rooftop, blew up a door and stormed a living room. It was an impressive display of firepower but they raided the wrong house.

When they finally made it to the pulverized rooftop with smoke still rising from the machinegun bullet holes, the man with one rifle they were seeking had escaped.

"One of the main challenges we are facing in conducting weapons searches is these lone snipers who randomly appear and delay our operations," said 1st Lieutenant Christopher Wilkins, 24, as he led a weapons hunt in central Falluja.

At that point, his platoon had only found a few sacks with AK-47s, some hand grenades, an artillery shell and, most notably, a pick-up truck mounted with surface-to-air missiles.

After pounding Falluja with air strikes, artillery fire and tank shells, Marines are now scrambling to find caches so that some 300,000 residents who fled before the assault can return.

They have been astounded by the quantity and variety of weapons, from Egyptian submachineguns to Russian and German models and flame-throwing rifles.

Hundreds of mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers and bomb-making equipment have been uncovered inside couches, behind hidden walls and even on top of the city water tower, Marine officers said.

Marine officers say they know tracking down all insurgents is impossible but they hope the weapons searches will lead them to houses that guerrillas could use in future.

Some insurgents are still keen to fight.

A few were caught swimming across the Euphrates river to get back into Falluja at a spot near the hospital, holding up their AK-47s above the water and floating on beach balls, Marine officers said.

"This could take weeks and even months to make Falluja safe for its people to return," said Lieutenant Colonel Larry Kling.

Marines, who expect to stay in Falluja until Iraqi forces can take over security, can't afford to push too hard or fast in the house to house searches because they are trying to gain the trust of residents.

Falluja's people might already have reason for anger. The offensive has reduced many parts of the city to rubble.

But Marines searched aggressively in a middle class neighborhood; behind paintings, in couches and even toy boxes.

"I tell my men not to be too aggressive so that people will not have more hatred when they come home," said Wilkins. "But the problem is these weapons are hidden in incredible places."

Marines search between 20 and 50 houses a day and 80 percent of them have weapons hidden inside. Some had time to joke despite the risky and sensitive challenge ahead.

Standing over a crater six meters (20 ft) across and six meters deep in a street created by what he said was a 2,000- pound bomb during the offensive, Staff Sargeant Jonathan Knarth, 29, of Florida, looked at down the deep water at the bottom.

"Hey look all you have to do is extend a slide from that rooftop to the water and you have an amusement park right here courtesy of the United States Air Force."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Victory in Fallujah
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jack Kelly
Sunday, November 21, 2004

The rule of thumb for the last century or so has been that for a guerrilla force to remain viable, it must inflict seven casualties on the forces of the government it is fighting for each casualty it sustains, says former Canadian army officer John Thompson, managing director of the Mackenzie Institute, a think tank that studies global conflicts.

By that measure, the resistance in Iraq has had a bad week. American and Iraqi government troops have killed at least 1,200 fighters in Fallujah, and captured 1,100 more. Those numbers will grow as mop-up operations continue.

These casualties were inflicted at a cost (so far) of 56 Coalition dead (51 Americans), and just over 300 wounded, of whom about a quarter have returned to duty.

"That kill ratio would be phenomenal in any [kind of] battle, but in an urban environment, it's revolutionary," said retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, perhaps America's most respected writer on military strategy. "The rule has been that [in urban combat] the attacking force would suffer between a quarter and a third of its strength in casualties."

The victory in Fallujah was also remarkable for its speed, Peters said. Speed was necessary, he said, "because you are fighting not just the terrorists, but a hostile global media."

Fallujah ranks up there with Iwo Jima, Inchon and Hue as one of the greatest triumphs of American arms, though you'd have a hard time discerning that from what you read in the newspapers.

The swift capture of Fallujah is taxing the imagination of Arab journalists and -- sadly -- our own. How does one portray a remarkable American victory as if it were of little consequence, or even a defeat? For CNN's Walter Rodgers, camped out in front the main U.S. military hospital in Germany, you do this by emphasizing American casualties.

For The New York Times and The Washington Post, you do this by emphasizing conflict elsewhere in Iraq.

But the news organs that liken temporary terrorist success in Mosul (the police stations they overran were recaptured the next day) with what happened to the terrorists in Fallujah is false equivalence of the worst kind. If I find a quarter in the street, it doesn't make up for having lost $1,000 in a poker game the night before.

The resistance has suffered a loss of more than 2,000 combatants, out of a total force estimated by U.S. Central Command at about 5,000 (other estimates are higher) as well as its only secure base in the country. But both the Arab media and ours emphasize that the attack on Fallujah has made a lot of Arabs mad. By this logic, once we've killed all the terrorists, they'll be invincible.

