Marines pulling out of Fallujah

[Barrett808]

Source: Honolulu Advertiser

FALLUJAH, Iraq — The car bomb in Fallujah exploded in May. On that warm evening, insurgents drove a vehicle packed with explosives into mourners of a slain local tribal leader as they wound through a ramshackle corner of the city, killing 20.

The next day, Fallujah's mayor banned all vehicles from city streets.

If there were no cars, reasoned Mayor Saad Awad Rashid, there could be no car bombs.

"It stopped," said Lt. Col. William Mullen, commander of a shrinking force of U.S. Marines in the city who have watched the insurgency melt into the encircling countryside. "The 'significant events' in the city stopped. I think a lot of (the insurgents) left."

The Americans are not far behind: After surrounding the city with walls and improving security on its streets, Marines are pulling back from the one-time insurgent bastion of Fallujah. They are redeploying to surrounding areas as the U.S. troop surge allows them to consolidate progress made largely by tribal leaders and local officials in security and civil works.

Read more: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071105/NEWS08/711050347/1018/NEWS08

[babylonsister]

1. Success! Now time to come home! nt

[libodem]

2. Please help me not be sarcastic

i'm so sick of my own attitude. We melted Faluja. We ethnically cleansed Faluja. We more or less said get out or we are razing your home, killing you, or taking you prisoner, to be tortured. The smart ones ran off. The ones who couldn't get away were doused with Depleted Uranium. Soft tissue and blood cancers abound. The birth defects are horrendous. Our boys have done their assigned duties. Yes, let them come home. I hope fervently that the, Marines, themselves are not stricken with cancer or father deformed and retarded children. I hope pray that, our boy's minds and spirits will be healed and that they don't have PTSD.

[saigon68]

3. Well --- IF THEY --father deformed and retarded children.

THE VA WILL TURN A BLIND EYE TO THAT

[Robbien]

4. What you said. Ditto

And to think of everything that has happened in Iraq, Bush feels the battle of Fallujah is his crowning moment.

[ret5hd]

5. The modern equivalent of "salting the earth".

[Kolesar]

7. "salting the wells"

+ "salt of the earth" yields a mixed metaphor. Yeah, I know. I type fast and miss a few myself. :hi:

[bitchkitty]

10. Not a metaphor -

from Wikipedia:

Salting the earth refers to the practice of spreading salt on fields to make them incapable of being used for crop-growing. This was done in ancient times at the end of some wars as an extremely punitive scorched earth tactic.

[Beerboy]

6. There's no one left to kill.

So says a Congressman on Capitol Hill.

[olddad56]

8. which in Bush's mind would be 'mission accomplished'

[libodem]

9. sad but true

[Doctor_J]

11. No cars=no car bombs. Freedom's on the march!

The easy extension of this is no people = no crime! Damn, why didn't we think of that earlier?

:sarcasm:

[PurityOfEssence]

12. I guess so...It can't really "be on the drive" anymore, can it?

What a mess.

[SyntaxError]

13. Maybe he is just doing his part to stop global warming...