People forget or misunderstand how important the November 2004 Battle of Fallujah was. Before it, the standard lefty, hate-America refrain was “the insurgents are winning.” There was even an infamous Newsweek story just before the battle with a quote from Colin Powell saying just that. After the battle, no one ever said “the insurgents are winning” again. The America-haters had to change their refrain to “America can’t win” or something similar. After Fallujah, it became obvious to everyone that the insurgents couldn’t engage the Americans in any kind of direct fight and have a prayer of willing.
The men who fought and won that battle are American heroes as great as any at Normandy and Iwo Jima and Inchon and Hue.
there's always talk of "the old Corps" did this and the "old Corps" did that....
some meat eaters even gathered at watering holes talking about how great we all used to be and several of the Marines had pins and embroidered stitching indicating places like Tarawa, Chosin, Iwo, Khe Sanh, Da Nang, Mekong River club, Hue, to name a few....
I can tell you to the man, there wasn't a dry eye when the reports came back about Fallujah on Fox news. A couple of the old timers just sipped the beer, looked a little misty and I can clearly remember, "same old Corps. Damn those men make me proud."
Another guy just took the deep breath and let out, "these kids... these men are doing what Marines do...God I'm proud of them."
Well I can tell you, I was never as brave as these men I've read about. I try to hide tears, cause I just wish they would all come back safe and sound to their families.
God Bless them, God Bless the Marine Corps.