"The experience of human history has been the more people you kill, the weaker they get," Thompson noted.

For the Arab and European media, the old standby is to allege American atrocities. In this they have had invaluable assistance from Kevin Sites, a free lancer working for NBC, who filmed a Marine shooting a wounded Iraqi feigning death in a mosque his squad was clearing. Al Jazeera has been showing the footage around the clock.

The mutilated body of Margaret Hassan, the aid worker kidnapped in Baghdad last month, has been discovered in Fallujah, as have torture chambers. Residents of Fallujah have been describing a reign of terror by the insurgents. But it is the Marine's alleged "war crime" that is garnering the most attention.

The Marine did the right thing. The terrorist he shot was not a prisoner, was not attempting to surrender and was not a lawful combatant under the Geneva Convention. The squad had other rooms to clear, and couldn't afford to leave an enemy in their rear. The San Jose Mercury News described how Lance Cpl. Jeramy Ailes was shot to death by an Iraqi who was "playing possum."

"It's a safety issue pure and simple," explained former Navy SEAL Matthew Heidt. "After assaulting through a target, put a security round in everybody's head."

Journalists quick to judge the Marine are more forgiving when it comes to the terrorists. "They're not bad guys, especially, just people who disagree with us," said MSNBC's Chris Matthews.

And journalists wonder why we are less popular than used car salesmen.

Jack Kelly is national security writer for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio (jkelly@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1476).


Ellie

[thedrifter]

For Marine Base, Pain Is Unrelenting
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Tony Perry
LA Times Times Staff Writer
November 22, 2004

VISTA, Calif. - The talk at Carl's Tavern, a decades-old hangout for thirsty Marines near Camp Pendleton, was festive one evening recently. The topics were NASCAR and music - two types: country and western.

Then the conversation switched to something with no joy: the death toll among Marines in the battle for the Iraqi town of Fallouja. The lightness was gone and words came slowly and laden with emotion.

"It's been a tough week for all of us, a very tough week," said Staff Sgt. Terry Waters, who just returned from seven months in Iraq, his boisterous tone suddenly subdued.

"It hits you right in the gut," said Barb Meyer, who is married to a Marine gunnery sergeant. "My husband and I have cried a lot in recent days."

At least 32 Marines from the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force have been killed this month in Fallouja, Ramadi and other areas of the Sunni Triangle.

Since U.S. forces invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003, more than 190 Marines from Camp Pendleton-based units have died in that country.

Four troops from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego were killed. Also killed were four military personnel from other San Diego bases and 47 Marines from Twentynine Palms, Calif., where Marines have been sent to Iraq under command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Only Ft. Hood, Texas, home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, with 127 dead as of last week, comes closest to the death toll from Camp Pendleton.

In other parts of the country, the grief has been sporadic as notifications are made to the individual families of dead soldiers and Marines. But here, the pain has been unrelenting, like waves hitting a beach without end.

The shock is felt throughout the region, but hardest hit is Camp Pendleton, the epicenter, and the cities that surround it: Vista, Oceanside and Fallbrook.

"This is San Diego [County]. Everybody knows somebody who is in the military," said Billy McCay, a salesman for a hydraulics firm.

The defining historic and cultural feature of San Diego County is the presence of more active-duty and retired military personnel than any section of the country. The difference between this area and the rest of California is never greater than during times of war.

Every casualty is front-page news for the North County Times, the 95,000-circulation newspaper that serves this area and has twice sent a reporter-photographer team to Iraq to accompany Marines from Camp Pendleton into combat.

"The way I see it, this is North County going to war," said Publisher Dick High. "The United States may be at war in Iraq, but North County is doing the fighting."

The newspaper has started the Honor Campaign to raise funds to provide a $15,000 savings bond for each child of a Marine, sailor or other service member killed in Iraq who was either stationed at Camp Pendleton or has close family living in the area.

So far, the campaign has raised $975,000, helped by matching funds from the newspaper's former owner.

"The community responds instantly as soon as we say we need more money," High said. "I guess we're going to need some more after these latest casualties."

At Carl's, a tumbledown joint made famous by Clint Eastwood's 1986 movie "Heartbreak Ridge," newspaper obituaries for Marines killed in Iraq are pinned on a bulletin board in a place of honor next to the pool table. Patrons approach the board with a sense of respect.

"I read every obituary for every Marine," said Chip Stratmann, a retired Marine major who came to Carl's with several associates from the financial services firm where he now works. "I think we owe them the honor of knowing them as individuals."

Marine brass at Camp Pendleton guard the privacy of families living on base; access to the base by reporters is heavily restricted. The Marine Corps prefers that families do their grieving outside the gaze of the media.

