Long after Baghdad's fall, Marines back on front lines

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20040517/ts_chicagotrib/longafterbaghdadsfallmarinesbackonfrontlines&cid=2027&ncid=1473

They were the poster boys for the swift invasion of Iraq (news - web sites): the U.S. Marines who helped tug down a statue of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in an instantly iconic image of the fall of Baghdad.


None of them could have predicted where they would end up a year later.


After nine months away from Iraq, the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Marine Regiment returned in February for what its members thought would be a low-key tour of security and reconstruction duty. But within weeks, the troops were urgently reassigned to help quell the uprising in Fallujah, Iraq's most rebellious city, and found themselves in tougher combat than many faced on the road to Baghdad.


"In many ways, this was the fight that we expected last year," said battalion commander Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy. "We were working civil-military operations, handing out candy and kissing babies," when the battalion was ordered to Fallujah.

more

[struggle4progress]

1. Mission Impossible?

[dand]

2. US Marines are the elite,

The politicians directing them are, unfortunately, war criminals.