Reversals in hard-won Iraqi city vex veterans
By ALLEN G. BREED and JULIE WATSON
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The image of two charred American bodies hanging from a
bridge as a jubilant crowd pelted them with shoes seared the name
Fallujah into the American psyche. The brutal house-to-house battle to
tame the Iraqi insurgent stronghold cemented its place in U.S. military
history.
So it is no surprise that the
city's recent fall to al-Qaida-linked forces has touched a nerve for the
service members who fought and bled there.
Some
call the news "disheartening," saying it revives painful memories of
their sacrifice, while others try to place it in the context of Iraq's
history of internal struggle since the ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein
in 2003. As difficult as it is to see Islamist banners flying from
government buildings they secured, they refuse to accept this as a
permanent reversal.
"I'm very
disappointed right now, very frustrated," says retired Marine Col. Mike
Shupp, who was commanding officer of 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."
"I
do not see this as the culmination of the failure of all of our efforts
— yet," agrees Earl J. Catagnus Jr., who was wounded by an improvised
explosive device in Fallujah and now teaches at a military college.
"This is just one battlefield, one city in a host of battles that has
been happening since 2003. It's just for us as Americans, because we've
elevated that battle to such high standards ... that it becomes turned
into the 'lost cause,' the Vietnam War syndrome."...
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