The city itself sustained severe damage during the battle itself and in the months leading up to the fight. It took a Herculean effort by the Marine engineers and Naval Construction Battalion Sailors ("Sea Bees") to clear the city. At the height of the battle, there was so much rubble on certain streets that they were impassable even for our tracks and wheeled vehicles. I am amazed at the amount of work these Marines and Sailors have done to get the city somewhat habitable by the civilians. It really is incredible how much effort went into making the city safe for the returning population after the Marines fought so hard to take it. No other force in the world would have made such an effort to take an enemy city and then immediately turn around and begin significant efforts to clean and reconstruct. All of that said, if you saw the city now you would probably still consider it tremendously damaged.

The end state of all the work has been conditions that permit the population to return. To be honest there have been very mixed emotions on having the civilians re-enter the city. On the one hand we know that the city will never be as safe as it was for the few weeks when it was empty following the major fighting. On the other hand, we want to try to get the population back to their lives and participating in Iraq's future - starting with the elections on 30 January.

Once again you would be proud of the Marines and how well they are dealing with all of the challenges that they face daily. Over the past month, the Regiment has received ten battalions of Iraqi army and security forces. Of course they are all fledgling units with only cursory training. Some show up without boots and never having fired their weapons. You have to understand that inheriting such units is a tremendous drain on the combat power of our own battalions. They require an incredible amount of supervision and support just to sustain them. Of course it difficult for the Marines who just took the city to turn around and mentor new Iraqi units while at the same time "clean up the mess." As you would expect, the Marines just shoulder the load and continue surprise us with their endurance and commitment.

Elections are less than a month away. The combination of the smashing defeat the enemy suffered in Fallujah along with the prospect of looming free elections has made them desperate. They regularly threaten the people by telling them that any one who goes to vote will be killed by the muj. They claim to be watching the polling places and continue to state that they will wage suicide attacks on the crowds that assemble there.

You have probably seen from the news that the ongoing murder and intimidation campaign on the Iraqi security forces has continued as well. We recently received a report that an Iraqi soldier in our area was drug from his home and beheaded. The muj barged into his house as he and his family were eating dinner and simply drug him out to his front yard and beheaded him while his wife and children were held inside only feet away. This sounds shocking but it is the world in which the Iraqi people live here and one that would only get worse if they did not have the coalition to help keep the muj at bay. Plainly stated it is pure savagery.

The insurgency is a collection of different elements that have gotten together out of a marriage of convenience and who are galvanized by a common enemy - us. The greatest irony is that the two most prominent players in the insurgency are former regime members from the Ba'ath party and the international Islamic extremists. These two elements are deeply in bed together but they do what they can to keep their alliance secret. The old regime henchmen hide out here in Iraq or just across the border and pump money and direction into the insurgency so that they can some day resume power. The Islamic extremist take the training and money offered by Sadaam's cronies and do the bidding of these criminals so that they can create a sectarian state not unlike the one the Taliban created in Afghanistan. How in the world can you call yourself a holy warrior and be in league with some of the greatest criminals this region has known?

Slowly but surely the people are returning and as you can imagine, there is a high degree of caution on both sides. Overall though, we have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of hostility from the people. Most just seem to want to live their lives. The Marines have seen this and have responded with an equally surprising degree of compassion. However, there is no doubt the muj will do their best to continue their fight without any compunction of putting the "innocent people" in the middle. They are well aware of the danger of the people seeing first hand that we are not "infidel animals" that are waiting to rape their women and children as they have been told. When the enemy senses this crack in its intimidation campaign, it will make the people pay in order to get them back in line. Time will tell how it will work out but we know the next several weeks are going to be tough.

The enemy inside the town have come to fight and kill Americans. Nothing will sate their bloodlust and hatred other than to kill everyone of us or at least die trying. It is hard to fathom as a Westerner as rational thought would dictate that we will only be here for a relatively short blip in their history and while we are here, billions of dollars in investments will pour in and opportunity that is beyond comprehension will open up for anyone willing to work. This is not Kansas and this enemy does not think like that.

If we build a school or clinic, they destroy it. They would rather deny medical care or education for the children of the citizens who live nearby than to have any symbol of the West in general and America specifically among them. It is hard to comprehend. Frankly, we are done trying.

For eight months, we have been on our chain. The enemy has fooled itself misinterpreting our humanity and restraint for lack of will and courage. For eight months, we have watched Marines, Soldiers and Sailors maimed and killed by invisible cowards hiding behind some wall or in a canal as he detonates another IED. For eight months, we have been witness to suicidal sociopaths driving vehicles laden with explosives into crowds of Iraqis and into our own convoys.

Just last week, we lost another nine Marines killed and an equal number of wounded as the result of some ignorant extremists who was able to convince himself that killing himself and as many Americans as possible would send him to paradise where he could finally get his virgins.

Now, their own ignorance and arrogance will be their undoing. They believe that they can hold Fallujah. In fact, they have come from all over to be part of its glorious defense. I cannot describe the atmosphere that exists in the Regiment right now. Of course the men are nervous but I think they are more nervous that we will not be allowed to clean the rats nest out and instead will be forced to continue operating as is.

Its as if a window of opportunity has opened and everyone just wants to get on with it before it closes. The Marines know the enemy has massed and has temporarily decided to stay and fight. For the first time, the men feel as though we may be allowed to do what needs to be done. If the enemy wants to sit in his citadel and try to defend it against the Marine Corps and some very hard Soldiers... then the men want to execute before the enemy sobers up and flees.

It may come off as an exceptionally bellicose perspective but where the Marines live and operate is a war zone in the starkest reality. When the Marines leave the front gate on an operation or patrol, someone within direct line of sight of that gate is trying to kill them. All have lost friends and watched as the enemy hides within his sanctuary that has been allowed out of what one must assume is political necessity. The enemy has been given every advantage by our sense of morality and restraint and by a set of operational rules that we are constrained to operate under. The Marines feel like their time has come and we will finally be ordered to do what must be done and be given the latitude to do it. Even though the price will be high, there is not a man here that would chose status quo over paying the price.

Every day, the enemy takes more hostages, assassinates developing Iraqi leaders and savagely beats suspected collaborators. I will give you just one recent example that happened last week. One of our patrols was moving down a street when they saw what looked like a fight. The Marines closed with the scene. It was a family that had come to Iraq on religious pilgrimage that was taken hostage and was being taken into Fallujah. The muj stopped for some reason and the father began fighting. The Marines interdicted and captured two of the kidnappers. Two more ran and the Marines could not get a shot without fear of killing/wounding others.

