Is anyone else really worried about the upcoming seige of Fallujah?

[maveric]

There was a spot on the local news last night from families of Camp Pendleton (USMC, CA), and their fears about what may be on the way.

If there is a God, he//she will prevent this bloodbath from happening.
I myself am very nervous about this.

[puddycat]

1. Right now, I'm sorry for just about everybody

because everyone on this planet is suffering under *

I can't wait for most of the idiots who voted for * to wake the hell up so I can say to them "I told you so". Maybe not much comfort, but I'll sure enjoy saying it.

[left is right]

6. please tell me, even if you have to lie to me,

that the will wake up someday and that historians will tell the truth about *co and freepers and enron and so on and so forth

[puddycat]

9. people always wake up and tyrants always fall

...........its just a matter of when and how much destruction is wrought upon innocent people before it happens. Uh, guess that's not much help.

[nonconformist]

2. I'm freaking out about it too

Cried a little this morning even, when I was thinking about everything we (and the world) did to try and stop this war from even happening.

[knowbody0]

3. little soldiers hiding in ditches for days on end

then storming into the city so psyched they no longer think. instinct is all. survival mode. dead bodies everywhere. dying children wide eyed. bursting into homes laying waste what little they find. madness.
little soldiers will never recover. they will have left their souls in falluja.

[quaoar]

4. I'm not worried

The insurgents have already outfoxed us. They are classic practitioners of guerilla warfare and know not to confront their enemy head-on. They have already melted away and we will take Fallujah without a bloodbath.

But the insurgents will just pop up somewhere else, endlessly, ad infinitum until we finally decide to get the fuck out of there.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

5. I'm sure.......

.....all the patronizing Republicans who say things like "I Support The Troops", "God Bless the Soldiers", wear yellow ribbons and voted for Dumbya yet don't know one person in the military will sleep fine tonight while someone else's kid is being blown to bits.

[necso]

7. In the first place,

it is now storming a city (more or less -- and this is a latter stage than the strictly "siege" phase -- although elements of a siege typically persist during this phase). (And it was never a very good siege -- a good siege entails completely surrounding the target with manned military works and allowing absolutely no ingress or egress -- because the besieged population suffers more quickly, and generally more harshly, the greater their numbers.)

In the second place, the would-be defenders knew that it took a major effort for us to stage this fiasco -- and they know that it would take us another major effort to prepare for another. Knowing all this, most would-be defenders probably took advantage of the long buildup and left.

Generally, guerrillas stand and fight only when they can win (as in: "acheive some worthwhile objective"). At other times they disperse, retreat (or hide in the general population) and wait to fight another day.

And sure there will be some limited defense (in historical terms). The defenders wish to make a case for ruthless US suppression of a bravely (if poorly) defended Sunni city. These people aren't stupid... although some of them may be a little overanxious to die to make the best guerrilla fighters. -- Great patience is often required of guerrilla fighters.

I imagine Allawi is at new heights of popularity. The Sunnis in particular must just love him.

I wonder, will they have BBV in Iraq?

[maxsolomon]

8. you wonder why conservatives think we're pussies.

unless your husband or child is there, its an abstraction.

i have not forgotten that we were called traitors & cowards for opposing this war, and were called that BY THE TROOPS, too. remember "hey, liberal pussy! shut the fuck up, WE'LL protect america"? i saw that graphic in countless "emails from the front".

i hope they all have near death epiphanies & come home safe, wiser, & liberal. but i won't lose a minute of sleep over people who largely hate my guts & would like to kill me like an iraqi dog.

[idiosyncratic]

10. I just heard that ten of our guys have been killed along with

two of the Iraqi soldiers.

The insurgents who are left in that city have very, very thick walls to hide behind.

[AG78]

11. No

Killing each other is what human beings do best. New and horrific ways all the time. Sometimes we go back to the classics.

I'm not too worried about it. The killing is in very good hands.