Marines pay a bloody price in 'taking the fight to the enemy'

[thedrifter]

Marines pay a bloody price in 'taking the fight to the enemy'

By Otto Kreisher
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

December 2, 2004

WASHINGTON – At least 83 Marines were killed and hundreds more were wounded during last month's fight to destroy the insurgent stronghold in Fallujah. A Navy corpsman serving with the Marines also died.

The death toll, confirmed by the Marine Corps and the Navy yesterday, represents by far the bloodiest period for the Marines since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003.

It eclipses the previous high of 52 Marines killed in April, which also saw heavy fighting in Fallujah, and the 58 who died during the 42 days of fighting that took down Saddam Hussein's regime last year.

The Marines have now counted 368 deaths in Iraq, nearly 30 percent of the U.S. total of 1,256 reported killed in combat or accidents as of yesterday. The Navy has reported 19 killed in Iraq, about evenly split between medically trained corpsmen and Seabee construction specialists.

Gunnery Sgt. Kristine Scarber, a Marine spokeswoman, did not have figures on the number of Marines wounded in November, but she said 3,129 have been wounded since the start of Iraqi Freedom on March 19, 2003.

If that ratio of killed to wounded held up, the Marines would have had more than 700 wounded in November.

The Navy has reported 157 wounded in Iraq, a Navy spokeswoman said.

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 9,552 U.S. service members have been wounded in action, according to the Defense Department's weekly tally.

Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,118 members of the U.S. military have died, according to The Associated Press.

That includes at least 875 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The number of Marine fatalities in November accounted for 60 percent of last month's U.S. death toll of at least 136 – also a new high – even though the Marines make up only 18 percent of the U.S. forces in Iraq.

"It really proved that our Marines were taking the fight to the enemy. As a result, we would suffer more casualties," Scarber said.

Three defense analysts agreed with that assessment and said the disproportionate death toll was a result of the Marines bearing the major burden of the intense urban fighting in Fallujah, rather than any failure of their tactics, leadership or equipment.

"We are carrying the offensive to the enemy. In that case, especially when fighting in a city, you can expect higher casualties," said Robert Work, a defense analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

"I think it's mostly the fact that the MEF was the most heavily involved in this operation" (in Fallujah), analyst Jay Farrar said, referring to the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which commands the Marines in Iraq.

Although the Marines account for about 25,000 of the U.S. force of 138,000 in Iraq, they contributed about two-thirds of the troops that fought their way through the narrow streets of Fallujah last month.

"As a norm, the Marines tend to be a bit more aggressive than the Army, but you have to keep in perspective the nature of the operation in Fallujah," added Farrar, an official and analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Work and Farrar both are retired Marine officers. But Daniel Goure, a national security analyst at the Lexington Institution, also said the Marines' high casualty count "was a reflection of the kind of fighting they had to do."

And it was "par for the course for serious urban combat, particularly when you don't want to level the town," Goure said.

"To some extent, the high casualty count was due to the Marines' desire to minimize civilian casualties" and damage to the buildings, he said.

"Despite the (media) images of bombing and devastation, this was a restrained operation, and one of the consequences of restrained tactics is higher casualties."

In major urban combat in previous wars, infantry assaults normally were accompanied by massive aerial bombing or intense artillery barrages.

But the Marine and Army forces that assaulted Fallujah used limited numbers of precision bombs, closely controlled artillery and direct fire from tanks and armored vehicles to reduce the damage to the city.

Farrar conceded that the casualty statistics for Fallujah "are pretty ugly."

"But they don't seem to be having a negative impact on the force," Farrar said. "The troops still seem committed to the mission."



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Bush Seeks Canada's Help In Iraq
Associated Press
December 2, 2004

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - President Bush asked Canadians on Wednesday to move beyond their deep opposition to the Iraq war and get behind his vision of democracies blooming from Baghdad to the West Bank.

"Sometimes even the closest of friends disagree, and two years ago we disagreed about the course of action in Iraq," Bush said, standing at the side of Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

But, Bush said, "there is no disagreement at all with what has to be done in going forward. We must help the Iraqi people secure their country and build a free and democratic society."

On a bridge-building trip to America's northern neighbor, Bush conceded that the United States can be a difficult "elephant" to live next to but delivered a forceful defense of his approach to combatting terrorism.

"We must take the fight to them, we must be relentless and we must be steadfast in our duty to protect our people," he said.




Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien refused to send Canadian troops to Iraq, and polls show more than 80 percent of Canadians still support that decision.

Bush's visit to this port city was linked to the Sept. 11 attacks, the defining event of his presidency and the spark for his eventual decision to invade Iraq.

On the day of the terror attacks against New York and Washington in 2001, some 33,000 passengers on airplanes bound for U.S. airports were diverted to Canadian provinces, including Nova Scotia.

"These were places that many aboard had never heard of. They are now places that few of the passengers will ever forget," Martin said.

Bush offered a belated thank you, and used the moment to seek a fresh start with Canadians.

"For days after Sept. 11, Canadians came to the aid of men and women and children who were worried and confused and had nowhere to sleep," the president said inside the Port 21 Museum, a historic site that was for decades a gateway for immigration and troop movements.

"You opened your homes and your churches to strangers, you brought food, you set up clinics, you arranged for calls to their loved ones, and you asked for nothing in return," the president said.

"Thank you for your kindness to America in an hour of need."

"Beyond the words of politicians and the natural disagreements that nations will have, our two peoples are one family and always will be," he said.

Reminders of the disagreements were just outside.

A couple of hundred protesters chanted anti-Bush slogans and held signs that read, "PM (Prime Minister) don't make deals with the devil," "Terrorists go home" and "Tanks for nothing."

Bush's audience sat mostly in silence as he called on Canadians and other allies to join him in "great goals," each of them relating to terrorism and each long ingrained in Bush policy.

First, he said, America and close friends such as Canada must make sure institutions such as the United Nations are "more relevant and more effective in meeting the unique threats of our time."

Second, governments must throw every resource at combating terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, he said. On this point, Bush threw in a pitch for the missile shield his administration is working on - an effort Canada is considering joining. Later, Martin said Canada will not support the plan if it means putting weapons in space, but he also said he didn't know exactly what Bush had in mind.

Last, the United States and allies can "enhance our own security by promoting freedom and hope and democracy in the broader Middle East."

Bush singled out his longstanding goal of a new, democratic Palestinian state coexisting peacefully with Israel, and he dismissed past efforts to nibble at the troubles there with small-scale negotiations over borders and settlement sites.

"This approach has been tried before without success," Bush said. "The Palestinian people deserve a peaceful government that truly serves their interests, and the Israeli people need a true partner in peace."

"If all parties will apply effort, if all nations who are concerned about this issue will apply good will, this conflict can end and peace can be achieved," he said. "And the time for that effort and the time for that good will is now."

It took Bush nearly four years to make an official visit to Canada, though he's been twice before for global summits. He did not make Canada his first foreign visit, as many of his predecessors did.

In this bilingual nation, where politicians and marketers alike speak two languages, Bush did not attempt any French, as Ronald Reagan did on his first foreign visit as president in 1981.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

On the home front, families battle fears, anxiety

MARK JOHNSON, markjohnson@journalsentinel.com

The stress and worry began before the first casualties, even before the reserves of Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines left for Iraq (news - web sites) in September.



Knowing that he would be going to war, Maj. David Durham, a vice president at U.S. Bank, began getting his life in order. In April, he and his wife, Connie, bought a house in Cedarburg. He bought life insurance. He bought birthday cards for each of their six children, so that even in a war zone he could send home a father's love. He typed out a detailed note, "The Everything Connie Needs to Know While I'm Gone Folder."