Every day, insurgents from inside Fallujah drive out and wait for Iraqis that work on our bases. Once the Iraqis leave they are stopped. The lucky ones are savagely beaten. The unfortunate ones are killed. A family that had fled Fallujah in order to get away from the fighting recently tried to return. When they got to their home, they found it taken over by terrorists (very common). When the patriarch showed the muj his deed in order to prove that the house was his, they took the old man out into the street and beat him senseless in front of his family.

Summary executions are common. Think about that. Summary executions inside Fallujah happen with sobering frequency. We have been witness to the scene on a number of occasions. Three men are taken from the trunk of a car and are made to walk to a ditch where they are shot. Bodies are found in the Euphrates without heads washed downstream from Fallujah. To date we have been allowed to do nothing.

I have no idea the numbers of beheadings that have occurred in Fallujah since I have been here. I have no idea the number of hostages that have ended up in Fallujah since we have been here. I just don't know that Americans would be able to comprehend the number anyway. Unfortunately, the situation has only gotten worse. There is no hope for any type of reasoned solution with an enemy like this.

The Iraqi National Guard battalion commander that was killed was LtCol Sulaiman Hamad Ftikan. We knew him as Sulaiman. He was the closest thing to a true patriot and leader we have found who is actually from the local Falluja area. He was kidnapped and murdered because he had finally gotten his battalion to stand up to the criminals and insurgents who have had their run of the city all these months.

Of course his murder was not merciful. He was tortured and beaten to death. He was so disfigured by the torture that his friends could not bear to look at his body - this from a people who have seen their share of death and torture. There are still at least two soldiers missing that were kidnapped with Sulaiman and more good men are taken every day.

The city has continued to be an epicenter of terror and instability. With everything that I know, I cannot fathom a resolution of this problem that does not include us being allowed to take the city down once and for all. Time and space does not allow me to recount the horrible tales of torture and murder that have taken place inside this town. Too many good men have been taken into the town and beaten savagely because they are trying to be honest policemen or soldiers. It seems that the favorite torture techniques include hanging people upside down and pulverizing feet and toes. However, we have had bodies show up with various unimaginable wounds including some that have had their faces melted off by welding torches. The enemy is savage and will never come around to cooperate with the coalition or the new Iraqi government.

Sulaiman's death in large part ended the Regiment's restraint around the city. The Marines have invested so much time, energy and passion into training the two battalions of Iraqi National guards that were headquartered in and around the town. The enemy surrounded the two battalion headquarters and threatened to destroy them in total. They lured Sulaiman out with promises that they just wanted to talk and that if he exited, he could spare his men. Long story short, immediately after the commanders left their headquarters with the insurgents, the enemy poured into the buildings and beat the soldiers. After a beating, they chased the soldiers out of the headquarters and proceeded to steal all the weapons and ammunition that we had provided and loot all of the garrison property (trucks, TVs, air conditioners, etc...) that we had purchased to stand up the force. The weapons, ammunition and vehicles were taken and are now in the hands of the enemy. The garrison property was sold in the street. The leading insurgent and leading imam (go figure that) then declared that "the Iraqi National Guard no longer exists in Falluja" and that any soldiers seen in uniform should be killed. This same guy controls the Falluja Brigade as well as other insurgents inside the town.

We immediately cut any ties with the city and moved forces to the outskirts. The Marines have been fighting ever since. We have bombed, sniped and fired more tank main gun and small arms that can be counted. I have no idea how many we have killed but it is significant.

The Marines continue their heroics in ways that I am unable to describe but I will give you a vignette that is typical of what they are doing in 115 degree heat in full body armor every day.

Two days ago, as the Marines were fighting on the outskirts of the city, one of the battalion commanders' security detail was parked behind him as he was observing one his positions. Two young LCpls looked up on the highway behind them and saw a high jacking in progress. There were masked men with AK 47's stopping tractor trailers loaded with Toyota Landcruisers. The two Marines immediately began engaging the masked men. A Marine on rear security near the battalion commander heard the gunfire and turned and engaged the masked men himself. The trucks took off. The masked men made a break for the city but were chased down by the Marines and captured. However, the car carrier escaped and was speeding toward the city with a couple of taxis used by the highjackers.

A Sgt saw the trucks and sped his HMMV section (2 vehicles) toward the trucks across the open desert. He split his section and rifled past the enemy vehicles with is own HMMV. He gave a hasty order to the Marines in his vehicle and then swerved in front of the tractor trailer cutting it off. The Marines bailed out of the HMMV and caught 4 enemy exiting the truck with AK 47s. The Sgt and his team cut them down at a distance of 20 feet with their M16s. Several more insurgents tried to run from the rear. The Marines in the last vehicle cut them down in an engagement that took place at a distance of 30 feet. The two taxis took off and tried to make it to the city. They were engaged with a TOW missile and a medium machine gun. The insurgents inside the city and in a position behind the Marines immediately opened up with a heavy volume of fire. The Sgt tasked a young Marine who had never driven a semi truck before to get into the cab and drive out of the kill zone. He did. The Sgt brought all of his Marines and the high jacked truck out leaving nothing but dead insurgents in his wake.

The Marine driving the truck made it all the way back to his base but stopped short of the gate where the Sgt decided that since the young Marine "did not know how to drive a semi, he could not reliably negotiate driving the truck in through the friendly position." They stopped short and a civilian commercial driver was dispatched to the gate to get truck onboard. Yep... he rolled the truck and severely damaged all of the pristine Land cruisers that the Marines had risked their lives to save. No doubt he was doing his best and the point is that the trucks did not end up in the enemy's hands but you have to love that ending. You can only imagine the picture on the Marines' faces when the trucked rolled over.

That is just one example of what the Marines are doing. I could share with you accounts of severely wounded Sailors and Marines insisting that they can still hold a weapon and are still "in the fight" and other lesser wounded Marines refusing to be evaced. There are Marines who exit friendly lines everyday and commit acts of untold bravery that would inspire you as much as they humble me.

We have been bombing enemy positions and killing the enemy where we find them. As you can see, there is no humanity in them as they kill off the good men, murdering and stealing to further their twisted vision. It would seem that the only chance of true resolution of the "Falluja problem" will be to finish these guys once and for all. The difference between now and April is that the majority of Iraqis that we meet ask us to enter the city. They are tired of the lawless hell that exists inside the city and are literally willing to have us rubble it to save it. I know it sounds strange but it is the reality here.

