ACCOUNT WITH A MARINE POV. GET READY TO BE PISSED. WE ARE CLOSER TO VIET NAM THAN YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW

First, our guys have gone forward and hidden in buildings for as long as three weeks waiting for the "insurgents" to move up. Read this great account in a San Diego paper that caters to Marine families. Jesus, this is what war is folks. There is a terrible thing happening there, namely the politicians have taken over the war and the Marines are beginning to blame Washington for all casualties. This is what happened in Viet Nam; the political assholes called the shots, and it won't be long before our troops develop attitudes of cold hatred toward the politicians who they will blame for the deaths of their friends.

This next is from a Camp Pendelton POV, spelling errors corrected, and I've added some things in parenthesis.:

Not long after dawn's crowing roosters were silenced by Fallujah's smothering heat Wednesday, the sounds of jihad once again filled the air. Monotonous, militaristic chants rang out in Arabic from mosques throughout the northern rebel-held neighborhoods, all praising Allah and urging residents to slay the American infidels in Fallujah's dusty streets. The calls for holy war did not go unheard by Marines around the city; nor were they unheeded by insurgents. Wednesday was another day of so-called cease-fire in Fallujah. Another day that rebels tried to kill Marines with rocket-propelled grenades and rifle fire. Another day that Marine snipers picked them off, helicopters mowed them down, and jets blew them up with 500-pound bombs. Still, the insurgents kept coming.

While most Marines say they want to move on the city and finish off the rebels they believe are trapped inside, they seem acutely aware that such a decision may no longer be in the hands of military leaders. Fallujah has become the focus of America's war in Iraq, they say. And what happens in the flat river town could paint a picture of America's future in Iraq. "Even the president is thinking about Fallujah right now," said Lt. James Vanzant, a spokesman for the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

The Marines of that Camp Pendleton-based battalion have fought some of the fiercest battles in Fallujah over nearly a month and have held their ground about a quarter mile inside the city for more than three weeks. Its leaders say they've been ready for weeks to finish off the rebel strongholds in the tough Jolan borough along the Euphrates River. "We would all love to go in and finish the job," Vanzant said, after answering reporters' questions about the latest Marines killed and wounded in Fallujah. "But it's political now. It's not our decision to make anymore. It's way above our heads."

Far from the advertised cease-fire ---- called to give peace a chance to penetrate the hatred on both sides ---- the deadly game of cat and mouse continued along the military cordon around the city. But in the murky gray of the cease-fire and the spotlight of mainstream media coverage, the violence remained confusing and the troops' day Wednesday was another one of uncertainty, danger and simple pleasures to pass the time. Some of their friends have died or lost limbs in some of the recent battles with rebels, and most of their days are spent fighting stupefying boredom and swatting sticky black flies, but the troops on the front seemed to have made the best of their lives on Fallujah's front lines.

Rules shift like sands----Around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, about 10 rebels attacked Marines from Fox Company in a former Iraqi Special Republican Guard compound on the northwest corner of town near the Euphrates. The Marines fought them off with machine guns and small arms until the rebels either died or broke contact. A couple of hours later, Marines in another position saw men running down nearby streets carrying AK-47 rifles. (Now get this shit) When snipers fired on them, commanders nearby questioned why they would shoot armed men in the streets of Fallujah. They were told to go review the "rules of engagement." The troops shrugged, relaxed and went back to searching for an enemy that they may ---- or may not ---- be allowed to shoot that day. (My experience: this is poison. We are this close to fucking ourselves) Now that Fallujah is a household name and the world seems to await the conflict's climax, the rules of war have such wide swings that Marines are free to bomb neighborhoods to oblivion one day, but are kept from shooting armed men running in the streets the next. It's a confusing, dangerous place, and young leaders say keeping busy is the key to staying alive and sane.

One more sandbag----Later that day, a long silence in a Marine-held home was broken by giddy laughter and rapid boot stomping on the stairs. Marines, all sweaty and smiling, rushed up to the bombed-out, second-level deck with full sandbags drooping from chiseled and tattooed forearms. Even in the soggy midday heat, they turned the drudgery of filling and hauling the heavy sandbags to their defenses into a boys' game ---- a simple competition and team effort full of laughing and taunting and encouragement. It was the kind of fraternal spirit that seems to push the Marines through the long slog of each day in the field, gets them through the dark valley of night, and helps them reach the peak of the next day together to face whatever comes next. "Laughing about it helps," said one Marine, panting after the climb. "It makes the time go by fast," another said with a sigh.