And he took his five sons to a cabin in Colorado.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Embedded Reporters: A Bad Idea


November 30, 2004


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by David Huntwork

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A United States marine now faces possible conviction and punishment for war crimes for finishing off a wounded enemy fighter in Fallujah. An act not unique and perhaps understandable in the intense and bitter fighting for the city, but one caught on film by freelance NBC news correspondent Kevin Sites and released worldwide within hours. How this anti-war activist became a pool reporter for a variety of news organizations and embedded with the military forces he despises has not been explained but casts a dark shadow of doubt on the practice of allowing reporters and film crews on the front line during combat.

The reaction to the controversial footage shot by Sites predictably varied from outrage to profound praise. Commentators and bloggers reacted with their usual fierce opinions and an online petition of support for the marine quickly surpassed a quarter of a million signatures. The petition can be viewed here: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?as123.

This story, though no longer in the top headlines, is far from over.

The question really becomes whether reporters and camera crews should be allowed to be present where such controversial actions in battle will inevitably occur.

The presence of reporters and camera crews sooner or later creates video footage for the enemy’s recruitment and propaganda machine. A free society shoots itself in the foot and emboldens and encourages the enemy by allowing such scenes, taken out of context, to be broadcast. The military censors failed horribly in this instance and the United States has paid a high price in world opinion by its broadcast.

War is brutal and in a politically correct, hypersensitive society this undermines the will to fight and undercuts support for the truth. The presence of reporters on the front lines creates avenues for them to skirt the rules regarding the review of footage shot in combat zones.

A 19 year old soldier should not have to worry that his every instinctive action during combat could potentially be used against him simply because it was caught on tape. Endless replaying of the images and the constant commentary by the talking heads takes the focus off the end goal and detracts from victory in the field. Such an act of combat carnage caught on tape invariably fails to properly convey what is happening on the ground and distorts the true account of an action or situation. There is no sense of perspective or history to a simple snippet of a much larger drama and story.

There is an amazing clash of culture, religion, and world views taking place in Iraq and I have always supported recording the momentous events of such a war for the sake of history. At the same time, the failure to control the release of the footage of the marine killing an injured insurgent in Fallujah forces us to reconsider the wisdom of embedding reporters with the troops and allowing their unedited video to be released to the world.

We must not forget that it is the enemy that is dictating the type of battle being fought and breaking every rule of warfare. It is a fight where the ‘dead’ pop up to shoot soldiers, bodies are booby trapped, and terrorist thugs fake injury only long enough for US forces to hesitate and themselves become casualties from such trickery. No tears should be shed or hands wrung for a foe that beheads contractors, takes hostages, disembowels women, executes aid workers, employs suicide bombers, terrorizes the civilian population, fakes death and surrender to kill soldiers and generally plays dirty in this war.

The fight for Fallujah is the blueprint that needs to be followed if victory is too attained in this particular battle in the world wide war on terror, terror regimes, nuclear proliferation and Islamic fascism. This war must be won and crying crocodile tears for a terrorist thug that received the battlefield justice he deserved will not help the free world achieve victory.

For there ever to be true peace and stability in Iraq and the Middle East there first must be the death, capture and defeat of those who are the followers of despots, use terror as a political weapon, and seek the elimination or submission of all infidels. At least 2500 killed or captured in Fallujah is but a start, but it is a good start nonetheless. The back of the insurgency must be broken and the establishment of a moderate, representative modern government must be successfully implemented. The age of the terror state in the post 9-11 world is coming to an end and Iraq is a strategic and necessary part of that plan. Failure is not an option and anything, including the idea of embedded reporters, that impedes that lofty goal cannot be tolerated.

When it comes to blaming someone for what we saw in Fallujah, blame not the marine but those who filmed and released such footage to the world.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

England Prepares For Court-Martial <br />
Associated Press <br />
December 1, 2004 <br />
<br />
FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Pfc. Lynndie England is due back in a military court Wednesday to prepare for her court-martial on...

[thedrifter]

U-S Extends Tour For 2,000 Marines in Iraq

PENTAGON (AP) -- Another two-thousand Marines will wait a bit longer to come home from Iraq, marking the third group to get a tour extension this week.

Those announcements are coming as the U-S tries to provide security for Iraqi elections at the end of January.

The Pentagon says the unit of two-thousand Marines will stay longer than planned, but will still go home within seven months of arriving in Iraq.

This comes the same day as news that at least two Army brigades will stay for two more months -- until the Iraq election is over. Members of two airborne battalions now in the U-S are getting ready to deploy.

Iraq's elections are set for January 30th. They're seen as a potential target for attacks. And U-S officials have called the elections critical for the country's future.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Blasts Hit Central Baghdad
Associated Press
December 2, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Several mortar rounds exploded in central Baghdad on Thursday, including two in the Green Zone, the enclave that houses Iraq's interim administration and several foreign embassies. At least one person was killed.

Thick smoke rose from the sites of the Green Zone blasts, and sirens blared across the fortified area. Two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters arrived and landed within minutes of the detonations.

A few minutes later, more shells landed on the other side of the Tigris River. One struck near a mobile phone office in the al-Arasat neighborhood, killing one person.

A U.S. military spokesman confirmed the Green Zone attack but had no details. U.S. soldiers and Iraqis ran for cover in the compound housing Baghdad's international hotels.

Several more blasts from an area west of the Green Zone were heard, but their exact location was not known.

Last week, a mortar attack killed four employees of a British security firm and wounded at least 12 in the zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

A Tradition For Troops
HeraldNet
December 2, 2004

At Christmastime, sending cheer overseas to American soldiers stationed far from home is a tradition. In decades past, if grateful civilians could have boxed up snow and evergreen trees, they would have. Instead, they sent packages with magazines, socks and candy simply addressed to Any Soldier.

This year, many people want to give something tangible and familiar to the thousands of American soldiers stationed in the Middle East, but the Department of Defense, faced with increased concerns about security after Sept. 11, has banned anonymous care packages in Middle Eastern countries.

Military personnel still receive packages addressed specifically to them. But dont try to get around the rules by sending a bunch of packages to an individual service member. This only creates logjams and delays.

One of the best ways to send a useful and much-needed gift to service members is through United Service Organizations (USO), which has been coordinating Operation USO Care Package since 2002. As of summer, the USO had distributed more than 300,000 packages.

During the holidays, we like to send out a special appeal, said Donna St. John, director of communications for the USO World Headquarters. We know that people think more about the troops and want to do something.




The packages include items specifically requested by soldiers, such as prepaid worldwide phone cards, travel-size toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, baby wipes, hand lotion, lip balm and cotton swabs), playing cards and wrapped snacks.

Endorsed by the Department of Defense, the USO relies on monetary donations from the public to provide the care packages it can not accept items. But for just $25, donors can sponsor a care package that includes a personal message of support and encouragement to a soldier.

In April last year, the USO also began Operation Phone Home, which needs donations.

We are able to purchase bulk quantities of phone cards from AT&T, a USO world partner, St. John said. Those are distributed through our USO centers to deployed troops and they are used in our care packages. Nothing gives service members greater peace of mind than talking to family back home.

For more information or to donate, visit www.usocares.org.

Another great idea this season is a Gifts From the Homefront gift certificate, offered through the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. These provide American men and women in the military with a little money to spend on themselves a huge morale booster. The gift certificates can be used at any military exchange retail store for health and beauty items, soft drinks, candy, snacks, prepaid calling cards, music and more. They can be purchased at www.aafes.com/docs/homefront.htm and are distributed by the American Red Cross.

Here at home, reaching out to military families during the holidays is a wonderful option for those looking to make a contribution. Deployed service members rest easier knowing that their families are being looked after.

