The Belmont Club once again has an excellent briefing on what’s going on in Fallujah. The terrorists are basically cornered on three sides, with the fourth side facing the Euphrates. In other words, the Marines have the enemy in a “kill box” from which there is no escape.
Meanwhile, the Marines have captured 70% of the city at a cost of only a dozen lives so far. In military terms, this is incredible. Despite fierce urban fighting, the Marines have been able to use combined armor, mortar, and air fire to devastate the enemy with a minimum of friendly casualties. An operation of this scale done so quickly and with so few losses is a testiment to the fighting spirit and tactical genius of the US Marine Corps.
It is 229th birthday of the Marine Corps today, a day in which the Marines show that they can fight from the halls of Montezuma to the shore of Tripoli to the streets of Fallujah and still uphold the values of duty, honor, and country that is at the core of the Marine Corps. _Semper fi_.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi have been kidnapped by terrorists. The constant string of kidnappings and attacks are entirely counterproductive. Tactics such as thise are not the signs of a well-organized resistance, but of simple thuggery. The Iraqi government will not be swayed by such actions, and they illustrate quite clearly the fact that this isn’t a battle between Muslims and the West, but a battle between all those who wish to live in freedom and a radical strain of thought that will kill all those who stand in their way.