Still, the sense of loss spills over into the surrounding community.

"Some days we're up and then other days we're down when we hear about more casualties," said Leah Rancourt, a preschool teacher. "It hits home even if you don't have someone there."

Even children are affected, mostly by the television coverage of combat, funerals and grieving relatives.

Rancourt said her 11-year-old daughter, Desiree, "is very aware of it. She gets very sad and doesn't know why."

The presence of Camp Pendleton also has made the area a focal point for protests against the U.S. military involvement in Iraq.

A recent protest rally was held at a seaside park in Carlsbad. For nearly two years, peace groups have placed crosses on the beach near the Oceanside pier to protest the death toll.

Shelli Hallidy, a psychotherapist and co-founder of the North County Coalition for Peace and Justice, is worried that the daily drumbeat about violent death has shaken the civilian and military communities alike.

"We're being continually traumatized," she said in a telephone interview from her office in Carlsbad. "We think people are getting numb and shutting down and losing their sense of outrage about so many young people dying senselessly."

Within two weeks, Hallidy's group plans to place more than 1,000 crosses on the beach in Oceanside and then engage off-duty Marines in conversation to help them avoid post-traumatic stress.

"These kids are broken-hearted," she said.

At Carl's, Fred Silver, an appliance store owner, agreed that a certain numbness from the death toll has set in. "It's not like it doesn't affect you," he said. "It's just that you can't let it affect you too much."

A memorial to fallen Marines and soldiers was erected quietly last week on a wire fence surrounding an abandoned gas station in downtown Oceanside.

Homemade dog tags bearing the names of the dead were tied to the fence by a couple who asked not to be named.

Businesses near Pacific Coast Highway and Mission Avenue - where laundries, comic book stores, equipment stores, fast-food joints and a multiplex theater cater to off-duty Marines - already have signs in their windows offering support.

Ted Gallegos, a barber offering $6 buzz cuts to Marines at a downtown shop, said he can always tell what's going on at Camp Pendleton by what his customers are talking about.

"I had a kid today - a lance corporal - who said he's been on funeral duty," Gallegos said. "He said he's been very busy."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Sniper in Iraq kills Marine from Phoenix

The Associated Press

PHOENIX - A Marine from Phoenix has died, nine days after being wounded by a sniper's bullet in Iraq.
Michael A. Downey, 21, died Friday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Marine officials said Downey, a lance corporal and combat engineer with the 3rd Marine Division, was wounded Nov. 10 during the U.S. offensive in Fallujah.

He was destroying captured insurgent weapons when he was shot by a sniper and the bullet passed through his spine.

Downey was airlifted to Maryland by way of Kuwait and Germany.

His parents and other family members and friends were at his bedside when he died.

"My son was the bravest, strongest person I've ever known," said Downey's mother, Lauren Eiler. "He loved being a Marine. He was proud of protecting our freedoms and way of life."

Downey is among at least 39 Arizona military members who have died during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Downey joined the Marines shortly after graduating from Phoenix's Thunderbird High School in May 2002.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Split-second decision in war shouldn't decide Marine's future

By JIM CHIAVELLI, Special to The Sun
We've all seen or read about a young Marine apparently shooting what appeared to be an unarmed, wounded Iraqi insurgent during the battle for Fallujah.
A lot of the shouting has been predictably partisan the Marine killed a "scumbag" and should get a medal, or he's a "war criminal" and ought to be hanged. But I think most Americans are pretty confused about what happened and what to do about it, as I am. And we recognize that rules about right and wrong aren't as simple during combat as they are during a game of Parcheesi in the parlor.

What I have is not so much an opinion as several opinions, and a pain in my chest for the Marine stuck in the middle of this dog's breakfast.

If a court determines that he broke the law, then obviously, he should be punished taking into account all mitigating circumstances. That's the American way.

It is grossly unfair that coalition troops are bound by the Law of Armed Conflict when the people they're fighting have no restrictions, nor any compunctions. When Marines apparently kill noncombatants, they're pulled out of combat, confined, and subject to prosecution and punishment. When Iraqi or foreign insurgents kidnap random civilians and execute them on videotape, there's no investigation, no trial, no punishment in fact, there are cheers in some quarters.

Still, if we act like bad guys, then we become bad guys, right? Or do we get a pass because, back home, we have ideals?

According to one estimate by a British medical journal, the Iraq War has been responsible for the deaths of 50,000 to 100,000 Iraqis, most of them noncombatants killed by bombing runs, economic sanctions, combat, lack of running water and sanitation. Why is it that, if you shoot one unarmed man, you're potentially a war criminal, but if you bomb a city and kill hundreds of unarmed women and children, you get a pass? Is it because we enforce laws only when alleged crimes are caught on videotape?