The USO may be best-known for its celebrity entertainment tours, but this nonprofit organization does much more for the troops and their families through its 125 USO centers worldwide 71 of them in the contiguous United States. They offer a wide variety of services, everything from family crisis counseling to libraries to nursery facilities to recreation. And volunteers are always welcome.

Military relief societies also count on the generosity of the American people. All are private, nonprofit organizations that help the families of service members with financial emergencies. For more information, see their Web sites:

Army Emergency Relief

www.aerhq.org

Navy/Marine Relief Society

www.nmcrs.org

Air Force Aid Society

www.afas.org

Coast Guard Mutual Assistance

www.cgmahq.org.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

3 U.S. Soldiers Face Court Martial <br />
Associated Press <br />
December 2, 2004 <br />
<br />
FORT CARSON, Colo. - Three of the four U.S. soldiers accused of smothering an Iraqi general during an interrogation last...

[thedrifter]

Marines honor fallen comrade
December 02,2004
Tom Bone
Freedom ENC

By Tom Boné

HAVELOCK - Marines of 2d Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion (2d LAAD) gathered Tuesday afternoon in the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point Chapel to honor the memory of the second member of their unit killed in action in Iraq.

Sergeant Nicholas Nolte, 25, of Falls City, Neb., died Nov. 24 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., after a 17-day battle to recover from broken limbs and an infection from shrapnel wounds.

Colonel Stephen P. Lynch, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group-28, Nolte's parent command, said before the services the news of Nolte's death was "a hard hit" to the entire group and especially the 2d LAAD Battalion.

Nolte was one of five 2d LAAD Marines wounded when their Humvee was hit Nov. 8 by an improvised explosive device (IED), said Lynch.

Three were treated and released back to active duty shortly after the explosion, while Nolte and a fellow Marine were sent stateside.

"The medical care system available now is tremendous," he said.

"They were in what amounts to an airborne intensive care unit that could have them back to a major medical facility in Germany and then on to Bethesda in less than 72 hours."

Lynch said the 2d LAAD Marines waited every day for what they hoped would be good news on Nolte's condition.

"We knew he would pull through," said Sgt. Daniel Contreras, a fellow Marine from his unit.

"He was a real strong guy, with more energy than the Energizer Bunny on steroids. When we got the word he didn't make it, it took a long time to sink in. For me, it was a gut-check."

Contreras said Nolte would long be remembered for his boundless energy and his passion for Marine Corps perfection.

"It was always 110 percent," said Contreras. "In his physical fitness testing, he was always high first class, in drill he was one of the best, and when it came to his gear, he always had to have it perfect, even if it meant buying his own."

Nolte was also known for his love of Mexican food, high hopes of one day getting a Suzuki GSXR-750 motorcycle, and his ability to speak German, recalled Contreras.

Nolte is survived by his wife, Melina, and 3-year-old daughter Alanna.

He enlisted in the Corps in May 1998 with a military police occupational specialty, which led him to service with Marine Helicopter Squadron (HMX)-1. When the squadron performs its mission of transporting the President of the United States, the helicopter bearing the commander-in-chief is designated "Marine One."

Nolte flew with Marine One, under both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

After his four-your enlistment was up, Nolte couldn't give up the Corps, said Contreras.

"He wasn't out long. He came back in and went for Stingers."

Contreras said Nolte made it clear he wanted to go to Iraq.

"He did everything he could to get on that detachment," he said. "When an opening came up, he was right there to volunteer."

Nolte was designated a Stinger gunner following graduation from the training at Fort Bliss, Tx., and arrived for duty with 2d LAAD Battalion last November.

The battalion provides air defense, using Stinger surface-to-air missiles, and the nature of their mission keeps Stinger teams constantly in direct support of infantry units. As a result, the LAAD teams have earned the title "the grunts of the air wing."

That's a title the LAAD Marines hold with pride, said Col. Lynch.

In his 26-year career, he counts his service with 2d LAAD as a highlight.

He was the operations officer for the battalion during Desert Storm and Desert Shield, and knows first-hand the complex role played by his "grunts."

"Their mission is security for whatever ground element they are attached to," said Lynch, "Now that would be primarily air-defense, but when that threat doesn't materialize, they naturally gravitate to ground defense. They eat, sleep and talk infantry."

That security role puts them in harm's way said the colonel. Last year, the battalion lost the first 2d Marine Aircraft Wing Marine killed in Iraq.

Lance Corporal Thomas Allan Blair, of Oklahoma, an assistant Stinger gunner was listed as killed in action March 24 in the outskirts of An Nasiriyah.

Lynch says the loss of Blair, and now Nolte "Is a deep personal loss for all of us."

"For the Marines of that battalion and the whole group, it has hit home," he said.

"Most of us old-timers take this with the same sense of personal loss as losing a young member of our own family, but please don't ever call them kids," he said with a notable choking of his voice and a pause - "They are Marines -Marines who have made the ultimate sacrifice."


Tom Boné can be reached at 252-444-1999.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

President Bush to Thank U.S. Troops at Camp Pendleton
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Associated Press
Dec. 2, 2004

WASHINGTON - President Bush is offering an in-person thank-you to U.S. troops next week with a visit to Camp Pendleton in California.

Marines from Camp Pendleton have been dying almost daily in Iraq. Among their missions, Camp Pendleton Marines were among the thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops that fought recently to secure the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Bush will deliver a speech and have lunch with troops while at Camp Pendleton on Tuesday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday.

"This is an opportunity to thank the troops for all their service and sacrifice in defense of freedom," McClellan said. "I expect the president will talk about the progress we're making in the war on terrorism as well."

A total of more than 1,200 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, almost 1,000 of them as a result of hostile action, according to an Associated Press count.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

What We Won in Fallouja
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By Max Boot
The LA Times
Dec. 2, 2004

Nothing except a battle lost can be half as melancholy as a battle won. -The Duke of Wellington

The news media are taking Wellington's dictum to heart. They seem positively despondent over the battle of Fallouja.

It is right and proper to mourn the death of 71 Americans and the wounding of hundreds more. As Wellington realized, martial glory rings hollow when weighed against the cost in blood. But it is wrong to rush to the opposite extreme by assuming, as so much of the current commentary implicitly does, that war solves nothing and that all casualties are meaningless. In fact, many of the turning points of history have been battles, such as Wellington's victory at Waterloo, which ended for all time the threat of French expansionism in Europe.

Obviously the battle of Fallouja was not be as decisive as Waterloo; few battles are. But that shouldn't blind us to the accomplishments of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which led the offensive along with U.S. Army and Iraqi soldiers.

Coalition troops killed 1,200 to 1,600 guerrillas and captured more than 1,000. They uncovered 26 bomb factories, 350 arms caches (containing thousands of weapons), several chemical weapons laboratories and eight houses where hostages were held and probably tortured and killed. And they accomplished all this with less than half the number of casualties suffered in Hue, Vietnam, in 1968, the last major urban assault mounted by the Marine Corps.

As significant as what happened is what didn't happen. The second battle of Fallouja did not turn into a public relations debacle, as did the attack in April. The Marines cleverly began this campaign by occupying the main hospital in Fallouja, which, in the spring, had been the source of inflated claims about civilian casualties. There was no uprising in the streets of Najaf or Karbala - or Cairo or Amman - to protest the second assault on Fallouja. The Iraqi interim government held together behind the fierce determination of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to fight the terrorists.

The only major PR snafu came when a journalist taped a Marine shooting a wounded insurgent. Though endlessly replayed on Al Jazeera (which refused to show the video of terrorists apparently slaughtering aid worker Margaret Hassan), there is no sign that this action has cost the U.S. any public support in Iraq. On the contrary, many Iraqis, fed up with terrorist attacks, no doubt applauded the Marine's ruthlessness.