We also have an entire battalion of Iraqi Special Forces soldiers who have stepped forward. We have trained these guys and they are a different breed of cat altogether. Many are veterans of the Iran Iraq war and are hardened. They don't necessarily love us but they now have a bond with the Marines and operate jointly with them everyday. They shake their head at the hesitancy to resolve Fallujah and are willing to fight inside the city. It will be a very tough fight but in the end I just don't see how we can move forward as a coalition, or Iraq as a fledgling country, while this festering sore remains open.

Interestingly enough while we have been keeping the enemy bottled up and destroying him in Fallujah, the attacks on supply convoys and on Marines have dropped off outside the city. If we take our boot off their neck now, no doubt we will see a return to enemy attacks in other parts of our area. This is further proof that the city radiates instability and terror.

The city remains divided. It is a lawless sanctuary for all kinds of criminal and enemy elements. It has a history of being relatively incorrigible and Iraqis from outside the city regularly tell us that "the only solution is to level the city." The history of the city and the animosity of other Iraqis toward it has cultivated a level of xenophobia that results in astounding levels of paranoia and isolationism.

Today the city is dominated by three different elements. The most dangerous are the extremists who are religious ideologues. These would be your classic Islamic Terrorist who's twisted view of the world is one that cannot coexist with anyone who does not only agree with their beliefs, but who willingly submit to the severe limitations of individual freedoms that the beliefs entail. To be frank, these elements will never accept a peaceful coexistence with free people. Their rhetoric and will to enforce their extremist beliefs are mutually exclusive with anything but direct conflict. We will be fighting them until a clear winner is determined.

Like so many of history's failed villains, these terrorists truly believe that free people can be broken and do not possess the will to persevere in the face of real adversity. For this very reason, they have adopted terrorist tactics and publicly celebrate their violent acts like filming beheadings and flying airliners into buildings. On the local level, they put these filmed execution on videos and sell them in the markets. In less supportive areas, they give them away. They specifically target disenfranchised young men who feel as though they have no real hope of ever overcoming their current circumstances. These men are without any real opportunity and latch onto the first real thing that A) offers them something to do; and B) gives them a sense of belonging. It is very similar to how gangs recruit and survive back in the states.

However, these "gangs" are much more lethal and committed to a global agenda of spreading their fundamentalist ideas. There is no reasoning with these groups. In fact it is alarming that mature nations have succumbed so quickly to their terror tactics and have withdrawn their troops in the face of threats. No doubt it is a cultural issue because it is impossible to fathom how these nations can believe that the very people who have acted so wickedly against them and compelled them to bend to the enemy's will on a globally humiliating stage are now capable of restraint and possibly compassion. The unfortunate reality is that by breaking ranks, these nations have diminished their own security and those of other nations committed to fight terrorism around the globe.

The second element in the city is the criminals. There are many of them. These are no different than the criminals that run loose in all of our cities except that they are better armed. The city is known throughout Iraq as a haven for criminals, smugglers and hijackers. It has been this way forever. There is simply no way that on our watch, we are going to change the criminal culture of the city. We will have to endure the second group until we can build up the Iraqi Security Forces to the point where they can police themselves.

The third and final element is the unemployed men and those who have had family members killed by the coalition. These guys fight us for a variety of reasons: to overcome their humiliation of watching their country be "occupied" so quickly; to avenge the death of a brother or son; or simply because they have very little else to do.

We are working hard to reach out to the third group and overcome the world media that fans the hatred and resistance in these men. To date we have been relatively ineffective in communicating our vision for Iraq to this element (one of a free and prosperous people who are completely autonomous). Most of us still believe that if we continue to weigh in and work at establishing a dialogue with this group, they may be less hostile and less willing to pick up arms against us. What they need now are jobs and opportunity to do something other than hang out and fight us.

The first group we will fight. There is no doubt that we must win this fight. I was going to say that if we lost, the fight would follow us home. However, the reality is that it already has. Hopefully this group will continue to underestimate our resolve. We will continue to destroy them where ever we find them while we work painstakingly to reduce the conditions that permit the third group. This week we have found many and eliminated them from the fight.

I want to close by telling you about a Marine that we lost last week. His name was Staff Sergeant Mike Clark. He was with us last year with TF SCORPION. SSgt Clark was as brave as any man I have ever known.

He was an explosives expert. Immediately after the ground war last year during the "honeymoon period" he risked his life countless times to remove dangerous unexploded ordinance from Iraqi yards, playgrounds and farms while crowds of grateful people watched. We were all amazed at his stamina and ability to connect with the people.

As the summer began, we were moved farther north and found ourselves in the epicenter of the insurgency. He was among the first men to get out and daily handle the multiple improvised explosive devices that were laid against our Marines. He also accompanied us on countless raids and detonated thousands and thousands of pounds of insurgent munitions that we captured. More than all of that, he was a truly decent man who was immensely popular with everyone in the task force.

He was killed by a car bomb. One of our units was coming off a raid site while the enemy engaged security elements staged some distance away. After a running engagement that included rockets and small arms, a car that was used by the enemy was found with rockets around it. SSgt Clark's unit responded to the scene in order to make sure the car was not a bomb. Upon his arrival, he improved the standoff of the Marines on security and then made a solitary approach to the car. As he looked in the window, he saw a detonation device and radioed it into the rest of his team and told him that he was breaking contact. As he was moving away from the car, the bomb went off and killed him instantly. He left behind many friends and a family that loved him very much.

We will miss him.

Semper Fi,

One of our companies lost five killed and more wounded in a series of attacks. I am very fond of this particular company commander and his Marines. They are a special group in the community of elite people. This commander truly loves his Marines. He personally lost the gunner on his vehicle among the KIA. You are always close to your Marines, but inevitably you are closest to those on your crew or your radio operators or just those that you work closest with day in and day out. In a period of 7-8 days, this small group of men lost five of their own and several more seriously wounded. Words cannot describe the kind of hammer blow that goes through young men when their buddies are killed or evaced. It hits commanders the hardest and the better the commander the harder the blow. It hit this commander incredibly hard. There really is not much you can say to Marines at times like this. You just kind of be around them. I really am not 100% sure how, but this young captain allowed himself some short time to grieve and then was out in front of his men leading by example the very next day on both occasions. His guys are once again back on their mission and looking for ways to improve and take the fight back to the enemy. The dead Marines are never far from their minds, but they are able to get back to work by drawing closer and recommitting themselves to close whatever holes that made them vulnerable in the first place.

Earlier in the week, we were having a memorial service for another Marine that was lost in an ambush just outside of Baghdad. These services are always very moving as the Marines step out in front of the gathered masses and share their memories of the fallen. It always strikes me how heartfelt and well spoken the Marines are when they talk about their buddies. The stories are vivid and often funny and almost always heartbreaking.

