Fallujah

[. . .]

Guerrillas trying to open a “second front” have launched a wave of attacks that have killed at least 13 Americans since Monday apart from the Fallujah operation.

Major Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, characterized fighting overnight as “light to moderate” and said U.S. casualties were “extremely light.”

[. . .]

This is what happens when politicians try to run a war. Guys like my boss Harry and my partner Gordon saw it first-hand in Vietnam and we're seeing it now in Fallujah unfolding in living color. We've been telegraphing this since the spring, but it was put on hold until after the election season. All the guys we really want to kill have left town weeks ago and they're doing their business in other cities, leaving an irritant force behind to kill as many Marines and ground-pounders as possible before they go under. We've got another half dozen Fallujahs to pacify once we get done here. Do we have the troops to leave behind to keep order once the civilians return? Not if we have to fight more battles like this. It's getting drafty again.

And while that's happening:

[. . .]

In Baghdad, however, kidnappers abducted two members of Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi's family, the government said.

A militant group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad said in a Web posting to have carried out the kidnapping and threatened to behead the hostages within 48 hours unless the siege of Fallujah is lifted and prisoners freed. The claim's authenticity could not immediately be verified.

Armed men snatched one of the Prime Minister's cousins, Ghazi Allawi, and the cousin's daughter-in-law from their home in Baghdad's western Yarmouk neighbourhood Tuesday night, government spokesman Thair al-Naqeeb said.

[. . .]

Story.

So, they're gonna have elections there and we can't keep the Prime Minister's family safe? Righto. What a clusterfuck.