This is not meant to suggest that everything went perfectly. Many terrorists were able to escape Fallouja before the assault and create mayhem in Mosul, where the local police folded with dismaying speed. But U.S. and Iraqi forces quickly shifted their focus to the north and snuffed out the uprising in Mosul. Now they are pressing their offensive in the "triangle of death" south of Baghdad.

The best news of recent days is the growing competence of Iraqi security forces. Two thousand Iraqis fought alongside 10,000 Americans in Fallouja and, by all reports, they performed reasonably well. In the operations south of Baghdad, Iraqis are said to outnumber British and American troops.

Skeptics are right to point out that no insurgency can be defeated by force alone, but it's also true that effective military action is usually a prerequisite for a political settlement. Only if the insurgents are convinced they cannot shoot their way to power will they give up their guns.

The clashes with Muqtada Sadr's Al Mahdi militia this summer proves the point: After being whipped by U.S. forces, the S h i i t e rabble-rouser decided to join the electoral process. Sadr City, once among the most dangerous areas of Iraq for U.S. troops, has become relatively quiet. The hope now is that the fall of Fallouja will convince more Sunnis of the futility of armed resistance, while elections on Jan. 30 will convince them that their grievances can be addressed through peaceful means.

Even in a best-case scenario, however, the bombings and beheadings won't end the day after the vote. It can take a decade or more to defeat an insurgency (Colombia has been fighting Marxist guerrillas since 1966), and even a small number of determined fighters can wreak mayhem. In the 1970s, fewer than 100 members of the Baader-Meinhof gang terrorized West Germany, a country that is considerably more populous and more stable than Iraq, which is estimated to have at least 10,000 insurgents.

Thus, for all their success in Fallouja, we should not expect U.S. troops to completely pacify Iraq anytime soon. What they can do - what they are doing - is to keep the insurgents from derailing a political process that, one hopes, will soon result in the creation of a legitimate government that can field indigenous security forces and defend itself.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Fallujah, 'mission not accomplished'
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Middle East Online
By Seth Meixner - FALLUJAH, Iraq

US Marines keeping a tenuous peace in the battered Iraqi city of Fallujah say they expect an explosion of violence as rebels hiding among returning refugees renew their deadly campaign of bombings and ambushes.

They also fear the insurgency will find increasing support from Fallujah residents who return to find their homes and businesses devastated by last month's massive US-led assault on the Sunni Muslim enclave.

"Our assessment is the die-hard guys have gone to ground and are just waiting for the refugees to return so that they can blend in, come back and start their IED (improvised explosive device) campaign," said Captain Tom Tennant of the 1st Batallion, 3rd Marines, who have dug into northeast Fallujah.

Heavy fighting has devastated much of the city, leaving block after block of torched shopfronts and bullet-scarred homes that continue to come under heavy fire from US Marines searching for lingering rebels.

Most of Fallujah's 300,000 residents fled the city in the weeks before the assault, and though the military has said no date has been set for their return, marines are already braced for the flood of people.

"Right now it's hard enough, but when you inject a bunch of civilians into this city it's going to be that much harder," Tennant said, warning of a campaign of daily bombings.

"These guys are just going to filter back in.

"They know what they're doing, when things change, and they're just going to wait until we're at our weakest point and hit us again," said another marine after an evening patrol of the neighborhood around the Marine's compound.

Senior military officials acknowledge that insurgents have found refuge among Fallujah's displaced residents.

But they say people are only going to be allowed to return in controlled numbers, and the Iraqi government is going to register each person with ID cards in order to weed out rebels.

They also say they are confident Fallujah's residents will cooperate with US and Iraqi forces and turn suspected rebels in.

"The people of Fallujah don't want them coming back. We hope they'll identify these bad people when they try to sneak back in with them," marine Major Jim West told a press conference last week.

But some Marines in the city say politics are pushing some officers to make dangerously optimistic assessments of the situation in Fallujah.

Insurgents are likely to find allies among Fallujah's residents, some of whom are at best indifferent to the US presence, they say.

And the damage caused by the fighting and continuing security operations in the city -- Marines are daily blasting homes with gunfire before storming them as they search for weapons and rebels who still ambush them from abandoned buildings -- has likely turned others against US and Iraqi forces.

"The hardest part of this is you have fence-sitters, a lot of them support the insurgents and a lot of them aren't going to be too happy when they see what's happened to their homes," Tennant said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Biased coverage in Iraq
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Helle Dale
December 2, 2004

If you trust most media accounts fed to American viewers and readers, Iraq is an unmitigated disaster. There is no security throughout the country, and armed insurgents are springing up, sown like dragon's teeth by the offensive of the U.S. military forces. The scheduled elections are highly uncertain. Indeed, 100,000 Iraqis have been killed by U.S. forces. Iraqis have never had it so bad. It is a drumbeat with echoes of the way the American media reported the Vietnam War.

Those who have the opportunity to hear the accounts of Americans serving in Iraq often come away with a completely different impression. Many readers of this newspaper who have relatives and friends serving in Iraq know that they hear differently from them. This point was recently brought up by Ambassador Edward Rowney in a Council on Foreign Relations discussion with former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brezinski, who is an ardent critic of the war. Mr. Brezinski's response was to dismiss first-hand accounts as mere anecdotal evidence.

Yet even in the mainstream media, differing views do seep in. Consider a recent column by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, a paper that has consistently reported the bad news from Iraq. This is what Mr. Friedman wrote from Iraq. "Readers ask me when I will throw in the towel on Iraq." Impressed with the spirit and the commitment of the troops on the ground, Mr. Friedman writes, "I will be guided by the U.S. Army and Marine grunts on the ground. They see Iraq close up. Most of those you talk to are so uncynical - so convinced that we are doing good and doing right, even though they are unsure it will work." And the fact is that despite the unrelenting drumbeat of bad news, there is much good to be told as well, only you don't hear it as much. Agreement has so far been reached with Iraq's Russian and European debtors to forgive $33 billion of Iraq's debt, about a quarter of the total. Some 45,000 Iraqi police and 48,000 Iraqi army and National Guard troops have now been trained. $5 billion in U.S. aid alone has been disbursed, and oil revenue, which flows into Iraqi accounts via a U.S. government trust, reached $1.9 billion in October.

A weekly update of reconstruction projects in Iraq can be located on the Web site of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Much of this good work you will never find reported, precisely because no news is good news for much of the U.S. media. And the foreign media is even worse.

Admittedly the security situation is dire, but look at these figures. In October, the number of Iraqis killed was 775 from acts of war and murder; American troops suffered 63 casualties and 691 wounded. These are too high, but at a time of a major military offensive against insurgents, those numbers are not gigantic.

Or how about the constantly cited figure of 100,000 Iraqis killed by Americans since the war began, a statistic that is thrown about with total and irresponsible abandon by opponents of the war. That number, which should be disputed at every turn by those who care about the truth of what is going on in Iraq was derived from a controversial study by the British journal of medicine the Lancet. It is five to six times higher than the highest estimates from other sources of all Iraqi deaths, be they military or civilian. The Lancet study relied on reporting of deaths self-reported by 998 families from clusters of 33 households throughout Iraq, a very limited sample from which to generalize.

As the Financial Times reported on Nov. 19, even the Lancet study's authors are now having second thoughts. Iraq's Health Ministry estimates by comparison that all told, 3,853 Iraqis have been killed and 155,167 wounded.

The fact is that 40 percent of Iraqis say their country is better and 65 percent are optimistic about the future. Iraqis are intending to vote in the upcoming elections to the tune of 85 percent, and 45 percent currently support Prime Minster Iyad Allawi. Many are unhappy with the U.S. troops presence there, but at least 35 percent want the United States to stay.