There is always a picture of the Marine and out in front of the gathering is a single rifle stuck into the deck by its bayonet crowned with a helmet. The fallen Marine's dog tags hang from the rifle's handgrip and a pair of boots sit in front of the rifle. At the end of the service, each Marine in attendance marches in front of the rifle, clutches the dog tags and pays his last respect, one at a time.

The final man to speak at this service was our Regimental Commander. Again, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. Of all the commanders that I have seen, I have never seen one that has cultivated more loyalty among his Marines.

He stepped out in front of the Marines and in a very poignant way reminded them that even though their friend and fellow Marine had died at a very young age, he died selflessly, among his brothers and with his honor in tact. The CO spoke of honor briefly and reminded the Marines that it is the one gift that a man gives himself and the one character attribute that makes each man a king. The fallen Marine's buddies should feel proud that the Marine that was lost was so fondly thought of and that even in his young life he was able to give himself the gift of honor. He ended his piece by referencing a recent article in a national publication. The author had gotten himself into a number of insurgent cells from southern Iraq to Baghdad to Fallujah. The author spoke about the terrorists' commitment and motivation to continue their cause. Surprisingly, it was not religion or ideology; it was hate for American and the West. Toward the end of his article, he asked one terrorist what he would do if the Americans were driven from Iraq and went back to America. The terrorist stated after some reflection that he and his men would follow us there....

Regardless of why we came to Iraq, and how much mud will be slung in the upcoming political season, we cannot lose site of the fact that as a nation we are here and we must have the courage and conviction to see this mission through. The burden cannot be carried indefinitely by a few. In the end, our success will be determined by the conviction of the people as a whole and specifically, whether or not they are willing to show some selflessness, put their personal feelings aside and draw together.

It strikes me how short our memories are as a nation. Mike made it by our position tonight and we were wondering out loud how the people and the opinion polls would look if the law enforcement, intelligence community and military had not done such a good job over the past three years of preventing another 9/11? That is, if we would have suffered another tragedy like the one we suffered in 2001, would there be so much second guessing and hand wringing over whether or not what we are doing is right?

I watch men like our Regimental Commander and the company commander who lost his Marines this week and I realize that they do not suffer from the angst of wondering if we are doing the right thing or not. The price of continuing is horrible. The cost of losing is unthinkable.

The Iraqi Security Forces continue to be a point of frustration. As I have told you in the past, the cultural divide is massive. There is very little trust between us and it is always two steps forward, one step back. However, this week, we completed training two platoons of Special Forces soldiers that look to be potential meat eaters. We also received another 400 volunteers. Tomorrow, we will get up and work on establishing trust with these new forces, making them capable and slowly but surely continue to turn the corner. Granted it is a very wide turn but we are relentlessly working to set the conditions for success here.

Really miss "S" (Dave's wife) and the kids right now, but I know we are on the right course. Keep the faith.

Love,

Due to insufficient planning and lack of a workable entrance strategy, soldiers of the 1st and 29th Infantry as well as Army Rangers are now bogged down and sustaining heavy casualties inflicted on them by dug-in insurgent positions located 170 feet above on cliffs overlooking the beaches; beaches which resemble blood soaked killing fields at the time of this mid-morning filing.

Bodies, parts of bodies and blood are the order of the day here, the screams of the dying and the stillness of the dead mingle in testament to this terrible event.

Morale can only be described as extremely poor - in some companies all the officers have been either killed or incapacitated, leaving only poorly trained privates to fend for themselves.

Things appear to be going so poorly that Lt. General Omar Bradley has been rumored to be considering breaking off the attack entirely. As we go to press embattled U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt's spokesman has not made himself available for comment at all, fueling fires that something has gone disastrously awry.

The government at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is in a distinct lock-down mode and the Vice President's location is presently and officially undisclosed.

Whether the second in command should have gone into hiding during such a crisis will have to be answered at some future time, but many agree it does not send a good signal.

Miles behind the beaches and adding to the chaos, U.S. Naval gunships have inflicted many friendly fire casualties, as huge high explosive projectiles rain death and destruction on unsuspecting Allied positions. The lack of training of Naval gunners has been called into question numerous times before and today's demonstration seems to underlie those concerns.

At Utah Beach the situation is also grim, elements of the 82nd and 101st Airborne seemed to be in disarray as they missed their primary drop zones behind the area believed to comprise the militant's front lines. Errant paratroopers have been hung up in trees, breaking arms and legs, rendering themselves easy targets for those defending this territory.

On the beach front itself the landing area was missed, catapulting US forces nearly 2,000 yards South of the intended coordinates, thus placing them that much farther away from the German insurgents and unable to direct covering fire or materially add to the operation.

Casualties at day's end are nothing short of horrific; at least 8,000 and possibly as many as 9,000 were wounded in the haphazardly coordinated attack, which seems to have no unifying purpose or intent. Of this number at least 3,000 have been estimated as having been killed, making June 6th by far, the worst single day of the war which has dragged on now - with no exit strategy in sight - as the American economy still struggles to recover from Herbert Hoover's depression and its 25% unemployment.

Military spending has skyrocketed the national debt into uncharted regions, lending another cause for concern. When and if the current hostilities finally end it may take generations for the huge debt to be repaid.

On the planning end of things, experts wonder privately if enough troops were committed to the initial offensive and whether at least another 100,000 troops should have been added to the force structure before such an audacious undertaking. Communication problems also have made their presence felt making that an area for further investigation by the appropriate governmental committees.

On the home front, questions and concern have been voiced. A telephone poll has shown dwindling support for the wheel-chair bound Commander In Chief, which might indicate a further erosion of support for his now three year-old global war.

Of course the President's precarious health has always been a question. He has just recently recovered from pneumonia and speculation persists whether or not he has sufficient stamina to properly sustain the war effort. This remains a topic of furious discussion among those questioning his competency.

Today's costly and chaotic landing compounds the President's already large credibility problem.

More darkly, this phase of the war, commencing less than six months before the next general election, gives some the impression that Roosevelt may be using this offensive simply as a means to secure re-election in the fall.

Underlining the less than effective Ally attack, German casualties - most of them innocent and hapless conscripts - seem not to be as severe as would be imagined. A German minister who requested anonymity stated categorically that "the aggressors were being driven back into the sea amidst heavy casualties, the German people seek no wider war."

"The news couldn't be better," Adolph Hitler said when he was first informed of the D-Day assault earlier this afternoon. "As long as they were in Britain we couldn't get at them. Now we have them where we can destroy them."

