Friday, May 12, 2006

They Know Who We Are Fighting

U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major Timothy R. Mace fought in the 7th Cavalry Regiment in the November 2004 Battle of Fallujah. Here is his oral history of the battle:

When you have professionals with good equipment and good support who work well together going against a bunch of raggedly little muj' [mujahideen], you're going to win. Everybody knew they were going to fight, and I'm not disparaging the enemy. They're brave in their own right, but they were just amateurs fighting professionals - and the professionals had the better toys.
and

Everybody knew these guys we’re fighting are not good people. They’re just bad people, and every time you pulled the trigger, the world got a little bit better.
Enjoy this all-too-rare clarity about the war and our enemies.

(Major Tim Karcher's interview, "we did some pretty robust destruction," is also excellent.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah the toys! Makes life all that much easier!

Jeff said...

Great report, thanks for getting it out there. An excellent read!

Anonymous said...

That was an excellent report. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Tom said...

You betcha. Thanks for stopping by.

dcat said...

"Robust destruction" is a great phrase.

In my Contemporary issues and Historical perspectives course we have done a lot of reading about the Taliban (I know your post refers to Falujah, but still). At minimum, whatever one thinks of the Bush administration (and your regulars and my readers know I do not think much) or about the Iraq war, at least when it comes to Afghanistan, can there be any doubt about the good we have done? I actually advocated military action back when they destroyed the Buddhist statues well before 9/11, so I can only rejoice when I read these accounts of the Taliban and realize that they are no more. Of course at the same time, things in Saudi Arabia (or, I should say, our ally, Saudi Arabia) are still pretty grim for women and others, never mind lesewhere.

dc

Tom said...

As an uncompromising supporter of the Iraq war, I think that without a doubt the greatest critique of the Bush administration is that they have never explained how their correct justifications for moving relatively quickly and decisively against Afghanistan and Iraq are not correct justifications for moving quickly in putting the smack down on Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran.

I can't believe no one has called them out on this failure.