We still have a rocky road ahead, beyond doubt, but these figures do not add up to a picture of unmitigated failure being painted by critics of the Bush administration.

--- Helle Dale is deputy director of the Davis Institute for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation

Ellie

[thedrifter]

No heroes?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Sowell
December 2, 2004

You cannot fight a war without many brave men taking risks with their lives in order to try to accomplish their mission. Yet can you name a single American hero in either of the two wars going on today in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Chances are you can't -- not if you rely on the mainstream media. You may be able to name someone from the little band of people involved in the prison scandal in Iraq or perhaps Jessica Lynch who was rescued, but not those who rescued her.

There are apparently no heroes among the more than 100,000 men and women fighting for us overseas -- only victims. At least, that is how the news gets filtered and spun in most of the media.

Any reservist whose life is disrupted by being called to active duty has a good chance of making the front page of the New York Times with his laments. But 99 fellow reservists who are focused on their duty are far less likely to be featured.

Enemy casualties, no matter how large, seldom get as much publicity as even a handful of American casualties. A whole ghoul school of journalism was preparing for the thousandth death among American troops in Iraq, so that they could run big features on it.

The New York Times covered page after page with the names of those thousand dead. The television wing of the ghoul school did similar things in their broadcasts. The rationale for this is that they are "honoring" the dead troops and perhaps showing that the media, too, are patriotically "supporting our troops."

The fraudulence of this can be seen in the fact that Ted Koppel, who sneered at those journalists who wore little American flag lapel pins after 9/11 as people who were "flag waving," has made the display of American dead a feature of "Nightline."

Why is it that the New York Times, which has been against this war from day one, and against the military for decades before that, is spearheading this way of "honoring" our troops? What they are in fact doing is rubbing our noses in the casualties at every opportunity.

People have every right to be for or against this war or any other war. That is what editorial pages, newspaper columns, and radio and TV talk shows are all about. But pretending to be reporting news and "honoring" the troops is dirty business.

While our troops were willing to put their lives on the line to carry out their missions, they did not go overseas for the purpose of dying. Nor have they died without taking a lot more of the enemy with them. Every terrorist killed in Iraq is one that will never come over here to commit another 9/11.

Anyone who was serious about honoring the fallen troops would honor what they accomplished, not just the price they paid. More than 5,000 Marines died taking the one little island of Iwo Jima but they were honored for taking Iwo Jima -- a wretched little island in itself, but a crucial forward base for supporting the air attacks on Japan that ended World War II.

Those who are busy "honoring" the deaths of American troops in Iraq seldom have much to say about what those troops accomplished. The restoration of electricity, the re-opening of hospitals and schools, and all the other things being done to try to restore a war-devastated country get little attention, and everything that has gone wrong makes the front pages and TV news for weeks on end.

This is the approach that gave the media their biggest triumph and ego boost -- the discrediting of the war in Vietnam.

More than 50,000 Americans died trying to save that country from Communist attacks. Their achievements included victories on the battlefield that were negated politically by the way the American press reported the war.

In recent years, Vietnam's Communist leaders themselves have admitted that they lost that war on the ground but hung on because the American anti-war movement gave them hope that they could win it politically. It was a well-founded hope that the American media helped make come true when we withdrew both our troops and our financial and political backing for the Vietnamese under attack.

At that time, the media had not yet come up with the gimmick of "honoring" American war dead but they were nevertheless able to throw away the victory for which those men sacrificed their lives.

Will they repeat that heady achievement a second time in Iraq? They certainly seem to be trying. And it is no honor.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Florida Patriot Group Sends Cheer to Deployed Troops
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2004 -- Karen Williams, a self-described patriot who lives in Lutz, Fla., says Americans have a lot to be thankful for.

The American people, Williams observed, enjoy an enviable way of life, thanks in large part to the U.S. military. Today, she pointed out, servicemembers are deployed in harm's way worldwide in places like Afghanistan and Iraq in the war against global terrorism.

In April 2003, Williams and her sister, Barbara Mueller, started a military support group called the Lutz Patriots. Lutz is located about 20 miles north of Tampa.

"Barbara and I decided to wave American flags on (U.S.) Route 41 to show support for the troops and our country," Williams recalled, noting the sisters told a few friends and 80 people showed up that first Friday.

By the second Friday there were 150 participants, Williams said, including members of Lutz's fire and police departments and local Boy and Girl Scouts.

The flag waving, Williams noted, has continued every Friday since.

Williams said the group also solicits donations and forwards letters and care packages to U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait, and on ships at sea. The Patriots have also contributed children's clothing and books to a school and orphanage in Iraq.

Williams has another, more personal stake in the war -- her sister's 26-year- old son, Matthew, is in the Marines.

And so, Williams said, when she sees war protesters on television her red, white and blue blood runs cold. Williams agrees that war protesters have a right to voice their opinion. "But because of the military, they have the freedom to do that," she pointed out.

"It bothers me," Williams said, "that some protesters seem adamantly against our military. You can be against the war, but support our troops."

The local paper, "The Lutz Community News," runs notices each week soliciting cash donations and goods such as clothes, CDs, snacks, "anything the troops might want," Williams said.

"We just sent a bunch of medical scrub outfits to a U.S. military hospital in Iraq," she said.

"Every day we get more and more donations, and people send care packages," she observed. Postage is expensive, and Williams said much of the donated money goes for that.

Williams said letters she's received from overseas troops demonstrate that they appreciate the Patriots' support. "They say they're glad they're over there doing a job that needs to be done," she said, adding that the troops also write "thank you for supporting us."

One officer, Williams recalled, wrote that he'd observed one of his men crying after receiving a package from the Lutz group. The officer asked the troop if he'd gotten a package from home.

The man had replied, "'No, it's from someone I don't know.'"

Williams said she thoroughly enjoys working on behalf of U.S. servicemembers and appreciates the many people assisting the group's efforts.

The Lutz Patriots will continue to support America's troops "until the last one comes home," she said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines told of Iraq duty


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
170 local reservists set to mobilize in January

By TOM ERNST
News Staff Reporter
11/30/2004

About 170 members of a local Marine Corps Reserve unit are preparing to put their lives on hold for a year while they are deployed to Iraq.
India Company of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, which trains at the Porter Avenue Reserve Center, has been notified that it will be mobilized in January.

The infantry unit is expected to spend about two months training in California and then be deployed to Iraq in March or April. The entire battalion, made up of five companies, is being deployed, and the normal rotation for duty in Iraq is seven months.

"This is what we train for," said Capt. Christopher Reynolds, inspector-instructor of the company, who will serve as executive officer, or second in command, in Iraq.

Just where it will be deployed in Iraq remains to be seen. It will be conducting security and stability operations and working with active-duty units.

India Company received notification in October, and the only surprise was that it did not happen sooner, Reynolds said.

"We've been following the news and knew it was a possibility, so we'll be ready," Reynolds said.

"We're getting plenty of time to get our affairs in order."

The men (there are no women in the infantry) come from all walks of life and include a number of students.

"Employers and schools have been very cooperative," as the Marines notified them they will be away, Reynolds said.

In the meantime, the unit will continue to conduct weekend drills once a month and will have a two-week drill in December.

In California, it will train at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms and March Air Force Base in the Mohave Desert.

India Company was last mobilized in 1991 as part of Operation Desert Storm and was deployed to Norway in support of other units.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Bush says Iraq elections must be on schedule

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said that Iraq (news - web sites) elections, set for January 30, should not be put back despite deadly chaos that may compromise their legitimacy.


"The elections should not be postponed. It's time for the Iraqi citizens to go to the polls, and that's why we are very firm on the January 30th date," he said at the White House.


