Ramadi; remembered and refought
Tomorrow marks the ten year anniversary of the opening of the first battle for Ramadi, Iraq. John sends us a link from U-T San Diego to remind us;
The 1st Marine Division and the Army’s 1st Infantry Division fought street-by-street in Ramadi and Fallujah, against militants allied with al-Qaeda terrorists.
Camp Pendleton’s 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, the first Marine unit to take command of the provincial capital of Ramadi, lost 12 killed the first day of battle, by snipers, firefights and roadside bombs.
During its six-month tour, the battalion of about 1,100 known as the “Magnificent Bastards” lost a total of 34 Marines and one sailor killed in action, and more than 250 wounded – a toll considered the heaviest for any American unit of that size in Iraq or Afghanistan.
So, here we sit ten years later, and the Iraqi government forces are doing it all over again, according to the Associated Press;
This grueling urban warfare in the Ramadi suburb of al-Bakir, witnessed by an Associated Press reporter on Thursday, is part of a deadly standoff pitting government forces and allied tribal militias against the Islamic State and allied militants in Anbar province, the heartland of Iraq’s Sunni minority. The militants hold part of the provincial capital of Ramadi and nearly all of the nearby city of Fallujah.
It’s the biggest challenge yet to the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and has dragged on far longer than officials had expected, costing the lives of scores of Iraqi soldiers. It is likely to disrupt voting in elections scheduled for the end of April, shaking the credibility of the government.
Anbar operations commander Lt. Gen. Rasheed Fleih says U.S.-trained special forces are taking the lead in fighting since the regular Iraqi army lacks experience for this kind of warfare. He says more than 100 Iraqi soldiers have been killed and 400 wounded in three months of fighting, while about 250 militants have been killed.
He estimates the number of militants at around 1,000 fighters in Fallujah alone, half of them foreigners.
Category: Terror War
government forces and allied tribal militias
That’s the only really important statement in the article. Everything you need to know about any country where the word “tribal” plays a major role in government can be deduced from that word.
In a nation where “tribes” have to ally, there is no nation. This is the problem in the middle east, a land of tribes that wander around the desert seeking water and food that never had any real capacity to comprehend the concepts behind nations. That’s why the “nations” of the middle east suck vast amounts of desert cock, they aren’t nations at all but a goat fuck of people who hate each other over shit that no one but they care about.
I can’t tell a shiite from a sunni from a kurd and frankly I don’t give a shit about their tender sensibilities any more than I do about the differences between a northern irish catholic or protestant.
These assholes can kill each other to their heart’s content and I won’t care one bit how many of them die, the next time they export that horseshit here though I hope we have learned our lesson and we bomb the whole of North Africa and the Asian middle east into a fine sand….fuck these muslim turds the world no longer needs or requires their presence to continue, and i doubt their societies were ever needed. They exist only to keep their own populations down and their children and women as slaves in a barbaric system of degradation and filth.
Amen!
While I agree with you on most parts, the Kurds are good people in my book. The Peshmerga were the only guys worth a damn up in Mosul. I say let them do there own thing and fuck everyone else.
Thank you VOV! Here-Here!
2004 was a tough year, a very tough year. Here’s a link to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in 2004. No, it’s not a pleasant experience to see the faces of these soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen. It hurts. But we remember them and continue to pray the Almighty comfort their families. friends, and those with whom they served.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/national/fallen/dates/2004/
Every American soldier over there needs to come home NOW. Our Special Forces soldiers should not be used as their goddamn pop-up targets.
Pinto Nag I agree 1000%! I am tired of American blood, limbs and lives being spent in those wastelands where nothing will ever change once we are gone.
I got NO problem with muzzie killing muzzie, especially at a SEA local tribal level. Pull all our troops and assets out, and airdrop in a box of knives (blades dipped in pig lard).