German minister Goebbels had been told of the Allied airborne landings at 0400 hours.

The following is a recap of events that have happened in our zone in the past week. Early in the week, one of our translators (Iraqi guy out of Baghdad) left one of our outposts and walked into a local restaurant to get some food. Three masked men came in to the restaurant and took him out. He has disappeared. We have made every effort to recover the guy but of course, no one knows anything.

Two days ago, a couple of boys that do odd jobs around one of our positions came in upset. They saw three dead bodies in Falluja on their way out of town that morning. We sent the Iraqi Police in to investigate and they brought the bodies out to our position. All three were Iraqi contractors who worked on American bases. One was a generator technician on our base. All three had their hands tied behind their back. All three had been beaten severely. One was shot in the face and another was shot in abdomen. The third was beaten and stabbed to death. Just like that, these criminals went out and picked up three men, all with families and then proceeded to torture and kill them, leaving their bodies in an alley.

What is even more outrageous is that no doubt that the people who are extolling the muj to go out and commit these crimes are the same ones who later in the day demand that we provide "more jobs." However, the jobs that they want are simply hand outs. They want us to give them large sums of money so that they can hire their own people. Of course, only a fraction of the money (if any) gets to the people. The majority go to the same band of criminals who have been running this society for decades. There is one local imam who is deeply involved with the insurgents who we suspect gets 30% off the top of all contracts! Again, the hypocrisy is astounding. This same guy will get up during Friday prayers and claim that we are trying to steel Iraq's oil and subjugate its people, meanwhile he is stealing a third of the money going into the town.

We have had some successes this week that you should know about. Earlier in the week, the muj mortared the same small town that I wrote about last week. Tragically some women and little girls were grievously wounded. As the Marines in the area responded to the attack, the mujahadeen attempted to ambush them. They set off a car bomb on the patrol and then opened up with RPGs and machine gun fire. Three Marines were wounded. All will recover. However, the Marines fought through the ambush and during a running firefight that lasted for hours and several kilometers, they hunted down and killed 7 mujahadeen and captured 2. That alone is another example of the heroics that the young Marines are executing daily. However, the truly encouraging element of the firefight was the response of a few Iraqi security forces guys who were operating with Marines in the area at same time.

At one point, the firefight was ongoing near an Iraqi Police station that was attacked at around the same time as the patrol above. A truck load of muj drove up and opened up on the police station. A small group of Marines were in the Police station in a joint position with Iraqi Police. The few Marines held firm and returned fire. Most of the Iraqi police fled. However, a handful stayed and fought with the Marines. While the Marines and Iraqi police held, the joint patrol of Marines and ICDC moved in to support. The ICDC soldiers did great and actually attacked a building where the muj were firing from. They are led by a Marine lieutenant who, along with his platoon has lived with them for months (another great story).

The Marines captured an Iraqi on a nearby rooftop who was videotaping the attack on the police station so the muj could use it for recruiting purposes. Imagine that, they want to record and gloat over attacks that target innocent Iraqis who are trying to raise their country up and maybe make better lives for their children. Of course, they do not have the courage to acknowledge the mortar attack that hurt the women and children. Inevitably, they blame it on the US.

There is so much shame in this society that the people cannot believe that fellow Iraqis would do such a thing. The people simply deny such an attack occurred without bothering to reason through the facts. However, when their fellow countrymen respond courageously and with honor, the message resonates. On these occasions, the lights come on and people talk openly about how much they hate the muj. Maybe even for a little while they see that a better future is possible. Unfortunately, when this happens, the insurgents recognize it immediately and act out brutally against the people in order to re-install the atmosphere of fear and instability that is required for them to succeed.

Slowly but surely, it feels like we are gaining ground. The heat and environment take their toll but you would be amazed at what the young men and women are doing out there every day.

I am copying the text of an article printed in Baghdad that clearly illustrates the chasm that is the cultural divide here. We get a kick out of these incidents when they happen. Inevitably, we stand slack jawed during moments like this. Doubt that you get a chance to hear about them but they serve as good entertainment. Have a great vacation,

Love,

One town in particular that we have been successful in is near Falluja. During the April fight in Falluja, the muj took the town over and used it as a base of operations of sorts. From all reports, they were brutal on the people and very quickly subjugated the town. During one of the ordered pauses in the Falluja fight, we chopped a rifle company off the line with a very aggressive battalion commander. Basically he was told that we thought the muj were running lose in the area and that he should head up there and "develop the situation." I have gotten to know this guy pretty well here. He is a very good commander and a tough guy. In fact, I remember telling him that if he went past a certain point, he would be decisively engaged. We had estimated that if he got into a decisive engagement, he could be outnumbered by as much as 5:1. You can imagine what he did. He took his Marines right to that point.

Sure enough, the fight was on. It was a 360 degree engagement that lasted 8 hours. An 8 hour firefight is an eternity. To put it in perspective, this guy was in both OIF 1 battle for Baghdad as well as the Falluja fight. He states that the firefight up near this town was the toughest he has been in. We fired quite a bit of artillery and brought in a number of sorties of close air for them. By the time it was over, the estimates (now confirmed) are that they killed over a 100 muj. We could not understand why they kept coming but they did (more on that later). Throughout it all, very accurate mortar fire up to 120mm was falling inside the Marine position. Automatic weapons and RPGs were crisscrossing through the perimeter. The Marines just
laid their in the micro terrain and squeezed of well aimed shots.

The Battalion Commander stayed that day until his guys broke the muj and he "owned the field" (his words). He then withdrew back to his original position. In the same town, we now have Marines living 24/7. They are conducting joint patrols with the Iraqi Police and the ICDC (Iraqi Civil Defense Corps). When they first arrived, the people were very standoffish and even hostile. Now we are getting more and more walk up intelligence (where the locals literally risk their lives in order to walk into our lines and tell us where the muj are). The reason for the turnaround is simple. We have pushed through the bow wave of intimidation and terror that dominated the town when the muj were there. The Marines did it through aggressive raiding and downright obstinate refusal to budge regardless of the costs. The people were watching the entire time and have made up their own minds where their best future lies. It has gotten to the point where the mujahadeen are now firing mortars indiscriminately into the town as it is the only effective means of maintaining any kind of influence over the people. Yesterday, they grievously wounded to citizens doing just that.

That is not to say that the town is a bed of roses for the Marines as we still have plenty of contact in the area and it is very dangerous but we are grinding them down and are about to put a good pounding on the enemy in the next few days. The people are talking and we are about to pay some more visits in the middle of the night. I could give you a couple more examples but it is a good illustration of what kind of work the Marines are doing every day.