Or is it that, as General Sherman said, war is all hell and you cannot refine it? Once you let slip the dogs of war, it's hard to tell them when and where to bite, and with how many teeth. How about this: Shouldn't the person held responsible for any war crimes be the person who ordered up the war? Think of the criminal-justice concept of "felony murder" if you're committing a crime and someone gets killed, even if you didn't kill him, you're still guilty.

And even if you did commit a crime, can you really get out of it by blaming the person who told on you? Some of the Marine's more rabid supporters have turned on the freelance cameraman who filmed the incident the guy's getting death threats. By that logic, of course, we should never prosecute criminal suspects, only informants. (Hey, it wasn't Nixon's fault he ordered the Watergate break-in if it weren't for that damned Washington Post, this whole thing would've blown over.) Is that the society we want where it's unpopular to report possible crimes?

Ultimately, though, and tragically, this young Marine is probably damned whatever you and I may think about his actions.

War is, after all, an extension of politics, and U.S. troops are in Iraq to act in what was perceived by our elected leaders as our national interest.

If the national interest now, as determined by those same leaders and their military subordinates, dictates that we hang a Marine out to dry to win points with the Iraqi populace, or Muslims all over the world, then someone's already buying the clothespins. His fate more likely hinges on several old men's careful calculations in the Oval Office than on one young man's split-second decision in a bullet-ridden mosque.

Morally, I think, that's the real crime.


Jim Chiavelli is The Sun's former suburban editor and the former managing editor of The Sentinel & Enterprise in Fitchburg.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Officers See Need For Bigger Iraq Force


By Bradley Graham, Washington Post Staff Writer

BAGHDAD, Nov. 21 -- Senior U.S. military commanders in Iraq (news - web sites) say it is increasingly likely they will need a further increase in combat forces to put down remaining areas of resistance in the country.


Convinced that the recent battle for Fallujah has significantly weakened insurgent ranks, commanders here have devised plans to press the offensive into neighborhoods where rebels have either taken refuge after fleeing Fallujah or were already deeply entrenched.


But the forces available for these intensified operations have become limited by the demands of securing Fallujah and overseeing the massive reconstruction effort there -- demands that senior U.S. military officers say are likely to tie up a substantial number of Marines and Army troops for weeks.


"What's important is to keep the pressure on these guys now that we've taken Fallujah from them," a high-ranking U.S. military commander said, speaking on condition he not be named because of the sensitivity of the deliberations on adding more troops. "We're in the pursuit phase. We have to stay after these guys so they don't get their feet set."


The possibility that additional troops would be required to battle the insurgency in this critical period preceding the Iraqi elections, scheduled for Jan. 30, has been signaled for weeks. The Pentagon (news - web sites) took an initial step in this direction last month, ordering about 6,500 soldiers in Iraq to extend their tours by up to two months.


With some fresh U.S. forces already arriving in Iraq as part of a long-scheduled rotation, and two newly trained Iraqi brigades due to start operating next month, U.S. military leaders had hoped to avoid further increases.


But over the past week, a closer assessment of the forces needed for the Fallujah recovery effort and future offensive operations revealed a gap in desired troop strength, at least over the next two or three months, according to several officers familiar with the issue.


The officers said the exact number of extra troops needed is still being reviewed but estimated it at the equivalent of several battalions, or about 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers. The number of U.S. troops in Iraq fell to nearly 100,000 last spring before rising to 138,000, where it has stayed since the summer.


To boost the current level, military commanders have considered extending the stay of more troops due to rotate out shortly, or accelerating the deployment of the 3rd Infantry Division, which is scheduled to start in January. But a third option -- drawing all or part of a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division on emergency standby in the United States -- has emerged as increasingly likely.


Hinting at this possibility at a Pentagon news conference on Friday, Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, the deputy chief of U.S. Central Command, recalled that airborne forces were deployed to Afghanistan (news - web sites) on a short-term basis to bolster military operations. Smith noted, however, that the Afghan case was "a little bit different" because "we had a very small number of forces to begin with" there.


If airborne units were rushed to Iraq, commanders here said, they likely would not be used in the offensive actions being planned, given their lack of heavy armor and their unfamiliarity with the targeted neighborhoods. Rather, their purpose would be to take over policing and other functions in Baghdad's International Zone, where American and top Iraqi government officials work. That would free locally seasoned units of the 1st Cavalry Division for such actions.


Much of the division's 2nd Brigade, which had been patrolling Baghdad, was shifted to Fallujah for the battle there earlier this month and remains unavailable for action elsewhere. This situation is the cause of much of the pressure for reinforcements.


