This is pretty depressing if you think of the heroic battle fought by US Marines in Fallujah in 2004 - the biggest urban battle fought by the US military since Tet. Al-Qaeda virtually took over the city two days ago when the Iraqi military was pulled out as a sop to Sunni lawmakers who thought they were being oppressed. AQ moved in and now, the military is going back, trying to wrest control of the city from al-Qaeda fighters. A rejuvenated al-Qaeda-affiliated force asserted control over the western Iraqi city of Fallujah on Friday, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state in one of the most crucial areas that U.S. troops fought to pacify before withdrawing from Iraq two years ago. The capture of Fallujah came amid an explosion of violence across the western desert province of Anbar in which local tribes, Iraqi security forces and al-Qaeda-affiliated militants have been fighting one another for days in a confusingly chaotic three-way...(Read Full Post)