As far as Falluja goes, we have not been allowed to get back in there with any real numbers yet. Initially, it was confounding. However, a very interesting dynamic has developed. Since we have stayed out of Falluja and focused elsewhere, the mujahadeen have had their run of the town. As they have had no one to fight, they have turned their criminal instincts on the citizens. The clerics who once were whipping these idiots into a suicidal frenzy are now having to issue Fatwas (holy decrees) admonishing the muj for extortion, rape, murder and kidnapping. It is unfortunate for the "innocent people" of Falluja but the mujahadeen have betrayed themselves as the thugs that they are by brutalizing the civilians. There are, in fact, reports of rape, etc from inside the town.

While the muj are thugging away inside the town, we are about 1/2 mile away paying claims, entering into dialogue and contracting jobs. The citizens come outside the city for work and money and are treated like human beings. They go back inside and enter a lawless hell. In short, the muj have done more to show the people what hypocrites they are in a few short weeks than we could have hoped for in a year. The result is more and more targetable intelligence. If we are given the green light, we can really go to town on these guys (no pun intended). However, as much as we would like to do just that, the optimal solution is to empower the Iraqis to take care of it themselves. That is precisely what we are doing.

Equally astounding is evidence that these "holy warriors" are taking drugs to get high before attacks. It true, as we pushed into the town in April many Marines came across drug paraphernalia (mostly heroin). Recently, we have gotten evidence of them using another drug BZ that makes them high and very aggressive. Cowards and hypocrites. They don't have the nerve to fight without calming their fear with drugs. Between highs, they are robbing people and raping young girls. Some jihad.

Unfortunately, Al Qaeda is here and they are some of the most brutal beings that you can imagine. I say "beings" because they do not qualify as human beings. They prey upon the "holy warriors" above and are in league with them teaching them tactics and employing them to execute attacks. Money to pay for the attacks comes from neighboring states. Al Qaeda, the same people that espouse creating a Islamic State that is global and living under the "purist form of God's laws", are working with drug addicts and rapists. Someone will have to explain that on to me some day.

For now we are gearing up for the inevitable offensive that the former regime guys, local criminals and Al Qaeda will wage this summer. It will be brutal as they are on a systematic campaign to murder anyone who is even half-way moderate. If any leader gains traction that is not 100% anti-coalition and pro-anarchy, is at immediate risk. Yesterday's positive world media coverage of the naming of the interim government will probably accelerate the mayhem somewhat. It is a fight that is inevitable. So long as we can keep the Iraqi people's nerve up and keep as many leaders alive as possible, we will crush the enemy when he surfaces. We are hopeful to take a little wind out of their sails with some pre-emptive work over the next few days.

I will let you know how it goes.

Love,

We only were able to talk for a short time and I swear that within a few minutes I had forgotten about the whole thing until we shook hands when I had to go. He turned to leave and I saw the zipper of staples on the back of his head. He was going back to work.

You would be very proud of the Marines as they have been able to switch gears from intense offensive operations back to what we call "stability operations." Stability operations simply translates to getting out into the countryside and teaching Iraqi Police and soldiers how to do their jobs. More importantly, our priority is just making contact with them and trying to instill a sense of confidence and pride in what they are doing. As I have shared with you over the past 15 months or so, it is hard to imagine trying to establish a police force or "national guard" (the equivalent of what we are working with) out of a population that has never even seen such entities as we understand them. If you said National Guard in Missouri, most people would think "the guys who show up when there is a flood, blizzard or tornado to help people." Or maybe after 9/11, that guy at the drug store who left for Iraq for a year as part of an engineer unit.

Here, they simply have no paradigm of what such a force is. We have to sit down and go over the most basic principles of protecting the people by being there to help when there is a crisis on one hand and getting out on night ambush to keep the muj out of the village on the other. As a whole they did disintegrate or worse during the April fighting. I have heard a lot of false exaggeration about the fact that the Iraqi Army would not stand and fight with the Marines in Falluja or the Army in Baghdad. Nonsense.

I could tell you stories of individual heroics of Iraqi soldiers. One specific example is of an Iraqi SgtMaj who came into our lines during the first days of fighting in Falluja. He made his way through the mujahadeen and risked being killed by us to tell us that he was concerned about the ICDC (Iraqi Civil Defense Corps) armory in town. He knew it was only a matter of time until the muj went for the armory to take the weapons. Honestly, I would have thought that they had already done it as the police stations and every other good piece of ground seemed to be occupied by the muj by that time. In short, he wanted to let us know that he was going back into the town to get the weapons. The Marines asked him if he wanted us to help. No. He only wanted us to take the weapons from him when he came back through. This guy took a couple young Iraqi soldiers with a truck and drove back through our lines into the hornets nest of Falluja. He went to the armory, emptied the weapons and ammo stored there and brought it back out through the fighting to us. We expected him to want to stay with us or to move on to Baghdad or some other safe area. He refused and stated that he was going back into the city as that was where his duty was. Not a coward by even the most cynical standard.

We had a group that showed up shortly thereafter. You have probably heard about them as they came out of Baghdad and on the way were ambushed a couple of times. By the time they made it here only 200 of 700 were in their ranks. I know that the public story is that they folded after a couple of days of fighting and disintegrated. They actually made it through three days of fighting. Not just taking a few rounds, they held through accurate machine gun fire, mortars and multiple assaults. They also moved forward and occupied positions on the Marines' flanks. After three days, we pulled them out. The Marines will tell you that they did a hell of a job.

The Marine Corps has been around for 230 years. We have many battles and history under our belts that instills in the Marines a profound sense of duty and tradition. Further, the culture has made peer pressure into a positive art form. Words like "selflessness" are not only used but are taught to every recruit. Show me another place in our society where a 20 year old guy worries more about letting his buddy down than his own well-being. This is true across the board. There are probably a few other places left that instill this but not too many where it holds together when the rubber meets the road.

The Iraqis had none of this going into Falluja. In fact they had and continue to have just the opposite. They live in a world of terror. For decades, Sadaam played one neighbor against another, one tribe against another, one sect of Islam against another and one race against another. Therefore there is never a sense of safety to the Iraqis even within their own tribes. Here if you join the police or the army, you are eventually approached by the terrorists and threatened. If they think you are a leader, they tell you that they will kill you and your family. The orders are simple, look the other way when you are on duty and leave when the terrorist show up. If you don't they will kill you and probably your family.