"We feel that we need to keep the 2nd Brigade out there longer than we had originally thought, so we're not going to have all the flexibility we wanted in December," one senior military officer here said.


Some senior officers have worried that any move to bring in more U.S. troops could be perceived as a sign of U.S. vulnerability in the face of the tenacious insurgency or as a vote of no confidence in the ability of Iraq's new security forces to fill the gap. It also could fuel the U.S. political debate over whether the Bush administration has committed enough forces to secure Iraq.


But several officers who discussed the matter said any such appeal should simply be seen as reflecting the desire of the military command here to press the fight.


To further bolster U.S. forces in the short term, commanders also are considering extending the scheduled departure of the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, which has been assigned to the Kirkuk area.


U.S. military intelligence assessments portray the Fallujah offensive as having destroyed the insurgency's largest haven, but the assessments also acknowledge that the violent resistance campaign is far from broken nationwide. Since the Fallujah operation, insurgent attacks have continued across a broad stretch of Iraq, from northern cities to a restive area in Babil province south of Baghdad.





Although U.S. military officials have reported 1,600 or more enemy fighters killed in Fallujah, no key leaders of the insurgency were either killed or captured, according to senior officers here. Many insurgents who fled the city either before or during the battle are now thought by U.S. commanders to be looking for opportunities to regroup and mount new attacks.

"Our assessment is that the insurgency remains viable," a senior military intelligence officer here said. "One of the things we see the insurgents doing is moving to areas where we don't have a lot of presence."

The number of daily attacks, which surged to about 130 at the start of the Fallujah operation, has declined to between 70 and 80 in recent days, roughly the level before the operation. But the senior intelligence officer said it is still too early to gauge the full impact of the Fallujah battle on the insurgency, estimating another week or two will be necessary for military analysts to get a clearer picture.

Everything found so far, the officer said, has confirmed Fallujah as the insurgency's largest and most significant stronghold. The sheer number of bombs, shells and other munitions discovered has stunned some senior analysts.

"The number of caches they're finding, the weapons and things like that, are greater than we probably assessed," the intelligence officer said. "So we may have done more damage to their capability than we previously understood."

In discussing battle plans, commanders here did not want to telegraph the areas U.S. forces might be focusing on for their next offensives. But some of the potential targets can easily be discerned by mapping the locations of attacks on U.S. forces, including areas in or around the restive cities of Mosul, Ramadi, Baqubah, Samarra and Baghdad.

At the same time, officers cautioned against expecting anything on the scale of Fallujah, which involved more than 10,000 U.S. troops and about 2,500 Iraqi forces.

"They're not going to be big operations like Fallujah, because there's no place else in Iraq where the situation is like what it was there," one commander said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

North Bay Marine dies in Iraq

By Associated Press

AMERICAN CANYON -- A Bay Area Marine killed in Iraq on Friday is being remembered by his family as a patriotic hero.
Lance Corporal Phillip G. West, 19, was killed while on patrol in Fallujah, Iraq. The infantryman had been in Iraq since June.

"My son is a hero," Ed West, Phillip's father, said Saturday. "He had a goal of fighting for his country. He had a goal of becoming a Marine."

Ed West said his son was killed after being hit by an improvised explosive device detonated by insurgents.

"He loved his country," Ed West said. "He loved the Marine Corps (and) ... was very patriotic."

West was a 2003 graduate of Vintage High School, where he played football for the school's team. He also worked as a lifeguard and taught many kids to swim. Memorial services for West will be announced this week.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Charlie Daniels' Soapbox
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From Charlie's Web site:

November 19, 2004

John Kerry admitted to intentional war crimes and the major media did everything but canonize him. A U.S. Marine shoots an enemy whom he has every right to believe is getting ready to attack him and the major media tries to demonize him.

This is a national disgrace, not what the Marine did but what the media is doing.

Put yourself in this young Marine's place. You walk into a building which has been used by insurgents to attack American Marines and there are bodies on the floor. They all look dead and suddenly one of them moves. You know he's the enemy, you know their bodies have been known to be booby trapped, you know these people are willing to die just to kill one American.

So what do you do, stand there and let this terrorist kill you or possibly everybody in your group or do you defend yourself and your buddies and shoot him? These Marines have been combat trained and combat hardened and their eyes have seen more that Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, the entire staff at CNN and the fruitcakes at the New York Times will ever see.

This young man had been shot in the face just the day before and I'm sure he had a healthy distrust for insurgents.

How dare you pompous media know-it-alls judge this brave young man from the safety of your high-rise offices. How dare you try to hang him for what was a simple act of war where split-second judgment and instant action are required.