Bush said he had ordered US forces in Iraq to their highest levels since last year's invasion at the request of US commanders and for the purpose of increasing security as the election draws closer.


"I have always said that I will listen to the requests of our commanders on the ground, and our commanders requested some troops delay their departure home and the expedition of the other troops to help these elections go forward. And I honored their request," he told reporters.


US force levels will climb from 138,000 to about 150,000 by early January, extending tours of duty and deploying fresh troops from the United States, according to a US military commander in Iraq.


That was the number of US ground troops in Iraq at the end of major combat operations April 30, 2003.


Bush also defended US efforts to train Iraq security forces, who have struggled in combat with insurgents, saying: "We are working hard to train Iraqis. And we have got certain benchmarks in mind."


"The idea, of course, and strategy, of course, is have the Iraqis defend their own freedom. And we want to help them have their presidential elections," he said.


"And at some point in time, when Iraq is able to defend itself against the terrorists who are trying to destroy democracy, as I've said many times, our troops will come home with the honor they have earned," he said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

US army fears more violence as rebels sneak back into Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US Marines keeping a tenuous peace in the battered Iraqi city of Fallujah say they expect an explosion of violence as rebels hiding among returning refugees renew their deadly campaign of bombings and ambushes.


They also fear the insurgency will find increasing support from Fallujah residents who return to find their homes and businesses devastated by last month's massive US-led assault on the Sunni Muslim enclave.


"Our assessment is the die-hard guys have gone to ground and are just waiting for the refugees to return so that they can blend in, come back and start their IED (improvised explosive device) campaign," said Captain Tom Tennant of the 1st Batallion, 3rd Marines, who have dug into northeast Fallujah.


Heavy fighting has devastated much of the city, leaving block after block of torched shopfronts and bullet-scarred homes that continue to come under heavy fire from US marines searching for lingering rebels.


Most of Fallujah's 300,000 residents fled the city in the weeks before the assault, and though the military has said no date has been set for their return, marines are already braced for the flood of people.


"Right now it's hard enough, but when you inject a bunch of civilians into this city it's going to be that much harder," Tennant said, warning of a campaign of daily bombings.


"These guys are just going to filter back in.


"They know what they're doing, when things change, and they're just going to wait until we're at our weakest point and hit us again," said another marine after an evening patrol of the neighborhood around the marine's compound.


Senior military officials acknowledge that insurgents have found refuge among Fallujah's displaced residents.


But they say people are only going to be allowed to return in controlled numbers, and the Iraqi government is going to register each person with ID cards in order to weed out rebels.


They also say they are confident Fallujah's residents will cooperate with US and Iraqi forces and turn suspected rebels in.


"The people of Fallujah don't want them coming back. We hope they'll identify these bad people when they try to sneak back in with them," marine Major Jim West told a press conference last week.


But some marines in the city say politics are pushing some officers to make dangerously optimistic assessments of the situation in Fallujah.


Insurgents are likely to find allies among Fallujah's residents, some of whom are at best indifferent to the US presence, they say.


And the damage caused by the fighting and continuing security operations in the city -- marines are daily blasting homes with gunfire before storming them as they search for weapons and rebels who still ambush them from abandoned buildings -- has likely turned others against US and Iraqi forces.


"The hardest part of the this is you have fence-sitters, a lot of them support the insurgents and a lot of them aren't going to be too happy when they see what's happened to their homes," Tennant said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

December 02, 2004

Helos make pier-side landing on Bonhomme Richard

By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer


Marine Corps helicopters took flight Thursday and settled on the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, just days before it will lead a seven-vessel naval strike group and 6,000 Marines and sailors to the Persian Gulf.
In an unusual move, some two dozen helicopters with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Pendleton, Calif., flew onto Bonhomme Richard’s flight deck while the ship was berthed at the 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego.

The amphibious ship is leading the San Diego-based Expeditionary Strike Group 5, which is slated to leave Dec. 6 for the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf, the strike group’s first operational deployment.

The strike group, which includes a combat force of 2,300 Marines, also includes the dock-landing ship Rushmore, transport dock Duluth, cruiser Bunker Hill, destroyer Milius, frigate Thach, submarine Pasadena and – a first for an ESG – the Coast Guard cutter Munro, which is based in Alameda, Calif.

Navy officials had approved the rare pier-side loading of helicopters, which required the ship to go to flight quarters while in port, as a way to save time and money. Typically, amphibious ships leave port and head off San Diego’s coast to taken on helicopters, which requires the ships to steam a course while pilots land the aircraft and deck crews move them onto stowage spots on the flight and hangar decks.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Faces of death <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
Why that video of a Marine shooting an Iraqi insurgent has already begun to fade <br />
BY DAN KENNEDY ...

[thedrifter]

"Photographs, you know, they’re half-truths, you know, that’s only one side," Adams told National Public Radio in 1998, shortly after Loan’s death. "It’s just a sad statement, you know, I think of America. He was fighting our war, not their war, our war, and every — all the blame is on this guy. I got to know him pretty well. I talked to him the last time about six months ago. He was very sick, you know, he had cancer for a while. And I talked to him on the phone, and I wanted to try to do something, explaining everything and how the photograph destroyed his life, and he just wanted to try to forget it. He said let it go. And I just didn’t want him to go out this way."

I asked Dirck Halstead, himself a former war photographer and an acquaintance of Adams, whether he could draw an analogy between Adams’s experience and Sites’s. Halstead, now the editor and publisher of a magazine called the Digital Journalist, responded by e-mail. "In general, photojournalists are like cops. They have pledged themselves to always do the right, ethical thing. However, we all have heard of countless police officers who have become traumatized as a result of having to shoot someone in the line of duty. Unfortunately, this comes with the turf," Halstead told me. "Kevin Sites was covering a battle, as a pool embed. His job was to record what was going on. He was as surprised as Adams was by what happened. He also, obviously, was conflicted and confused by what he had just shot.... He clearly has bonded with the men he has been covering. This happened with most of the pool reporters and photojournalists who have covered the war. This makes it even more difficult, since he obviously feels he let his comrades down. But he has to keep in mind why he was there, and what his job was. I feel for him and want to express to him my respect for a job well done."

Adams only learned of the broader context of Nguyen Ngoc Loan’s life later, after his photo had been seen around the world. Sites tried to offer what context he could in his original report — the exhaustion, the fear, the booby-trapped bodies, the death that lurked around every corner. But a photographer can, at best, help tell the story of what’s happening just outside the range of the viewfinder. The broader context — the broadest context — remains elusive. On November 17, NPR’s Melissa Block interviewed an Al-Jazeera spokesman, Jihad Ali Ballout. The subject: why Al-Jazeera was running Sites’s video on an almost-continuous loop, whereas it refused to show the execution of Margaret Hassan, a video that network officials have admitted is in their possession. Ballout told Block that "these atrocities of killing innocent people, especially people such as the late Mrs. Hassan, was really an outrage. There is a difference between that and when there is a whole army of 20,000 military people converging on an area in Fallujah." Block responded by asking whether Al-Jazeera was using a "double standard" in showing the Sites video but not the Hassan execution. Ballout didn’t really have an answer.

Now, of course, the Hassan execution does not balance off the Fallujah mosque incident in any way, and the moral equation is complex. On the one hand, what happened to Hassan does not somehow justify the misbegotten war in which we are now embroiled. On the other hand, it is useful to remind ourselves — and it is obviously useful for the Arab world to remind itself — that what the Sites video documents is not the moral equivalent of shooting Margaret Hassan in the head. One was a split-second reaction to a confusing, possibly deadly situation. The other was an act of terror in the most literal sense — that is, it was the taking of an innocent life solely for the purpose of spreading terror. One was a tragic mistake. The other was pure evil. But though we should surely see both — as well as the bodies of the civilians who have died or been maimed by our arrogant act of liberation, as well as the beheadings and the Abu Ghraib images and everything else — we travel down a dangerous road when we use these images to try to justify. At best, they help us to understand, however imperfectly.

