November 8, 2004
GODSPEED:
With Airpower and Armor, Troops Enter Rebel-Held City (DEXTER FILKINS and JAMES GLANZ, 11/09/04, NY Times)
Thousands of American marines and soldiers swarmed over a railroad embankment on the northern edge of Falluja on Monday night and early Tuesday, setting off a wild firefight and making their first advances across the deadly streets and twisting alleyways of this rebel-held city.Posted by Orrin Judd at November 8, 2004 11:05 PMThe move, following weeks of bombings by American airplanes, marked the beginning of the main assault on Falluja, expected to be the most significant battle since the fall of Baghdad 19 months ago.
Most of the 6,500 American troops and 2,000 Iraqi soldiers went over the embankment at six separate points, military officials said, aiming to clear the city of insurgents one house at a time and eventually take several large public buildings in the heart of the city.
The drive into Falluja's downtown came after the interim Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, gave formal authority to the American-led troops to start the assault. American and Iraqi officials have said elections planned for the end of January would be imperiled if Falluja and other cities in the Sunni Muslim heartland remained in the hands of the rebels.
Hundreds or thousands of insurgents met the American attack, sometimes contesting every inch of the advance and sometimes melting back into the darkened houses of the city they have held for more than six months.
After a year of taking advice from the weenies, girlymen, Arab stooges and traitors at the State Department about how to deal with the 'Sunni Triangle', the military appears to have learned its lesson and realized that the Israeli model is the only way to go.
We have apparently sealed off the city, and are going house to house, where we are meeting less resistance than we were expecting. I don't know if this means the rats have fled the sinking ship or if they were only a paper tiger to begin with. My hope is the latter.
Posted by: Bart at November 9, 2004 6:28 AMThis is not a big deal. The rags really aren't that tough, compared to people we had faced in the past. However, I would like to see our technology transform operations in urban terrain the way it has trasformed the traditional battlefield. We need to field futuristic weapons capable of making even this token resistance futile. Perhaps a system that detonates explosives, including RPG rounds and rifle cartridge primers, at a distance. I have confidence that we can solve this problem the way we sovled the problem of nuclear fission.
Posted by: Lou Gots at November 9, 2004 6:41 AMThis battle is obviously important for Iraq, but, for us, it might be even more important as a proving ground of the urban combat strategies the military has spent the last couple of decades developing but haven't yet used.
Posted by: David Cohen at November 9, 2004 7:43 AMFrom the Belmont Club's description, it sounds like the new technology is proving to be unbelievably lethal. Should install some terror into the hearts of the terrorists.
Posted by: Bret at November 9, 2004 1:12 PMLou:
Don't 500 and 2000 lb. bombs take care of the problem?
Our spotters point to a house, and then it is dust.
Posted by: jim hamlen at November 9, 2004 3:08 PMDig 'em out, Slammers!
Posted by: Ken at November 9, 2004 4:44 PM