NYT: Leathernecks Guard Ramadi, Itching for Fight with Invisible Foe

[DeepModem Mom]

TROOPS

Leathernecks Guard the Streets of Ramadi, Itching for a Fight With an Invisible Foe


Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
Members of the Second Battalion, Fifth Marines attending a ceremony at which three marines were awarded purple hearts. The battalion runs what some call the "suicide train," a convoy that delivers food to bases.

By EDWARD WONG
Published: October 24, 2004


RAMADI, Iraq, Oct. 21 - The marines here are still searching for their kind of war.

It is not for lack of an enemy. In the heart of this provincial capital, where the marines routinely run convoys and patrols down a 4½-mile stretch of road, hidden bombs explode daily, leaving American bodies riddled with shrapnel, if not ripped apart.

Guerrillas pop out and take shots with AK-47's and rocket-propelled grenades. The marines are even exposed at bases at each end of the downtown area - mortars hit regularly, and snipers' bullets occasionally zing through the air.

But when the marines fire back or give chase, they find that the insurgents have slipped into the palm groves and narrow alleys and mosques, melting in with the civilians and floating away like so many dust motes....

***

To listen to these marines, fighting in a murky counterinsurgency whose final outcome is far from certain, is to hear the voices of young men frustrated by an adaptable and often unseen foe. Many said they were willing, even eager, to do battle, and their anxieties have not resulted in outright rebellion, as did those of an Army Reserve platoon that refused on Oct. 13 to transport fuel through insurgent-controlled territory on what it called a "suicide mission."

But the members of the Second Battalion, Fifth Marines are no longer taking the offensive against a conventional army, as they did during their first tour in the spring of 2003. Now they are fighting a guerrilla war, which has proved a much greater challenge than many of them once thought - a sentiment echoed by troops across Iraq....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/24/international/middleeast/24troops.html

[saigon68]

1. VIET-NAM REDUX 2003 - 2004--- to whenever you GIVE UP

Hey Marines --- welcome to the real world of a Nationalist War to eject the Thugs and Hoodlums who conquered your Country

"" It is not for lack of an enemy. In the heart of this provincial capital, where the marines routinely run convoys and patrols down a 4½-mile stretch of road, hidden bombs explode daily, leaving American bodies riddled with shrapnel, if not ripped apart.

Guerrillas pop out and take shots with AK-47's and rocket-propelled grenades. The marines are even exposed at bases at each end of the downtown area - mortars hit regularly, and snipers' bullets occasionally zing through the air.

But when the marines fire back or give chase, they find that the insurgents have slipped into the palm groves and narrow alleys and mosques, melting in with the civilians and floating away like so many dust motes....""---


MARINES BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2004/nr20041023-1436.html

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.



Lance Cpl. Jonathan E. Gadsden, 21, of Charleston, S.C. died Oct. 22 at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, Fla., from injuries as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq on Aug. 21. Gadsden was assigned to 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

[jmcgowanjm]

2. Bush: "Bring it on!"-Iraqis: "OK!"

These non-capitalist milieux and strata were initially
the peasants and artisans with their 'natural economy,' later
the colonies. Colonialism for Rosa Luxemburg is therefore
not only the last stage of capitalism , but
its constant necessary condition. In other words,
without colonies capital accumulation or extended
reproduction of capital would come to a stop.

"Imperialism is the expression of the political
accumulation
of capital in its competitive struggle for what remains still
open
of the non-capitalist environment."

-Rosa Luxemburg, "The Accumulation of Capital," 1913

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/092004_persian_peril2.shtml

[jmcgowanjm]

3. Imagine Baghdad is San Antonio and Fallujah is College Station

And, you've got only 5000 PLA to take it.

And you've announced that the only reason you haven't
launched a full scale assault is this:

The key date is November 2. After the US election on that day,
the focus will shift rapidly to creating the right conditions
for elections in Iraq that will be a critical step toward
establishing democracy after decades of Saddam
Hussein’s tyranny.

Phase one of the US plan will be to recapture towns that
are under the control of the insurgents. The heaviest firepower
is to be concentrated on Falluja, a town that has gained an
iconic status among Iraqi insurgents...

