Went through a fascination with Fallujah phase, so trawled through Youtube and Liveleak, and also came across this Comment Is Free piece in the Guardian. Now, I thought it was well known that a goodly number of the insurgents in Fallujah were anything but Fallujans defending their city against foreign invaders, more than a few being from all over the world on an adventure holiday with a difference - the idea being to get shot or blown up. In addition, wasn't this operation carried out in co-operation with the Iraqi army and I would have thought the writer would have been only too well aware of this, so why would he write something so full of half truths?

As for the comments, like a lot of CIF articles, proof that there's life on other planets...

I am sorry for the role I played in Fallujah | Ross Caputi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Also, can anyone tell me who the bloke is at the beginning of this vid? That accent is just great - what part of the US is it from? Ta.

LiveLeak.com - Task Force 22 Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah 2004.

I get where he's coming from. Despite a few employing cowardly tactics, the insurgents in Southern Iraq were often brave as fuck. I respect anyone who gets a couple of mates together and takes on an armoured British Army patrol armed with AK47's.

They were motivated by the fact that we'd levelled every bit of major infrastructure in their country, destroyed all their hopes and aspirations for the future, and made them feel like a bunch of spineless cunts next to the blokes who were fighting us. In their situation, I'd have had a pop at us too.

I don't feel ashamed for anything I did personally in Iraq, but I accept that we were the invaders/aggressors and that history will look kindly on them.

Mac - The accent sounds like somewhere in the Northeast/MidAtlantic area. Not Boston, not Maine, not NYC but maybe New York, New Jersey in the parts way from the city. Maybe Pennsylvania. People in the US military serve with people from all over the US and many bases are in the south for political reasons. The accent get sort of blended/homogenized .

If interested in Fallujah, have you read "No True Glory" by Bing West (maybe look for Francis West, Bing is an old nickname) Bing was USMC officer in Vietnam, Professor at the Naval War College, Asst SecDef etc. He was embedded with 1st Marines on the invasion from Kuwait to Bagdad. He has a website http://www.westwrite.com jointly with his son who is also former USMC officer (Somalia, Afghanistan)

Originally Posted by mac1

Went through a fascination with Fallujah phase, so trawled through Youtube and Liveleak, and also came across this Comment Is Free piece in the Guardian. Now, I thought it was well known that a goodly number of the insurgents in Fallujah were anything but Fallujans defending their city against foreign invaders, more than a few being from all over the world on an adventure holiday with a difference - the idea being to get shot or blown up. In addition, wasn't this operation carried out in co-operation with the Iraqi army and I would have thought the writer would have been only too well aware of this, so why would he write something so full of half truths?

As for the comments, like a lot of CIF articles, proof that there's life on other planets...

I am sorry for the role I played in Fallujah | Ross Caputi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Also, can anyone tell me who the bloke is at the beginning of this vid? That accent is just great - what part of the US is it from? Ta.

LiveLeak.com - Task Force 22 Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah 2004.