Letter From A Marine

Letter From A Marine - Charlie Johnson at Little Green Footballs publishes a letter from a Marine in Fallujah, via one of his readers:

There will be no shock and awe. There will be plenty of bloodshed at the lowest levels. This battle is the Marine Corps? Belleau Wood for this war. 2/1 and 1/5 will be leading the way. We have to find a way to kill the bad guys only. The Fallujahans are fired up and ready for a fight (or so they think). A lot of terrorists and foreign fighters are holed up in Fallujah. It has been a sanctuary for them.

The media keeps skipping this part - the violence that's erupted, while widespread by previous standards, seems to be:

• in the Sunni Triangle - the heart of Hussein country, and
• in areas known to be under heavy Iranian influence. It's very much in Iran's interest to destabilize their new democratic neighbor, as Mark Steyn pointed out on Hewitt's show on Wednesday.

The letter continues:

If they have not left town they are going to die. I?m hoping they stay and fight.

This way we won?t have to track them down one by one.

This battle is going to be talked about for a long time. The Marine Corps will either reaffirm its place in history as one of the greatest fighting organizations in the world or we will die trying. The Marines are fired up. I?m nervous for them though because I know how much is riding on this fight (the war in Iraq, the view of the war at home, the length of the war on terror and the reputation of the Marine Corps to name a few). However, every time I?ve been nervous during my career about the outcome of events when young Marines were involved they have ALWAYS exceeded my expectations. I?m praying this is one of those times.

Indeed.

As someone who remembers the days when the US military couldn't seem to walk and chew gum at the same time - the Mayaguez, Desert One, Lebanon, and the huge problems in the invasion of Grenada - the military of today don't exceed expectations, they have set new ones.

Thank goodness.

Posted by Mitch at April 9, 2004 06:12 AM