Watch: Insurgents Won't Come Out, Marine Sends Frag Grenade Through Window
Though long past the days when it dominated the headlines, the Iraq War need not be forgotten. Nor, in fact, should any American ever lose sight of the immense risks our men and women in uniform endured in their quest to overthrow the government of dictator Saddam Hussein and bring freedom to Iraq.
Among the greatest risks faced by our troops was suddenly being obliterated by anything from enemy fire to a hidden improvised explosive device.
But despite the dire possibility of death, America’s finest performed brilliantly throughout the war, but especially so during its most heated period: the Second Battle of Fallujah, code-named Operation Phantom Fury.
Described by The Washington Post as “the Iraq War’s bloodiest battle,” this 2004 confrontation led to the deaths of “(e)ighty-two of the estimated 12,000 U.S. troops who took part” and the wounding of another 600.
But these numbers paled in comparison to the 2,000 insurgents who were killed and 1,200 who were captured.
Speaking of dead insurgents blown to bits and pieces, a video posted by the veterans-website Funker530 shows the gripping moment when a battalion of U.S. troops brok the window of a insurgent compound, tossed a grenade inside as a “gift,” then proceeded to clear the building out.
According to Funker530, the video is “an excerpt from a longer reel of B-Roll footage” that depicts the events of Operation Phantom Fury.
Sadly, though the U.S. military notched incredible victories during the battle, all its gains were lost afterward because of former President Barack Obama’s policies, as noted in 2014 by The Christian Science Monitor:
“Military history books will record how Fallujah was demonstrably cleared of more than 4,000 Sunni insurgents in 2004. And they will mention that today, Islamic State fighters control the city — a reversal for Fallujah that shocks and angers the many who had fought so hard and bled so much.”
Even Arizona Sen. John McCain, a “Republican” many accuse of being a Democrat in disguise, admitted at the time that then-President Barack Obama was responsible for this.
“(N)ow in Fallujah there are vehicles driving around with black flags. That is an abject, abysmal failure of (then-Iraqi PM Nouri al) Maliki, but also of the United States of America because we didn’t leave a residual force,” he said during a 2014 interview with Al Jazeera America host John Seigenthaler, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
When then asked by Seigenthaler whether Obama was “responsible for that,” McCain tersely replied, “Absolutely.”
However, in mid-2016, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went against Obama’s advice “to instead focus on the larger Islamic State-held city of Mosul farther north,” as reported by The Washington Post, and chose rather to focus on recapturing Fallujah. That’s when the terrorists finally lost control of Fallujah once and for all.
“Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday declared victory over the Islamic State in Fallujah after a day of rapid advances as security forces pushed deep into the city center, dislodging the militants who have controlled it for nearly 2½ years,” the Post reported on June 17, 2016.
Good. And with President Donald Trump now in office, I’m fairly confident Fallujah will never again fall into the hands of terrorists. Not on Trump’s watch.
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