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— Tribal leaders in Fallujah warned al-Qaida-linked fighters to leave to avoid a military showdown, echoing a call by Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, that they give up their fight as the government pushes to regain control of the city and surrounding area. The warning came as gunmen attacked an Iraqi army barracks north of Baghdad, killing 12 soldiers.
— Al-Maliki, speaking in his weekly television address, hinted of a possible pardon for supporters of al-Qaida’s local branch, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, if they abandon the fight.
— Vice President Joe Biden spoke for a second time this week to al-Maliki, voicing support for the effort to regain control of Fallujah. The White House also said Biden also welcomed an affirmation Wednesday by al-Maliki that Iraqi elections will occur as scheduled in April.
— The U.N. envoy to Iraq warned that the humanitarian situation in Anbar is likely to worsen as military operations continue. Food and water supplies in Fallujah are beginning to run out, and more than 5,000 families have fled to neighboring provinces to escape the fighting, he said.
Associated Press
Shirley Parrello knows her youngest son believed in his mission in Iraq. But as she watches Iraqi government forces try to retake the hard-won city of Fallujah from al-Qaida-linked fighters, she can’t help wondering if it was worth Marine Lance Cpl. Brian Parrello’s sacrifice.
“I’m starting to feel that his death was in vain,” the West Milford, N.J., woman said of her 19-year-old son, who died in an explosion in Fallujah on Jan. 1, 2005. “I’m hoping that I’m wrong. But things aren’t looking good over there right now.”
A pair of brutal house-to-house battles in 2004 to tame the Iraqi insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad cemented its place in U.S. military history.
Former Marine scout sniper Earl Catagnus fought and was wounded in the initial fighting that April. Now a military historian, Catagnus said he feels the fighting has taken on an almost disproportionate importance in the American mind.
“If you watch ‘NCIS’ or anything that has a Marine … they always say, ‘Oh, I was in Fallujah,’ ” said the Purple Heart recipient, who left the military as a staff sergeant in 2006 and is now an assistant professor of history at Valley Forge Military Academy & College in Wayne, Pa. “That is the battle that really made a warrior a warrior.”
About 100 Americans died and another 1,000 were wounded during the major fighting there, some of the heaviest urban combat involving the Marine Corps since the Battle of Hue City, Vietnam, in 1968, said historian Richard Lowry. The author of the book “New Dawn: The Battles for Fallujah,” he said it’s difficult to overstate Fallujah’s importance in the Iraq war.
“Up until that time, the nation was spiraling into anarchy, totally out of control,” said Lowry, a Vietnam-era veteran. “The United States Marine Corps — with help from the Army and from the Iraqis — went into Fallujah and cleared the entire city and brought security to Anbar Province, allowing the Iraqis to hold their first successful election.”
And that is why the al-Qaida takeover is such a bitter disappointment for many.
Former Marine Lance Cpl. Garrett Anderson’s unit lost 51 members in the city. When he considers whether the fighting was in vain, it turns his stomach.
” “If Marines were in that city today there would be dead Qaida all over the streets again, but the reality is this is only the beginning of something most people who have been paying attention since the war began knew was going to end this way,” said Anderson, 28, who now studies filmmaking in Portland, Ore.
Other veterans also found the reversal of fortunes, while regrettable, hardly surprising.
David R. Franco survived a roadside bomb blast outside Fallujah in 2005. The retired Marine suffers from back pain, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other ailments that send him to doctors and psychologists regularly.
“To me, it was just a matter of time for it to happen again and for al-Qaida to go back in there,” said the 53-year-old veteran of Moorpark, Calif., who retired as a sergeant major. “It’ll be a constant thing.”
Still, Franco — whose son was also wounded in Iraq — said it was worth it.
So does Nick Popaditch. On April 7, 2004, his tank was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade as he rolled through the city. Shrapnel destroyed his right eye — now strikingly replaced by a prosthetic bearing the Marine Corps logo.
The gunnery sergeant’s actions earned him a Silver Star and Purple Heart, but cost him his military career. The San Diego residentis studying to be a high school math teacher, and he refuses to second-guess the recent events in Iraq.
“There’s a lot of downtrodden people there who got a shot at a free life, at freedom,” said Popaditch, 46, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2012. “And if the bad guys come back into control, that’s not something I can control 8,000 miles away here. I’m just proud of the fact that when it came time to stand and fight for those things, those concepts of freedom, liberty, human rights … I’m glad my nation did it.”
Others try to place it in the context of Iraq’s internal struggle since the ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, and don’t see the reversal as permanent.
“I’m very disappointed right now, very frustrated,” said retired Marine Col. Mike Shupp, who commanded the regimental combat team that secured the city in late 2004. “But this is part of this long war, and this is just another fight, another battle in this long struggle against terrorism and oppression.”
On Tuesday, the site duffelblog.com posted a satirical column about two former Marines raising $1,300 on Kickstarter to go back and retake the city in time for the battle’s 10th anniversary.
“We paid for that city and we’re keeping it!” one fictional commenter is quoted as telling the site.
The piece had more than 30,000 Facebook likes by Wednesday.
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