What would you have done? I suppose you would have taken it to the United Nations or take out your Geneva Convention handbook. And by the time you had made a decision you could well be dead along with everybody else in your outfit.

This was not the corner druggist this Marine killed. He is a member of a religious sect who believe in cutting off innocent people's heads in front of the whole world, who strap dynamite to their bodies and blow themselves up.

I don't know your name, son, but let me tell you something and I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

You did what you had to do and no matter what the canned hams in the media say you did the right thing and I want to thank you for wearing that uniform, for volunteering to fight for this nation so the pansies in the media can sit back and take pot shots at you every chance they get.

No matter what they say you are a United States Marine and there are millions of people who would love to shake your hand and tell you how very much they appreciate you. Without you and young people like you there would be no United States of America.

I know that the Marine Corps will continue their tradition of taking care of their own, and tell the media to go stuff it. You've got nothing to be ashamed of young man.

I only hope that someday I can meet you and tell you in person how much I admire you and all your brothers and sisters who risk their lives on a daily basis to keep America free and safe. May God bless you all.

Semper Fi, young man.

Pray for our troops.

God Bless America
Charlie Daniels


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Self-defense on and off the battlefield
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Diana West
Town Hall
November 22, 2004

In the space between the fog of war (confusion, peril and instant reflexes) and the edited news break (carefully scripted and produced filler between Viagra commercials), a young Marine hangs out to dry.

Maybe I should say he hangs crucified, although that particular metaphor these days isn't just politically incorrect, it's radioactive. But what I'm getting at, in this land of free speech and home of brave Marines, is my unequivocal belief that Marine X committed no "war crimes" in that fortified Fallujah mosque last week where he shot and killed a prone and wounded terrorist. He was just doing his job -- his hellishly dangerous job -- and thank God for him.

This is hardly the consensus view, at least not the one that is actually spoken out loud. And I don't mean just on Al Jazeera, where the NBC News "get" of the week -- a video sequence of the Marine in question shooting a wounded Fallujah fighter after shouting that the man was "faking" his incapacity -- has been airing at half-hour intervals as if it were the Lost Episodes of Abu Ghraib. "Enlightened" people everywhere are clucking -- but not over the heinous execution of CARE's Margaret Hassan, the mutilated bodies found on Fallujah's streets, the beheading chamber discovered by U.S. soldiers, the Taliban-like decrees threatening death for Fallujah women who don't "cover," or the bomb-making workshops seized before creating more craters of carnage. They emote over the death of a terrorist dedicated to all of the above.

Seeing may be believing, but a minute of video doesn't tell the whole story. And the whole story is not that an American soldier stormed a house of worship to shoot a pious Fallujah citizen in cold blood -- the "war crime" we are led to imagine has happened. The mosque served as a fort; the citizen was an apparently wounded, apparently dangerous combatant; and the Marine was fighting the urban war of his life.

Even so, Amnesty International is already tsk-tsk-ing that "this latest incident is just a further reminder that one cannot take it for granted that troops ... will strive to abide by the ... law," while the United Nations, naturally, has called for an investigation into alleged "abuses" by U.S. troops in Fallujah. (Anything to detract from the grostesqueries of the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal.)

Meanwhile, Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., U.S. military commander in Iraq, has too quickly conceded that the shooting was a "tragic incident," while U.S. Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte makes it sound as if the Marine now under military investigation is practically guaranteed a stretch of busting rocks at Fort Leavenworth: "The important point is that the individual in question will be dealt with," he said. "But I don't think that (the incident) in any way is a reflection on the quality and caliber of absolutely fine young servicemen" blah, blah, blah.

Frankly, I think it is. But that's a good thing. In other words, I have heard nothing, nada, zilch that indicates this Marine was doing anything besides trying to preserve life and limb in his unit while fighting to wrest control of Fallujah for liberated Iraq.

"In a combat infantry soldier's training, he is always taught that his enemy is at his most dangerous when he is severely wounded," commented Charles Heyman, a senior analyst with Jane's Consultancy Group in Britain. And the jihadist enemy we find in Iraq -- comrade in both faith and arms with the terrorists of Beslan, Bali, Jerusalem, Madrid and Manhattan -- are even more dangerous wounded than others.

Some are rigged with suicide-belts to detonate in extremis. Booby-trapped corpses -- a Judeo-Christian taboo Muslim jihadists overcome, I suspect, in their perverse belief that killing infidels on Earth earns them virgins in paradise -- are a common hazard in hotspots.
Even one of our beheaded hostages in June, poor devil, was packed with explosives designed to detonate at an American soldier's touch. Who, among the global millions who have watched NBC's videotaped-shooting, realizes that a comrade of the Marine in question was killed by a booby-trapped corpse the day before? That same corpse-bomb wounded five others in the unit.

