Free Republic

FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 18 - Eight days after the Americans entered the city on foot, a pair of marines wound their way up the darkened innards of a minaret, shot through with holes by an American tank. As the marines inched upward, a burst of gunfire rang down, fired by an insurgent hiding in the top of the tower. The bullets hit the first marine in the face, his blood spattering the marine behind him. The marine in the rear tumbled backward down the stairwell, while Lance Cpl. William Miller, age 22, lay in silence halfway up, mortally wounded. "Miller!"...

SOUTH OF THE KUWAIT-IRAQ BORDER, Kuwait (AP) - U.S. Army troops sorted out enemy fighters from friendly civilians in training exercises Monday designed to help them with one of the most dangerous forms of combat they could face in Iraq - urban warfare. After conducting sweeping tank maneuvers a month ago, the soldiers worked out tactics for taking buildings room by room - deciding in a split-second whether people inside should be killed. The desert-tested soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division are being joined by tens of thousands more troops as President Bush ponders whether to invade Iraq....