Imagine that young guy who joins the ICDC or police. He may be somewhat of an idealist when he gets out of our initial training but when he shows up to his unit, the muj have already infiltrated it and immediately make it clear that there is no hope of survival if he does not do exactly what they say. For good measure and effect, they regularly assassinate Iraqi policemen and soldiers just to make it clear that they will kill them on a whim. The guys that were in place prior to April lived in that world. We are working against it still. Without the tradition and culture of the Marine Corps and constantly thinking that their very presence next to us may get their families killed, I am amazed they made it for an hour much less than three days. We decided to pull them because this place needs young patriots. It does not need us to put them into a position where they will be ground down in intense combat or maybe to be killed when it is over. Hopefully they can be a nucleus for tomorrow's leaders. Time will tell.

We are back at it with the police and ICDC. With us are retired police officers from the US and other civilians who are trying to contribute. Police forces back in California are sending us equipment and expertise on training. The lesson that we have learned for this iteration is for us to focus first and foremost on our true strength and that is the character and decency of our Marines. Force of personality and personal example are more important to us right now leading up to the ineivitable violence this summer than the right radio for the Iraqis. For what it is worth, I think that is the right approach. If we demonstrate the best aspects of the Marines who they see every day, we are giving the young Iraqi men something that can never be taken from them. They are seeing the best part of a free people. Hopefully the lights will go on.

The enemy is confused right now. He goes to bed convinced he is going to win because he watches the Al Jazeera and then the US media and believes that we are a weak willed people who can be terrorized and who have a penchant for self-loathing. Then, he wakes up and he comes across a coalition check point and he sees a young Soldier or Marine who stands there like a rock and exudes strength and conviction. The same terrorist who was in the mosque the night before in a frenzy is now subjugated by the presence of a guy who does not match up with what he has been told and sees on TV. It must be confusing as all get out. Every day, he will continue to see in three dimensions the best that our society has to offer and their is no amount of sound bites that will trump that in the end.

In another email, I will share with you what I think is going to happen this summer. It will be a tough pull. However, we are prepared. We get reports of impending muj attacks on Marine positions and I am amazed at the universal response - "Good, that means we don't have to try to find them tonight." There is plenty of fight left in the guys. On a lighter note, the Iraqi people are coming back more and more to approach the Marines. When they are in private, they regularly tell us that we cannot leave and that they "need" us to stay. Of course they cannot say that publicly for reasons above.

I will close with something that was on my mind this morning when I punished myself by watching CBS news. I saw the anchor come on and just before he spoke, I told my rack mate "Lets see what the opening line is going to be...." Sure enough before he said anything else, he said "It just keeps getting worse and worse...." Yes, he was talking about Iraq. Honest to God we laughed at him. I'm not kidding. It is getting to the point where the Marines are getting past their anger at the talking heads and are laughing. To really get a rise out of them, requires a retired military officer who betrays his oath and stokes the fear mongering.

Do you remember when I came back last fall and people would ask about WMD and I would say that I did not care if we ever found any? The day we found the mass grave is vivid to me still. We found it up near the Iranian boarder. Very quickly people came from miles and miles away. We stood and watched the family members digging up bones and clutching remains as they sat in the dirt, rocked back and forth and cried. They were adamant that we should come over and look as they dug them up. Every single body had its hands and feet wired together with ROMEX. Each skull had a bullet hole in it except for a few that were smashed with a club or rifle butt. There were clearly men but also women and children. The grave never made the news as there were no media with us and it was small by Iraq standards. One detail that I found particularly outrageous was that the assassins left the identifications on the bodies as if they were so arrogant that it never occured that someday, someone would dig up the bodies and hold them accountable. I will never forget it.

That memory is vivid and relevant to me today as I feel like I was blessed to have been there and see it personally. To the people that cry that we should leave Iraq because we came here for the wrong reasons I would say "I don't care." Honestly, if I found out tomorrow that everyone in government knowingly lied and brought us here because Iraq grows the best sunflower seeds in the world it would not matter to me. We liberated a people from a regime that will go down in history as one of the most brutal ever. That would be enough.

However, we are now in a life and death struggle with an enemy who wants nothing more for us to leave so that they can bring their own brand of terror to the same people. Our biggest failings have been that, as a coalition, we have not been able to overcome our own-ham handed actions and horrible mistakes/crimes and simply convince the Iraqi people that we do in fact want to leave them a free and prosperous country where there is hope. The most successful way to do that is to continue to go out and show them every day and not to cut and run. And you know what? It is working. People are coming to us and talking to us even in the face of Abu Garayb and in the real threat of their own death.

Inside this country right now, there are extremists who have set up courts where in one room, they try Iraqis and in the next they kill them minutes later. Not fantasy - reality. Again, the death sentence? Accepting payment for damage we have done in fighting or in an accident. Taking a job working on a coalition base. Having a brother who has done his job in the police or ICDC.

Are people so naive as to think that if we left, things would get better? The country would implode and thousands of people would be killed. When the dust settled, a more dangerous Iraq would emerge and we would be even more hated throughout the world. It is that simple. We came here to help these people and at the same time to make the world a safer place for free people everywhere. If we leave too early, the people will suffer horribly and the world will have taken one giant step backward. Maybe we are slow on the uptake but it is pretty clear here what the right thing to do is and it is not to abandon the people to the terrorists.

I understand that some people are simply frightened by the violence - for good reason. To them I would say, hang in there. I see people every hour of every day that make me sure we are strong enough to be successful. To people that say our agenda is anything other than what I have written, I say that it does not matter because the young men and women doing the heavy lifting are doing it for the right reason and at the end of the day, the Iraqi people will benefit. They may never like us while we are here as there are thousands of years of culture that separate us. The fact that we are not popular does not change our moral obligation.

Please tell everyone that we are now bathing in coffee and loving it. I got on the Greenside yesterday. I sincerely appreciate the well wishes and share them with the guys (along with the coffee). I also appreciate the hopes that I keep my limbs as that lines right up with my own goals as well. If I could ask anything about the website, my guess is that people go to it to find out what is really happening. They also probably read the message board to be reassured that other people are holding the line. Regardless of what is posted there that may seem negative, please refrain from insulting someone who voices their opinion. Of course, if someone really gets froggy they are more then welcomed to go to boot camp, earn their ticket over here and put their money where their mouth is.

Love,

It seems that despite the tremendous and heroic efforts of the men and women serving here in Iraq to bring much needed peace and stability to this region, we are losing the war of perception with the media and American people. Our enemy has learned that the key to defeating the mighty American military is by swaying public opinion at home and abroad. We are a people that cherish the democratic system of government and therefore hold the will of the people in the highest regard. We love to criticize ourselves almost to an endless degree, because we care what others think. Our enemies see this as a weakness and are trying to exploit it.