"The meaning of these pictures is not embedded in the video itself. What people think about this video is going to depend on what they think about the war," says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Bob Zelnick, who chairs Boston University’s journalism department, and who is a former war correspondent for ABC News, praises in-depth reportage, such as Dexter Filkins’s November 21 New York Times article on accompanying US troops in Fallujah, for educating the public about the terrible consequences of urban warfare. "There has been a realistic picture presented of what these guys are up against," he says. "You read that stuff and you can understand what’s going on over there, why anybody would pull the trigger first and ask questions later. Human beings have the blessed ability to make distinctions. We can distinguish between Abu Ghraib and Fallujah. The reason we can do that is because of good reporting in each case."

The problem — the tragedy, really — is that though the images tell us much about the way the war is being conducted, they tell us little about the wisdom of the war, or even its ultimate cost. It says much about this war that we can see pictures of a Marine killing a wounded insurgent, of Iraqi inmates being tortured, and of atrocities committed against Americans and other Westerners by terrorists, yet we cannot see the flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base. That — as well as the additional suffering we’ve inflicted on the already-long-suffering people of Iraq — is the ultimate context.

Dan Kennedy can be reached at dkennedy@phx.com. Read his Media Log at BostonPhoenix.com.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Find Alleged Iraqi Torture Chamber
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KATARINA KRATOVAC
Associated Press
Dec. 2, 2004

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Down a steep staircase littered with glass shards and rubble, U.S. Marines descended Thursday to a dark basement believed to have been one of Fallujah's torture chambers. They found bloodstains and a single bloody hand print on the wall - evidence of the horrors once carried out in this former insurgent stronghold.

"We had sensed that there was a pure streak of evil in this town, ever since the first days of engagement here," said Maj. Wade Weems.

The basement, discovered while Marines fought fierce battles with Fallujah insurgents last month, is part of the Islamic Resistance Center, a three-story building in the heart of this city 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Maj. Alex Ray, an operations officer with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said all evidence indicates the 15-foot-by-20-foot space was used by insurgents to imprison and torture their captives.

"Based on the evidence we have found here, we believe people were held here and possibly tortured - we have found enough blood to surmise that," Ray told reporters shown the basement Thursday.

On the wall adjacent to the hand print, human fingernails were found dug deep into the porous gravel around a hole in the wall - evidence, the Marines say, of a tunnel-digging attempt.

Although most of the evidence had been taken away, there was enough to suggest "they tried to dig their way out," Ray said.

No bodies or human remains - except for the fingernails - were found when the Marines discovered the underground chamber on Nov. 11, but they found "plenty of blood," he said. Marine experts have collected samples for forensic and DNA testing.

"This is tangible proof how horrific they were," Weems, of Washington, D.C., said of the insurgents, shuddering as he gazed at the bloody hand print.

Although unmarked, the center was a known base of operations for the insurgents who ruled Fallujah with terror and fear until U.S. forces and Iraqi troops captured it last month.

The assault was launched Nov. 8 to wrest Fallujah from the control of radical clerics and fighters who seized it after the Marines lifted a three-week siege of the city in April. The city fell after a week of fierce battles and overpowering airstrikes which reduced many of the buildings to rubble.

Two weeks later, Marines continue to fight sporadic gunbattles with holdouts as they clear streets, homes and buildings of weapons caches and rubble. More than 350 weapons caches have been found so far.

As Weems' troops inspected the Islamic Resistance Center on Thursday, gunshots and small arms fire reverberated from Fallujah's northeastern Askari neighborhood. The Marines said it was a sign the insurgents are still active.

On the Islamic center's first floor, the Marines discovered a weapons-making factory at the back of what appeared to be a legitimate computer store.

It contained boxloads of empty shotgun shells and a primitive-looking reloading machine on one of the tables. On the second floor, they found a sack of gunpowder and numerous mortar launcher cases.

Elsewhere in Fallujah, the Marines have discovered DVD recordings of beheadings, as well as a cage and chains bearing traces of human blood. They say it was "apparent the cage was not holding animals."

"It's the combination of the chains, the cage, the blood - there were not nice people here, that's for sure," Ray said. "They certainly didn't have the morals I would expect in a human society."

Reporters were not taken Thursday to the other sites, many of which have been cleared of evidence and the buildings destroyed by the Marines.

Maj. Jim West, a Marine intelligence officer, has said Fallujah's "atrocity sites" were used by the insurgents to imprison, torture and kill hostages. In some, knives and black hoods, many of them blood-covered, have been found.

More than 30 foreign hostages have been killed by their captors in Iraq this year, including three Americans. Many of the victims have been beheaded and their deaths shown on grisly videos posted on the Internet. Iraqi police and other security forces have also been killed after their capture by insurgents.

"We believe the majority of the hostages were held in Fallujah because it was such an insurgent haven," said Ray.

The military says an estimated 1,200 insurgents and more than 50 Marines have been killed in the assault on Fallujah.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraq Overshadows Army-Navy Football Game
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DAN GELSTON
Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA - Two years ago, JP Blecksmith was a Navy football player just like any other, catching passes, trying to win games - and aware that a greater challenge was ahead.

Blecksmith was one of the most popular players on the team, even if his playing time was scarce. He loved to work out, would toss balls with the underclassmen and always knew so much more was at stake than a few wins or losses.

That's why news of Blecksmith's death last month during a military operation in Fallujah, Iraq, brought home the harsh reality for so many Midshipmen:

Any one of these young men could be next.

"You know you might be over there and people might be talking about you in a couple of years," senior co-captain Josh Smith said. "Something could happen to you."

When Navy plays Army for the 105th time Saturday, with President Bush in attendance, the Midshipmen will carry Blecksmith's memory - and the memory of everyone who ever died in combat.

"We're playing for the whole brotherhood, but definitely we're playing for him," Navy quarterback Aaron Polanco said.

Blecksmith could have played for Ivy League schools or in the Pac-10 coming out of Flintridge Prep near his hometown of San Marino, Calif., but he felt a duty to serve as a Marine.

While his father, Ed, served in the Marines, he never pushed his son into the military. As a kid, though, JP would take his dad's old jungle boots and dig foxholes in vacant fields.

When JP was a leatherneck, he camped outside for days in a torrential downpour. When he finished, his dad wanted to know if he was ready for clean sheets and hot chow.

"Dad, I loved it," JP told him.

After watching the Sept. 11 attacks, JP was quoted in California's Glendale News-Press about his commitment to the military: "I can't ever forget what I saw on the TV screen. I don't think anyone can. It felt like I was watching a movie. If it means going to war for those people, I'm willing to do that."

That attitude didn't surprise those who knew him.

Navy's Paul Johnson only coached Blecksmith for one season, but he knew a player who never stopped practicing hard, even though his career never panned out as hoped. Blecksmith earned his only varsity letter in 2002 and had exactly one career catch for 13 yards. He attempted four passes and had two kickoff returns.

Blecksmith was the first player Johnson coached killed overseas.

"That's tough. That's part of the reality of it," Johnson said. "The guys understand that. They're proud to serve their country. That's why they're there and that's what makes them so special."

Blecksmith was a 2nd lieutenant in the Marine Corps and a platoon commander. He'd been with his platoon for six months and stationed for two months in Iraq. He was supposed to come home next spring and had plans to marry his girlfriend.

JP's platoon was clearing houses of insurgents in Fallujah's notorious Jolan district when heavy fighting erupted. Blecksmith was on the roof of a building when a sniper shot him from behind in the left shoulder, just missing his flapjacket.