And who, among those same millions, realize that even as Marine X, NBC's global antihero, was shooting the enemy he suspected was playing possum, just a block away, another explosive-rigged corpse was killing another young Marine?

In that split second of fear and indecision, our guy made the right call. Think about it during the long, luxurious minutes of the next commercial break.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Wounds That Don't Bleed
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By PHIL ZABRISKIE
Time Magazine
Monday, Nov. 29, 2004

Full-scale offensives like Fallujah inevitably exact a psychic toll. Yet the punishing strain of fighting a hydra-headed insurgency afflicts U.S. troops even on what passes for a normal day in Iraq. Sergeant Justin Harding of the Ramadi-based 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, can't get one of those October days out of his head. His squad, Reaper 2 of Whiskey Company, was heading back to base along one of Iraq's most dangerous roads. The squad's convoy, towing a vehicle disabled by a roadside bomb, was running at slow speed, making it vulnerable to ambush. Sure enough, an insurgent with a rocket-propelled-grenade (RPG) launcher, Harding recalls, "suddenly appeared, whirled around and pointed the RPG. And all hell broke loose." The grenade pierced the window of the armored humvee on the driver's side, engulfing the occupants in smoke, blood and shrapnel. Harding yelled at the driver, Lance Corporal Andrew Halverson, one day shy of his 20th birthday, to control the spinning vehicle. Then Harding looked over at him. "I saw his body. It wasn't normal. I instantly knew he was dead." The gunner, protected by a turret, was hit below the waist but still alive. The Marine in the seat behind Halverson was dazed, his legs on fire. But he managed to smother the flames and grab the steering wheel, bringing the battered vehicle to rest. "He was shaking and crying, just in shock," Harding says. "Bullets were flying everywhere." Harding quickly thrust the dead Marine into a body bag. "I didn't want the other Marines to see him because it would really freak everybody out," he says. "At the time, none of it fazed me. I was just doing what I had to do."

Yet once Harding returned to base, he had trouble sleeping. His mind replayed the gruesome scene over and over. He suffered changes of mood and was beset by anxiety about why the incident had happened. He went out on patrol the next day carrying with him classic symptoms of combat stress: the emotional, physical and psychological fallout from living through - or under the extended threat of - traumatic events. Said company commander Captain Patrick Rapicault, "You have to get over your feelings and keep on pushing, just for the simple reason that you have another 170 Marines to take care of and make sure they come back."

These days, stress is a given in Iraq for locals and foreigners working in just about any capacity. Combat troops no doubt feel it most acutely. Day after day in the hit-and-run, chase-and-hide rhythm that has defined most of the fighting over the past 20 months, front-line forces are confronting the bulk of the horrors. So far, more than 1,200 have died and at least 8,400 have sustained physical injuries. That does not count the 1 in 5 who, according to a recent study, are suffering what the military calls "stress injury."

It's easy to see why so many troops are succumbing to stress. Every trip "outside the wire" brings the possibility of attack from any direction, from people who look like everyday citizens and from everyday objects - cars, oilcans, dead animals, even human beings - refashioned into deadly bombs. "It's relentless," says a Marine who was deployed in al-Anbar province, which includes violent hotbeds like Ramadi and Fallujah. "From the moment you arrive until the moment you leave, you're in danger." The life-threatening character of the daily job steadily erodes an individual's psychological immune system.

"It makes everyone even more susceptible, less resilient, to whatever happens," says Navy Captain Bill Nash, a psychiatrist who heads the Marines' Operational Stress Control Readiness (OSCAR) program in al-Anbar. "The war here has produced more significant stress injuries than any other conflict since Vietnam," he says. "And you'd have to be exceptionally optimistic and using massive denial to believe we are not going to generate a hell of a lot more of these stress injuries before we are done here."

Following deployment to Iraq, 17% of Army respondents and 19% of Marines reported a "perceived moderate or severe problem," according to a psychiatric study released last July by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. The study termed those estimates "conservative," and most cases, says Nash, will not be apparent until the troops are back home. The Marine who served in al-Anbar for seven months says that when he drives past potholes in his hometown, he wonders if they will explode. If the refrigerator door closes, he says, "I ask myself if that was incoming fire. A bomb?" And he's older than most grunts. "The younger guys--18, 19 years old - they're definitely going to have some challenges ahead," he adds. "God help somebody who pushes the wrong button on a kid who's been through these things."

