Troops Gaining Grip In Sections of Fallujah quotes a Marine Captain on the resistance fighters:
‘Some of the fighters are young guys, the equivalent of dope peddlers, who do this for money. Others are holy warriors willing to die for a cause,’ said Capt. Will Dickens, another company commander whose troops were fired on repeatedly. ‘The die-hard [suicide fighters] just stand up in the open, fire from the hip and stay there until they kill or are killed.’
The Marines are under strict orders:
“We are not using artillery or big guns,” Dickens said. “We don’t want collateral damage…. The way to win the war on terror is with your boots on deck.”
The way to win the war on terror is with your boots on deck. Yeah, these are Marines — and they’ve been planning this for a while:
The Marines’ mission, although planned for weeks, was given new urgency and purpose by the March 31 slayings of four American security contractors, two of whose bodies were burned, hacked and hung from a bridge by jeering mobs.“This is not retribution. This is not vendetta. This is about making the city livable so people don’t have to live in fear of the thugs who have taken over the city,” Byrne said. “This city has long been a haven for smugglers and bandits, a dumping ground for foreign fighters and bad guys. No one ever took the time to clean it out properly.”