Ed Blecksmith said either the bullet or bone fragments pierced down to his son's heart, killing him instantly.

JP was 24 when he died on Veterans Day.

"We were very close. There wasn't much we didn't share together," Ed Blecksmith said in a telephone interview from his office in Los Angeles, his voice cracking. "He let me be a part of his life. He's everything you would love in a son."

Blecksmith's death served as a reminder of the constant danger for everyone enlisted at a service academy.

"It's rough to hear about that," Army linebacker Greg Washington said. "It's something we all have to face when you play at an academy."

Ed Blecksmith will watch Saturday's game with his family and feel proud that his son had the courage to lead and make the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

"I'm amazed at how many people he touched, at what kind of legacy he's leaving," Ed Blecksmith said. "The bottom line is JP was doing what he wanted to do."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines to Resume Public Report of Deaths
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON - More than a month after it stopped publicly reporting individual Marine deaths in Iraq, the Corps' main headquarters there intends to resume the announcements, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

Col. Jenny Holbert, spokeswoman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said it was decided that during the Fallujah offensive the Marines would stay silent until the Defense Department's public affairs office in Washington released identities of Marines killed. The names are not released in Washington until 24 hours after the victim's relatives are notified, a procedure that usually takes a few days.

Previously, the Marines would announce the fact of a death on the day it happened, without details. That practice ended sometime before the Fallujah offensive was launched Nov. 8.

"We decided not to issue press releases on a casualty because we did not want to aid the enemy in determining the success of their actions," Holbert wrote in an e-mail response to questions about the practice.

Marines suffered most of the U.S. casualties during the fighting in Fallujah. The Los Angeles Times on Thursday quoted Lt. Gen. John Sattler, the top Marine commander in Iraq, as saying 71 U.S. troops died in the battle to retake the city, although it did not say how many of those were Marines.

"Now, since operations have slowed down, we are taking few casualties and the enemy has been severely disabled, we will go back to publishing releases as casualties occur," Holbert wrote.

The Marines had three deaths in Iraq on Monday, but they were not officially reported. The official who revealed the three deaths did so on condition of anonymity because the policy has not changed yet.

Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman, said the blackout on information about Marine casualties was a practice the Marines chose on their own, not a policy encouraged or required by the Pentagon (news - web sites).

The Marines felt it was in their best interest to "not provide measures of effectiveness to your adversary" by reporting the number of troops killed on a given day, Whitman said.

Waiting for the Pentagon to release the identity of each Marine killed in Iraq provided "enough time away from the (fatal) event that the information would have little value to the enemy," Holbert said.

The Army has taken a different approach. It has continued throughout the conflict in Iraq to report deaths at the time they occur, without immediately providing details such as the victim's name.

The Army has also provided more details, such as the town or city in which a soldier was killed, whereas the Marines have made it a practice since the start of the war in 2003 to identify only the province in which it happened. Most Marine deaths have been in Anbar province, which covers a vast area stretching from Baghdad to Iraq's borders with Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia.

The Army also publicly names the type of weapon used to kill a soldier, such as a roadside bomb, a rocket-propelled grenade or a sniper rifle. The Marines have withheld that information, saying it would benefit the insurgents by telling them which approaches are most effective.

For November, the Marines had at least 83 deaths and the Army had at least 49, although the official accounting is not yet complete. The Pentagon has not announced a final figure for the number of U.S. military deaths in November, but preliminary figures put it at 135, which equals the highest number for any month since U.S. forces invaded Iraq in March 2003.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Tube Alert for Sunday evening: Breaking Point: The Battle of Fallujah <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
From FoxNews.com <br />
Thursday, December 02, 2004...

[thedrifter]

America Supports You: Operation Dear Abby Uses E-mail
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2004 -- In 1967 a servicemember wrote advice columnist "Dear Abby" requesting "just a letter from home" for deployed troops serving during the Vietnam War.

The famous columnist, known by her pseudonym Abigail Van Buren, responded, and the "Operation Dear Abby" mail program was born. Through the ensuing years, hundreds of thousands of U.S. servicemembers received letters of support from Dear Abby readers during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holiday seasons.

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the Defense Department shut down Operation Dear Abby due to concerns of potential anthrax attacks through regular postal mail.

In November 2001, Dear Abby and the U.S. Navy teamed up to resurrect the letter-writing operation using e-mail as the conduit, noted Bill Hendrix, director of the Navy's Lifelines quality-of-life program.

Hendrix said the Internet-enabled Operation Dear Abby system experienced 22 million hits during its first month of operation. "We like to say that was just an outpouring of the (U.S.) population to thank the troops for what they were doing," Hendrix remarked.

"It was just an overwhelming surge" of support, he said.

Today, Jeanne Phillips, the daughter of Dear Abby founder Pauline Phillips, writes the advice column, which reaches more than 100 million readers.

And with U.S. troops deployed worldwide in support of the global war against terrorism, Operation Dear Abby's messages of support are as important as ever, Hendrix said. The Navy-run operation supports all the services.

According to the operation's Web site, the general public can send messages to servicemembers. Servicemembers, in turn, with Internet access can read those messages. Troops without Internet access can still read them by having others, such as their commanders, download and distribute messages.

Hendrix said the e-mail servers "start to buzz" each time Operation Dear Abby is discussed in the Dear Abby column. "It goes right up to the 3- to 4-million- hit range every time she does it," he said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

America Supports You: Yellow Ribbons Tie in to Troop Support
Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2004 -- The Harrisburg, Ill., duo of Amy Oxford and her mother, Kathy Williams, are knee-deep in packages to send to troops.

The mother/daughter team started the "Southern Illinois Yellow Ribbon Campaign" on March 19, 2003. They were motivated after noticing a lack of outward support for deployed troops from their area. So they began selling yellow ribbons and lapel pins to pay for the creation and shipping of care packages.

Soon their local effort became national, as they received more and more requests to support deployed troops from across the nation.

The organization, which is in the process of gaining nonprofit status, serves as a clearinghouse for those who want to send care packages to the troops. Each box is packed according to individual wants and needs that servicemembers indicate on questionnaires provided in initial welcome packages.

As with many support organizations, the holidays mean special efforts for the organization.

Last year during the first "Holiday Hugs to our Heroes" effort, Oxford said, monetary donations far surpassed the items donated. This year they had a windfall of donated items for the 2nd Annual Holiday Hugs to our Heroes project, she said. For example, the group received a significant donation of goods from the Department of Motor Vehicles in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.

But having the items to ship is only half of the equation. The other half is having enough postage to get them in the mail.

"We're falling thousands of dollars short," Oxford said. "I'd say we need a good $10,000 to get everything out. Right now, we figured at (an average of) $20 a box we've just got enough to mail 250."

Mailing deadlines are quickly approaching. Some of the packages have to be in the mail by Dec. 6 and the rest by Dec. 11 to ensure they get to the troops by Christmas.

And just as the need for postage, funding and goods is never ending -- personalized packages go out year round -- the database of names of troops requesting packages keeps right on growing.

"I had a commander (from the Army) contact me about a week ago, and he gave me 180 names of people that had requested a care package," Oxford said.

The numbers of troops in need of a little tender, loving care from home may keep growing, and the donations -- both goods and cash -- may ebb and flow. But, the women, with the help of Oxford's 4-year-old daughter, Callie, keep plugging away. And though there is no material benefit for them, Oxford says it's well worth the effort.

"We get as excited about the mail coming in as the mail going out," Oxford said in reference to the support they've received from across the country. "The benefits we get far exceed any kind of pay you could get in a paid job."

She suggested interested supporters watch the group's Web site for information about upcoming special efforts. The Valentine project is set to kick off near the first of the year, Oxford said.


Ellie