Fallujah today is an impoverished ramshackle mess, but it’s not a war zone anymore. In 2004 it was by far the worst place in the country. It was still a hotbed of insurgent activity as recently as the first half of 2007.
“The unit we relieved was monitoring the city, watching the city,” Corporal Koch said. “We took that over from them. Then we started our push. It was a couple of months before the regular civilians got back in the city.”
“Months after you came in?” I said.
“We came in in November, on November 6th,” he said. “It took about two or three weeks altogether. The civilians stayed out of the city for another month or month and a half after that. We were still doing operations then, but it wasn’t an all out push. It was just cleaning up. It was loose ends. Weapons caches. Just basically getting this place ready for the civilians to come back in. We made sure people weren’t going into their homes while they were rigged to blow.”
Civilians were evacuated from the city before Al-Fajr began.
“When the civilians left,” I said, “did you help them leave orderly, or was it a mad scramble to get out of here?”
“They left in an orderly fashion,” he said. “Camps were set up outside the city for people who didn’t have family or relatives to go to and for people who couldn’t make the journey.”
A few civilians, though, did not make it out.
“There are people everywhere who want to ride out a crisis,” said India Company’s Captain Stewart Glenn. “Just like those people in New Orleans who stuck around for Hurricane Katrina. I’m going to ride it out, they said. So a few around here rode it out. There were, I think, six or so families that did that. We painted the word Family on the walls of their houses so they wouldn’t be confused with combatants.”
[…]
“I definitely think it was necessary,” he said. “I don’t have any regrets. I’m glad I did it, and I would do it again. It’s good to see the city the way it is and to go to the same neighborhoods. They’re so much cleaner now. These people are doing things on their own, they’re taking care of their own stuff. When I was here three years ago, I never would have imagined this place would ever be like it is now. It reminded me of Tijuana. When we got here it just seemed like everything you could think of that was bad, this city had it going on. Now they have regular families thriving in the city. There are people working neighborhood watch, working together. It has turned around a lot. I didn’t even want to come on this deployment, but now seeing the city the way it is, I’m glad I did. It’s like a closure on everything.”
Read the whole thing. Michael is supported by reader donations, so if you’re inclined to hit a tip jar today, make it his.
Here’s a clip of CNN attacking McCain for suggesting things in Iraq are getting better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06hR2EGpl4o
…watching it I couldn’t help but wonder if the reporter claiming gun battles were raging in the background had actually been outside to make sure it wasn’t just target practice…
Understood completely- my Dad was in Belgium and Holland during WW2, (where he was decorated). I asked him to tell me, of his wartime experiences? He refused- he said: “Your interest is too morbid….” !?!
Well- waddya want- the ‘glory of war’? (It’s been done.) You want- the ‘romance of war’?
Ya gotta be kidding!
House to house, street by street cleanup, is the most dangerous kind of conflict, (no grunt in their right mind, has anything good to say about that).
In Stalingrad, there was a low-rise building, in which the Nazis held the first floor, the Russians had the second floor, and the Nazis were on the third floor- they blew down the walls with grenades, so that they could close, with knives and burpguns. (The Russians took fearfull losses- Michael Kalesnikov invented the AK47 to fix that gap………..
House to house, is hand to hand- you never know what is on the other side of the door! It take major balls, to play the game on that level!
Way ta go! (Some of us have an idea what you guys are facing!)
sheik yerbootie: “House to house, street by street cleanup, is the most dangerous kind of conflict, (no grunt in their right mind, has anything good to say about that).”
“Canadian infantrymen moved from house to house without ever showing up in the streets.” …-
The Capture of Ortona
(excerpt)
“Canadian infantrymen moved from house to house without ever showing up in the streets. Using pickaxes and explosives, they pierced the upstairs walls between buildings, dashing forward through smoke and dust, pouncing down on their opponents. Grenades thrown by the Germans would fall back on them before exploding.” […]
“Fighting raged for days. The Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders Regiment were relentless and suffered heavy casualties. At Christmas, against all expectation, the Seaforth Highlanders fusiliers were treated to a real holiday dinner in the Church of Santa Maria di Constandinopoli.” …-
http://tinyurl.com/3dncm4 (junobeach.org)
Just finished reading this great piece, and then dropped $10 into his tip jar. Well worth it from my end.
Thanks Kate for posting this article.
To me, Michael has written and reported on the situation in Iraq in a unique manner that genuinely informed me.
His reporting also is consistent with the conversatstion that I have had with Canadians operating in Afghanistan.
The MSM appears to want to only publish the bad news and not report on positive progress in these theaters of operation.
I am very appreciative to receive reporting from this point of view.
Similar articles will be coming out of Anbar in another year.
We WIN.
Democrats LOSE.