Lethal hatreds spread in Iraq's cockpit of violence (ur there in Falluja)

[Barrett808]

Lethal hatreds spread in Iraq's cockpit of violence

In the city where a US Black Hawk was downed last week, dangers lurk on every street corner for the US 82nd Airborne. Peter Beaumont spoke to both sides in Falluja's vicious conflict as the American death toll in the country approaches 500

Sunday January 11, 2004
The Observer

In the dining hall at Camp Volturno on the outskirts of Falluja, the newcomers to Taskforce 1 Panther of the US 82nd Airborne Division sit quietly as they listen to their welcome brief. They are big men, barrel-chested from pushing weights, heads shaved to stubble or tiny Tintin fins.

Lieutenant-Colonel Brian Drinkwine, the battalion commander, begins the briefing that will colour these young soldiers' perceptions of the town two miles beyond their compound's walls. The senior non-commissioned officers will tell these boys Falluja is the most 'dangerous place on earth'.

'Falluja is the centrepoint of the war,' says Drinkwine, a solid man in his late thirties. 'You got to be steely-eyed out there,' he said. 'There are a good people down there and in the midst of them are a handful of evildoers.

...

It is explained by a 'cell leader' in Falluja's resistance - a bearded and prosperous-looking man in his mid-fifties, who has lost five cousins in the 'fight'. 'We are resisters by nature,' he tells me. 'America has invaded us and insulted us and so it is legitimate for us to fight. It is our honour and our duty and we know that it will be a long fight.'

...

'The big suicide bombing operations,' he says, 'are nothing to do with us. We are only against the American forces.' Then he made an extraordinary confession: 'Last week I was driving in my car with my smallest child when a soldier came up and started playing with him. I saw a tear in his eye. I thought: "He does not have a choice about being here". And I wished him no evil. I swear to God,' he tells me, 'it hurts me to see an American bleed. I admire them, but in their own country.'


(much more)

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1120518,00.html

Mods: Don't know if this is "breaking news" but it is the latest on-the-ground report from Fallujah.

[ellie]

1. My nephew is in the 82nd

in Fallujah. I am sick with worry about him. Thanks for posting this.