The assault on Falluja will be spearheaded by the 24th
US marine expeditionary unit, which currently patrols
Iskanderia and other nearby towns to the south of Baghdad.
The Black Watch will plug the gap they leave behind on
a temporary basis (How temp?-BW promised by both Tony
Blair and defence secretary Geoff Hoon that they will be
“home for Christmas”!).

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1233572004

Sun Tzu: The worst policy is to attack cities

[JohnyCanuck]

7. Chaos Inside the Triangle of Death

One military analyst questioned the focus on Fallujah, given the problems that existed elsewhere. ‘‘The sheer scale of the number of insurgency groups now in Iraq, and how they have operated so far, indicates that many of the insurgency groups will have already split into smaller cells and simply moved their operations out of Fallujah into other parts of Iraq. Fallujah will be a political prize, and when recaptured will be hailed a crucial step towards democracy. The reality? The insurgency groups will already be preparing their responses elsewhere in Iraq.’’ (emphasis mine/jc)


From a Glasgow Sunday Herald story:
Chaos Inside the Triangle of Death

[jmcgowanjm]

8. Yes, confirms that the Iraqi Resistance Reports are accurate.

. The Resistance is only attacking when they can maximize their hits and minimize their losses.

"... it is likely that mass-casualty-producing targets are
searched for until early afternoon. If the opportunity does
not present itself by early afternoon, VBIED drivers are guided
to the next element that comes along.”

You get the impression that with British troops moving
to Baghdad to prop up US troops, it is all beginning to look
like more of a defense of Baghdad rather than an
attack on Fallujah.

Will Baghdad be overrun or just drop from the tree like
a ripe fruit?

Home for Christmas-immediately after
Blair said this, a vote to remove him as PM
should've taken place.

Something Bad Ugly this way Slouches.

http://writ.corporate.findlaw.com/dean/20041022.html

[JohnyCanuck]

9. Good Grief "Home for Christmas!"

I missed that part. Isn't that what they told the Tommy cannon fodder marching off to the trenches of France in August 1914,"You'll be home for Christmas."

[saigon68]

4. Rosa was murdered by right wing thugs

Like the brown shirts that little Johnny Asscrap is organizing to eliminate dissent in amerika.

[jmcgowanjm]

5. Yep, and quoted by Stan Goff, a soldier's soldier!

My theory- Any corrections officer (law enforcement/
military), medical, &/or educator/journalist who stays in
long enough will either become a cog in the bureaucratic
system or a radical.

[jmcgowanjm]

6. Quick history: Rosa Luxemburg

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/rosa_luxemburg.htm

And on the -you learn something new everyday-subject,
from this article I'd say that Wilhelm Pieck was the Judas
for what would become the fateful Weimar Republic.

You do good work Saigon68, I enjoy your posts,
James

[Ernesto]

10. Sounds alot like when my batallion (2/3)

was operating outside of Danang in '67-'68. We were constantly "nickeled & dimed" by the local yokos. 2 to 3 dead Marines every week with no "light @ the end of the tunnel".

[saigon68]

11. Its a way to cause a few casualties

At very little cost to the local forces.

It works well when the general population will look the other way. I doubt the 18 year old kid from Iowa is trained or willing to win their minds. For every child killed by amerika and the poodle allies 200 more sympathizers to the Iraqi Nationalist Resistance are created.

The Bush Criminals are only in this for the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ they have no intention of doing anything else. They now know they will never win. The Bush Criminals are only in it as long as the amerikan sheep allow them and their partners in crime to make a $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Financial KILLING>

LOL

[TahitiNut]

12. Notice the shallow brain pans?

It's a 'feature' - welcomed on enlistment or acquired during indoctrination. Especially valued is the backward sloping forehead that's indicative of an atrophied frontal lobe. Lobes controlling autonomic and other physiological functions should be well-developed. (Unibrows are also valued.)

[Gyre]

13. such a bummer!

Why don't those damned insurgents just stand still!

Wonder if that's what the Hessians were thinking during the Revolutionary War?

Gyre