When we ask ourselves questions like, "Why do they hate us?" or "What did we do wrong?" we are playing into our enemies' hands. Our natural tendency to question ourselves is being used against us to undermine our effort to do good in the world. How far would we have gotten if after the surprise attacks on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, we would have asked, "Why do the Japanese hate us so much?" or "How can we change ourselves so that they won't do that again?" Here in Iraq the enemy is trying very hard to portray our efforts as failing and fruitless. They kill innocents and desecrate their bodies in hopes that the people back home will lose the will to fight for liberty. They are betting on our perceived weakness as a thoughtful, considerate people. Unfortunately our media only serves to further their cause.

In an industry that feeds on ratings and bad news, a failure in Iraq would be a goldmine. When our so-called "trusted" American media takes a quote from an Iraqi doctor as the gospel truth over that of the men and women that are daily fighting to protect the right to freedom of press, you know something is wrong. That doctor claimed that out of 600 Iraqis, that were casualties of the fighting, the vast majority of them were women, children and the elderly. This is totally absurd. In the history of man, no one has spent more time and effort, often to the detriment of our own mission, to be more discriminate in our targeting of the enemy than the American military. The Marines and Soldiers serving in Iraq have gone through extensive training in order to limit the amount of innocent casualties and collateral damage.

Yet, despite all of this, our media consistently sides with those who openly lie and directly challenge the honor of our brave heroes fighting for liberty and peace. What we have to remember is that peace is not defined as an absence of war. It is the presence of liberty, stability, and prosperity. In the face of the horrendous tyranny of the former Iraqi regime, the only way true peace was able to come to this region was through force. That is what the American Revolution was all about. Have we forgotten? Freedom is not free and "peace" without principle is not peace. The peace that so-called "peace advocates" support can only be brought to Iraq through the military. And we are doing it, if only the world will let us! If the American people believe we are failing, even if we are not, then we will ultimately fail.

That is why I am asking for your support. Become a voice of truth in your community. Wherever you are fight the lies of the enemy. Don't buy into the pessimism and apathy that says, "It's hopeless," "They hate us too much," "That part of the world is just too messed up," "It's our fault anyway," "We're to blame," and so forth. Whether you're in middle school, working at a 9-5 job, retired, or a stay-at-home mom you can make a huge difference! There is nothing more powerful than the truth. So, when you watch the news and see doomsday predictions and spiteful opinions on our efforts over here, you can refute them by knowing that we are doing a tremendous amount of good. Spread the word. No one is poised to make such an amazing contribution to the everyday lives of Iraqis and the rest of the Arab world than the American Armed Forces. By making this a place where liberty can finally grow, we are making the whole world safer. Your efforts at home are directly tied to our success. You are the soldiers at home fightäô

You are correct that the corporals and sergeants are none too happy about some of the perceived bureaucracy but at the end of the day we understand that it is part of the democratic effort. Believe me, we will take no chances with our Marines and will be prepared to destroy any threat that surfaces during these patrols.

Many people have died during this offensive and during the moments when the adrenaline/anger die down, it is clear that we have an obligation as human beings to spare as many lives as possible. We also have an obligation to encourage the Iraqis to take some responsibility and ownership of their own destiny. We cannot tell them on one hand that they need to take charge and prevent violence among their people and on the other stiff arm them whenever we want to raise a city. It can be exasperating but unless I want *{Dave’s 6 year old son} taking his platoon down the same streets 15 years from now, we have to make an effort. I guess history will tell whether our approach is correct.

The Marines are strong and there is no doubt we could push through the city given the order. Hopefully, the Iraqis are sobering up and realizing that. My guess is that they are and that is why they want to talk. At the end of the day, we may get the chance to work with them and kill the men in the city that we have no hope of ever reasoning with. We are fully prepared to do that and we have no intention of letting them out of the city without first dealing with us. The best case scenario is for the Iraqis to succeed in handling the problem and we are doing everything we can to set them up for success.

Hope you and Mom enjoy your trip to see Sue and the kids.

Love,

The Falluja fighting is intense, up close and personal. Without bluster, I
can tell you that the Marines were on the verge of breaking the enemy's back
right before the cessation of offensive operations was ordered. Without
sounding morbid, the Marines really took it to the enemy. The amazing thing
is that we have not pummeled the city. The Marines have been very
disciplined in using precise firepower. Even in that savagery, they are
making every effort to spare the non-combatants. Of course with the kind of
violence and enemy that the Marines are facing, it is impossible.

The real story here that the media is ignoring how brutal the enemy has been
on the Fallujans and other locals who have chosen not to fight. I cannot
tell you how many reports I have gotten about insurgents threatening
civilians at gunpoint telling them that they will be killed if they try to
leave the city or do not let the enemy use their land/homes for attacking
us. The enemy takes over houses at gunpoint and tries to draw fire hoping
that we will kill innocents so they can exploit it.

I sincerely doubt that the Marines have passed by a mosque/minaret where
they have not taken fire. We return fire and it is the lead story. The
hypocrisy and lies are exasperating. Almost as exasperating as some of our
own media's seeming eagerness to believe it or at least report it as fact.
I can hardly bare to read CNN as it just disappoints me to no when the
heroism and suffering of the Marines in that town has been twisted for
political agendas.

I could go on and on about the treachery of our enemy here, smuggling
weapons in humanitarian rations under Red Crescent banners, moving arms and
ammunition via ambulances, bombing civilian vehicles in order to alienate
the people from the coalition.... However, the worst are reports that these
foreign fighters have snipers in the city that engage the women and children
as they try to escape the fighting. It sounds too horrific to be true but
nothing is off the table to this enemy. Daily, they fire unguided rockets
into the city and then get on the mosque loud speakers to blame the US. On,
and on and on....

There is little doubt that the average Iraqi seems to be less amiable than
when I left in September. It can really get you down but then you see the
young Marine who endures it all and just wants nothing more than to not let
his buddies down and to live up to the standards that he believes he
represents. The heroism that is taking place here daily by guys just out of
high school is beyond my abilities to adequately describe.

If they let us, the Marines will cut right through that city. I believe
that because of the spirit of the Marines who are seething because they have
been ordered to stop and still are eager to "finish the job."

As for me, I am safe and there is no reason to worry. I sincerely feel
blessed that I have been given the chance to contribute and be a part of the
1st Marine Regiment. I am humbled by the company that I get to keep
everyday. We have these guys right where we want them. What's even better
is that they believe that they can stand and fight against us. The end is
inevitable.

Talk to you soon,