HOW MARINES PULLED FALLUJAH OUT OF HELL......Ralph Peters
I'd encourage you all to read the book they mention at the end. Peters is a smart guy who knows his shit. He is in no way an apologist for this war.
With a fundamentalist tradition, Fallujah seemed to fit al Qaeda perfectly. Robbed of their Saddam-era privileges and out for revenge, even secular locals had aligned with the terrorists. Despite the Marine victory, violence simmered on.
The extremists and insurgents believed they could wear America down. But between 2004 and 2007, two things happened: We wore them down - and al Qaeda wore them out.
With foreign fanatics butchering the innocent and enforcing prison-yard "Islamic laws" that far exceeded the Koran's demands, it belatedly dawned on the insurgents that, while we intended to leave eventually - on our own terms - al Qaeda meant to stay.
A wave of suicide bombings earlier this year, culminating in a massive attack on a funeral procession, made the population snap. The people of Fallujah may never love us, but they hate al Qaeda with the rage of a betrayed lover...................
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http://www.nypost.com/seven/08272007/news/columnists/how_marines_pulled_fallujah_ou.htm