''It keeps the Marines on their toes," said Cpl. Peter Madrigal of the effort to bolster the troops' defenses on a rooftop where rebels have tried to land mortar rounds day after day. Madrigal, of Tucson, Ariz, was one of the young leaders who recently led Marines on a deadly ambush. On Wednesday, he led them in a boyish game. "We try to do something to improve things every day," he said as huge explosions sent mushroom smoke clouds climbing the sky in the east. "It helps us stay on top. We can't get complacent." On Wednesday, they had some rewards to look forward to after toil and stress: a rare hot meal and mail.

The televised offensive CNN (Communist News Network living up, or down, to its reputation)----While the daily violence along Fallujah's northern border has become the norm for the Marines here, it apparently was news to a film crew from CNN. A crew from the 24-hour cable news network arrived a couple of days ago with apparently little in the way of context to prepare them for what they would see, according to military officials. On Monday, they were on the scene to film much of an intense firefight in which a Marine was killed and American tanks brought a mosque minaret tumbling down.

GET THIS, ALL MEDIA GOT THIS WRONG And late Tuesday night, the crew captured the near-nightly visit from the Air Force AC-130 Spectre gunship as it blasted vehicles and buildings where suspected insurgents were hiding. Military officials Wednesday said the footage was played over and over during Tuesday's news reports in the states and was being billed as the much-ballyhooed "big offensive."

It was no such thing----Nearly every night, with the exception of a few quiet nights in the last week, any combination of three gunships that work around Fallujah rock the dark city with thunderous blasts. But the fury of "Slayer," as the gunships are known by the grateful troops on the ground, was apparently too much for prime-time audiences and politicians when it broadcast on international news ---- even though, in reality, it has made its presence known over Fallujah for weeks.

Military officials on Wednesday said the TV footage caused such a stir on Tuesday that even some international leaders were making statements condemning the offensive that never was. (So it's the opinion of others that's important, not winning, not the lives of our troops.)

The trouble with success----With time to contemplate during the bloody cease-fire, some military officials say they have started to rethink the Marines' aggressive posture in Fallujah and to ask themselves whether a military victory could end up a humanitarian and political disaster. "We could level the city and kill all the bad guys, but what then?" asked a key infantry officer. Others, from officers at the regimental level down to a lance corporal behind a machine gun, say they're sure they could take the town, but they question what an American military victory would mean.

They say Marines might find themselves finally controlling the rubble of a town they never really wanted, whose homeless residents could forever resent them for the death and destruction they've caused. It could inspire the next generation of insurgents, they say. Without at least the appearance of participation from an Iraqi force (just now changed), how would the new Iraqi security forces ever gain the legitimacy and moral authority they need to back a new government? Some of the trainers said earlier this week that they would need months to train the Iraqi forces to be able to fight alongside the Marines. (according to other reports, FOX, corrupt contractors are "training" the Iraqis and these contractors get paid by the day and are dragging out the "training")

Just dealing with day to day---And even if the situation in Fallujah resolves peacefully, "what's to stop them (insurgents) from coming back," said the infantry officer who did not want to be named. The officer agreed that even in a best-case scenario, the situation might just return to how it was when the Marines arrived in March ---- when they were only hit with the occasional mortar or roadside bomb. But for the guys on the ground, in the streets and on the rooftops of Fallujah who daily are fighting off rebel attacks and trying to stay somewhat in the deniable bounds of the cease-fire rules, politics seemed to mean little Wednesday. Marines from Fox Company ducked behind their doubled-up sandbag barriers when rebel mortar rounds crashed to the ground 100 yards away around sunset. They'd tweak and add to the defenses tomorrow, they said. First, let's get through the night.

Mail arrived, then hot chow. Then it was dark again and the second shift slept or read letters from home while the first shift donned helmets and flak vests and headed upstairs to their posts.

Rebels struck up the jihad tunes from local mosques and, at 9:45 p.m., the gunship "Slayer" arrived for its nightly rounds over Fallujah to enforce the cease-fire with cannon.

So there you have it: media lies and ignorance are now causing deaths. You cannot have guys killed and maimed over political decisions and media lies. This shit is closer to Viet Nam than any of us Right Wings care to know. Unless you've been there you cannot fathom the rage at the politicians that eventually takes hold.