Even the most battle-hardened troops report feeling symptoms like Harding's. They express anger, confusion and guilt about killing, guilt about surviving when a buddy doesn't. They confess to mood swings, depression, indifference to life, hypervigilance, isolation, suicidal tendencies. And all are plagued by images they can't forget, some so disturbing that combat-stress workers in the field have to monitor one another for a state known as "vicarious traumatization." A soldier deployed near Baghdad for nine months witnessed several members of his unit torn apart by mortar fire. "I can't erase that picture," he says. "It's something I cannot take anymore." Some stressed-out troops can't control their rage. "They don't know who the bad guy is," says Anthony Pantlitz, a chaplain with the Army's 785th Combat Stress Company, "so they hate everybody."

In the war zone, troops use a variety of means to try to stave off the aftershocks of trauma. Harding dealt with his anxieties by talking to other members of his company about them. Every time the events of that day ran though his mind, he said a prayer. He was reassured by visits from the battalion chaplain, who told the Marines to honor Halverson and their own good fortune by carrying on.

As an institution, the military tries to tend to what Major David Rabb of the 785th calls "the wounds that don't bleed." The military has mobilized mental-health units of psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers, chaplains and nurses just behind the front lines. As the fighting has intensified over the past year, their number has increased. The goal, says Rabb, is "to let troops know they're not going crazy because they have some emotional and physical and psychological aftereffects of the traumatic events that they witnessed."

Rabb's company is based in Baghdad's green zone, in a two-room house with a volleyball net out front. When necessary, the house serves as a "restoration zone" where soldiers or Marines can spend three days "off line," getting rest and hot meals, talking through their problems. Similar sanctuaries exist on main bases throughout the country. In some instances, an antidepressant or antianxiety medication is prescribed. In extreme cases, the soldier or Marine is sent home. But the prime purpose is to prepare them to re-enter the fray, "healed" enough to undergo combat again. Rabb and other mental-health practitioners in Iraq say research from past wars shows that sending troubled troops home too early prevents them from dealing with their trauma and increases feelings of guilt stemming from a sense of abandoning the unit. Rabb won't quantify the number of combat-stress injuries incurred in Iraq. But he estimates that his team of counselors alone conducts up to 800 informal visits a month to troops in and around Baghdad, "just smoking and joking, letting them know we're available."

Although that kind of support is resisted by many in the military who fear being stigmatized, it is gaining acceptance amid the tribulations of service in Iraq. Lieut. Troy Fiesel, a social worker with the 785th outfit, says the response has been "more than I expected. There have been guys I thought would never in 100 years, say, 'Hey, I need help.' We're seeing guys like this all the time."

Troops who don't use official services must find their own coping mechanisms, often within their unit. Leaders try to find downtime for their men, and memorial services for the fallen can help with grieving. But clinically speaking, Nash says, most soldiers and Marines engage in denial and dissociation to get through. "Everybody out here is putting all this stuff in a closet and storing it up," he says, "because you just can't deal with it right now."

Sergeant Harding agrees. "You can't dwell on it, or you can't do what you need to do," he said shortly after his unit returned from another firefight in town. Troops say the thing that most helps the traumatized is their commitment to one another. Their unit is the only thing they can trust, and helping one another get home safely is the most compelling motivation they have. A twice-wounded Whiskey Company Marine suffered two concussions in successive bombings and was told that a third could lead to severe, lasting damage. But when given the option of going home, he chose to stay because, he says, "these are my brothers. I feel safer with them than I do anywhere else. I need to be with them." As the Marine who served in al-Anbar earlier this year puts it, "All of the bigger issues don't exist. You understand, ultimately, that the mission is about protecting each other."

Whiskey Company faces that stress every day as it patrols the unsettled Sunni triangle. Last Monday, Rapicault and two other men in Whiskey Company died when a suicide bomber rammed their humvee while they were on patrol, raising to nine the number of Whiskey Company Marines killed in action since mid-September. "I'm taking it very hard," says medic Cory McFarland. "But their loss gives us more strength to move on." For many combatants in Iraq, that may be more a wish than a fact.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Services Held for Local Marine Killed in Iraq

Nov 22, 2004 6:20 pm US/Eastern
Baltimore, MD (WJZ) Family, friends and students at Boys' Latin School gathered this morning to remember a local marine killed in Iraq.

Twenty-two year old Corporal Nicholas Ziolkowski died November 14th during the fighting in Fallujah.

Ziolkowski was a 2001 graduate of Boys' Latin.

He was assigned to the First Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment, Second Marine Division, Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Ziolkowski was the 17th Marylander to die in the fighting in Iraq and among four to die in the last week.

A candlelight vigil for Ziolkowski is planned for this evening at Towson University.

The vigil will begin at 5 p.m. on Newell Field between York Road and Stephens Hall.

Ziolkowski's mother, Tracy Miller, is an English professor at Towson.

Ellie