Fallujah is to Iraq what Hue was to Vietnam

[Selatius]

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces hunted rebels in the devastated Iraqi city of Falluja on Sunday as fighting subsided after a ferocious six-day-old assault.

Kidnappers who had threatened to kill Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's cousin, the cousin's wife and their daughter-in-law if he did not call off the Falluja offensive said they would release the two women, Al Jazeera television reported.

No help has reached civilians in Falluja since the assault began on Monday and U.S. forces kept a Red Crescent aid convoy of seven trucks and ambulances waiting at the main hospital near a bridge over the Euphrates River on the edge of the city.

A Reuters correspondent who drove through the city saw utter destruction. Bodies lay in the streets. Homes were smashed, mosques ruined, and power and telephone lines hung uselessly.

U.S. Marines swept through a last rebel redoubt in a southern quarter of the city that they see as a bastion for foreign fighters loyal to al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Read the rest here.

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi also said there were no civilian casualties. We should trust him because he's a "good guy."

[BeyondGeography]

1. They hate us for our freedom from the truth

[cosmik debris]

2. Just wait

The Iraq equivalent of the Tet Offensive is just around the corner.

Those who do not learn from history. . .

viva la raza

[Briar]

3. Revenge

It drives the sort of person who votes for the right. It has driven the US since 9/11. And even this won't be enough. It never is.

[Selatius]

4. Revenge is a double-edged sword

I fear many of the survivors are simply going to pick up arms against the US and swear revenge for the loss of loved ones.