The Battle of Fallujah forever changed the methods in which the American military conducts combat operations. The American military was not expecting to engage in such a bloody and intense battle like Fallujah. Fallujah changed the way the military conducted its tactical operations, its intelligence operations, and its Information Operations (IO). There are also a number of other factors that were changed to due this intense urban conflict. The Battle of Fallujah was started by one singular incident, which will now be expanded upon.
Insurgents ambushed and killed four American private security contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, on March 31, 2004. These men were from the Blackwater Security Firm. They were providing security for truck convoys carrying food throughout Fallujah. These men were not simply killed, but there corpses were set on fire, dismembered, beaten, and dragged through the streets of Fallujah. The insurgents hung two of the burnt corpses from a bridge over the Euphrates River while local citizens celebrated and rejoiced in the streets. Associated Press reporters on scene took pictures and showed the world the appalling event that had occurred.
These actions angered the U.S. government and on April 4, 2004, Operation Vigilant Resolve commenced. This battle had U.S. Marines attempt to expel insurgents, from Fallujah city, that were responsible for the murder of the Blackwater workers. The Marines were not fully prepared for the difficult urban combat this battle would entail. The horrid actions of the insurgents sent the U.S. into a frenzy, which in turn, did not allow them to prepare a proper battle strategy. The strategy for Fallujah city was simple, conventional Army tactics that would shock and awe the enemy into s...
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... western approaches to the city and secured the Jurf Kas Sukr Bridge. These initial attacks, however, was a diversion intended to distract and confuse the insurgents holding the city.
Works Cited
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Foulk, Vincent L. (2006) Battle of Fallujah: Occupation, Resistance and Stalemate in the War in Iraq.
Hickman, Kennedy (2009) Iraq War: Second Battle of Fallujah. About.com Military History. Retrieved from http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/conflictiniraq/p/fallujah.htm/
Mansour, Ahmed (2009) Inside Fallujah: The War on the Ground.
O’Donnell, Patrick (2006) We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah.
Wikipedia (2013) Second Battle of Fallujah. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah
Desert Vets. 06 March 2011 <www.desertvets.org/main-pages/desert-storm.htm>. Finlan, Alastair. The Gulf War 1991. Great Britain: Osprey Publishing, 2003.
September 11, 2001, Osama Bin Laden decided to “wake the sleeping giant.” The US immediately sent SOF units and CIA officers to recon the area and meet with the Northern Alliance. The primary battle leading up to this operation was Tora Bora, which was absent of conventional forces. Up until this point, the war on terror was predominantly a Special Operations fight along with Air Force for overhead support.3 SOF and the Northern Alliance had already displaced Taliban forces out of many towns and villages in northern Afghanistan to gain control of key terrain. Key towns in northern Afghanistan including Taloqan, Konduz, Herat, and Mazar-e Sharif took only three weeks to clear.4 The SOF units were making huge impacts across the country calling in air strikes. At the same time the SOF units were diligently...
No matter how well intentioned the invasion of Iraq may have been, it was an act of violence and deception that has left many American men dead for no clear reason.
Books, L. (2010). Battles of the War in Afghanistan by Country. Washington: LLC Books. Retrieved November 05, 2010, from books.google.co.ke/books?isbn=1158057407
Corporal Jones posted his description of the events on his blog which included that the operation took place on Pakistani territory, a detailed description of the entry route his unit used to travel into Pakistan, and he mentioned his commanding officer’s violation of military protocol, which may have led to the ambush and deaths of his fellow marines.
The Battle of Tora Bora was a successful operation that taught the United States a lot about operations in Afghanistan, dealing with Osama bin Laden and his followers and how we needed to change the way we fought as an American force. The lessoned that we learned from this operation have taught us to train our troops differently because we are fighting a new asymmetric enemy. As a country and military force, we have transformed to become a better and more complex force and continue to maintain our proficiency in being a powerful nation with the best military in the world.
On March 16, 1968, in the Quang Ngai region of Vietnam, specifically My Lai, the United States military was involved in an appalling slaughter of approximately 500 Vietnamese civilians. There are numerous arguments as to why this incident even had the capacity to occur. Although some of the arguments seem valid, can one really make excuses for the slaughter of innocent people? The company that was responsible for the My Lai incident was the Charlie Company, and throughout the company, there were many different accounts of what happened that reprehensible day. Therefore, there are a few contradictions about what had occurred, such as what the commanding officers' exact instructions for the soldiers were.
On March 18, 2003, Coalition forces would launch the initial attacks on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. A full invasion of the country followed, and Hussein was overthrown from power. While the end of Hussein’s oppressive reign was considered a victory for many of the Iraqi people, the Sunnis of the Ba’ath Party refused to accept his demise. Although the Sunnis were in the minority, the city of Fallujah would remain home to many of the Ba’ath Party supporters. On March 31, 2004, almost a year to date from the end of Hussein’s reign, four American Blackwater contactors working in Fallujah were attacked, brutally beaten, burned and dismembered by a group of Iraqi insurgents. Two of the bodies were hung from a bridge for all of the citizens of Fallujah to see, and a mob style celebration took place in the city. The highly publicized incident would be the igniter for the First Battle of Fallujah, known as Operation Vigilant Resolve. On May 1, 2004, the battle would end with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the city and control being turned over to the newly formed Fallujah Brigade. The mission as a whole was a failure, and the shortcomings of Operation Vigilant Resolve were ultimately a demonstration of the underestimation of the power, size, efficiency, organization and control that the Insurgent Forces had in Iraq as well as the lack of a consistent strategic plan from the American forces.
Reflections as a Combatant Commander in a Turbulent World. Performed by General (Retired) James Mattis. 2013.
The first battle in Fallujah during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) is known as Operation Vigilant Resolve. This battle is regarded as one of the biggest single defeats that the United States Military has suffered throughout all its campaigns during OIF. The United States and international media outlets exploited this defeat, which in turn, bolstered Al Qaeda recruiting in Fallujah. This offensive failure and retreat was backed by a huge public outcry for troop withdrawal and successful exploitation of recruiting propaganda by the insurgents.
Morin, Jean H., and Richard Howard Gimblett. Operation Friction: 1990 - 1991 ; the Canadian Forces in the Persian Gulf. Toronto [u.a.: Dundurn, 1997. Print. (Secondary Book)
Schmidt, Michael. “Fatal Bombs in Iraq Seemed Aimed at Militia.” The New York Times. 09 Feb. 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.
that changed the shape of the U.S. military establishment and led to a more capable Army as part of a more effective joint force, ready to face any military force, at any time
Greene, Bob. Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned From Vietnam . N.p.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1989.
In the early morning of 19 February 1945, United States Marines assigned to the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Division led the initial assault on the Japanese controlled island of Iwo Jima, with the objective of capturing and securing the island. This was the beginning of one of the fiercest and bloodiest; and more decisively, the most strategically important battles fought during World War II. After the dust had settled, and the smoke had cleared, the causalities and losses were astounding. 6,821 U.S. Marines along with 18,844 members of the Imperial Japanese Army had paid the ultimate sacrifice. A decisive US victory on the island of Iwo Jima later played a pivotal role in the overarching defeat of the Japanese Empire and its Armed Forces (Morison, 1945).