Mailbag

Mailbag:

I'm going to post out of a couple of the letters I've seen, one of which is being passed around and has been posted elsewhere; the other, as far as I know, hasn't. I'm informed both are OPSEC safe, but I've held them another 24 hours just to be certain.

[T]he Ramadi front is designed to take heat off Falluja.... [A Moblie Assault Platoon] was called to provide relief to ' X.' XXXX says that as they moved up, the rags were performing disciplined, as he calls it, "bounding fire and movement---they knew what they were doing---even when we knocked them back, they were 'bounding.'"

The relative military discipline being shown in Ramadi has been one of the more interesting points of the war. Three "good news" points of analysis: 1) This is almost certainly the best that the enemy in Iraq has at the ready. 2) There are not many of them--a surprise attack on a rearward station is all they could manage, and they were repulsed there by a platoon of reinforcements. Confer with the often-cited Tet offensive, which threw into the fray guerrillas across South Vietnam, and even had trained sappers to dig inside the US compound. 3) These guys are not, in any sort of immediate sense, replacable. It takes months of secure training to produce a coherent unit, disciplined under fire, of a size capable of carrying out an assault like this one. The VC never recovered from the Tet Offensive. After that, the war had to be carried by NVA units, even though the VC had a relatively secure training area in North Vietnam and the underground support of China and the USSR. There are no players of that strength in the region, though possible supporters include, Syria, and Hezbollah.

Whether or not they will contribute replacement forces, or whether or not there are are foreign training areas that will be left secure because of US policy, remains to be seen. Reuters carried a story today that Iran has sent 'thousands' of such fighters. However, there are two strong caveats to believing this story: first, they were supposed to back the Shi'ite uprising, not the Sunni one. There appears to be some coordination between these, but the Army isn't reporting any sharp increase ('maybe two percent') in foreign fighters in the areas where you'd expect Iran to focus. Second, the source for the claim is The National Council of Resistance in Iran. They are an exile group that has an interest in manipulating US policy, a factor which can't be ignored when deciding whether or not to trust their reports.

Returning to the letters:

[A Marine Sergeant] got an AK round through shoulder and disobeyed LT's order for MEDEVAC. Remained with MAP for 4 hours and used an M-203 to continue fight.

Probably get a reprimand for that, but brag about it for the rest of his life. Good on him.

As MAP was entering Ramadi on Wed minaret loudspeakers were pronouncing, "This is the day you die, come forward and we will kill you in name of Jihad, bla, bla." Wpns Company Commander grabs interpreter, puts him on OUR loudspeaker and begins, "Come out and fight you goddamn pussys and fight us in the streets like fucking men!" XXXX relates that some did and, "We mowed them down."

There's the news from the Ramadi front. From Fallujah:

Early in the morning we exchanged gunfire with a group of insurgents
without significant loss. As morning progressed, the enemy fed more men into the fight and we responded with stronger force. Unfortunately, this led to injuries as our Marines and sailors started clearing the city block by block. The enemy did not run; they fought us like soldiers.

Again, these trapped enemy elements aren't replacable.

Your husbands were awesome all night they stayed at the job of securing the streets and nobody challenged them as the hours wore on. They did not surrender an inch nor did flinch from the next potential threat. Previous to yesterday the terrorist thought that we were soft enough to challenge. As of tonight the message is loud and clear that the Marines will not be beaten. Today the enemy started all over again, although with far fewer numbers, only now the rest of the battalion joined the fight. Without elaborating too much, weapons company and Golf crushed their attackers with the vengeance of the righteous.

This above letter is from a Lt. Col. Kennedy, addressed to the wives of Marines in Fallujah. Doubtless he's sugarcoating a little, but probably not too much--Marine wives are extremely tough.

If the enemy is foolish enough to try to take your men again they will not survive contact. We are here to win. The news looks grim from back in the States. We did take losses that, in our hearts, we will always live with. The men we lost were taken within the very opening minutes of the violence.... We can never replace these Marines and Sailors but they will fight on with us in spirit. We are not feeling sorry for ourselves nor do we fear what tomorrow will bring. The battalion has lived up to its reputation as Magnificent Bastards. Yesterday made everyone here stronger and wiser[.]

The Marines Have Landed, and the Situation... and indeed, it appears to be. If the politicians don't flinch, we should be able to deal the serious insurgents a blow from which they may not be able to recover.