Fallujah.

This is coolbert:

This current battle being fought in Falluja to root out and destroy the insurgent "nest" may turn out to create a perspective in the media similar to one battle fought during the Tet Offensive of 1968.

A North Vietnamese/Viet Cong [NVA/VC] unit had occupied and entrenched itself in a Vietnamese town [Ben Tre] that was considered to be friendly to the South Vietnamese government in Saigon. American and South Vietnamese forces were required to retake the town. A very terrible fight for control of the town began. And very strong American firepower was called in during the fighting to destroy the NVA/VC "pockets of resistance". This firepower included heavy artillery and close air support. And the use of this overwhelming firepower and ground attack by American forces was successful. The NVA/VC unit was wiped out and the town was retaken. But at very great cost. The U.S. commander was quoted [this quote became famous and has been repeated over and over ever since] as saying, "we had to destroy the town to save it".

This quote is highly disputed. Attributed to Peter Arnett and cannot be authenticated:

"The 'We had to destroy the village to save it' comment, by Peter Arnett is told too. Peter Arnett was an anti war reporter from the beginning. In 1965 he wrote a bogus report about our Marines using toxic gas on the VC. It was just tear and pepper gas, and was widely used in Vietnam to clear bunkers and tunnels. It was thought more humane than blowing up the people in the tunnels or bunkers. Arnett reported it as poison gas and made world wide headlines. This is discussed in Utters Battalion"

In this book, he invents a quote "We had to destroy the village to save it" and again it makes world wide headlines.

During the Tet offensive at the battle of Ben Tre, Arnett says an Army Major made the comment. Neither the Major, or any other living person heard the comment."

AND A LOT OF DAMAGE WAS DONE. BUT MOST OF THE DAMAGE WAS LATER FOUND TO HAVE BEEN DONE BY NVA/VC FORCES.

"You've probably heard the phrase: "It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it." Peter Arnett included that quote in a story and attributed it to an unnamed American officer. The quote ran in a February 7th story describing a battle at Ben Tre. It made it sound like the Americans had gone completely insane, flattening villagers to save them from themselves.

Ben Tre WAS destroyed, but not by Americans. It was destroyed by the retreating Viet Cong."

Nonetheless, so much damage was done to the town that the townspeople had more or less nothing to return to. And many civilians, loyal to the central government in Saigon, had been killed during the fighting.

Falluja is not an exact comparison of course.

The city is much larger [250,000] people, and the populace is mostly Sunni Muslim, and presumably opposed to the interim Iraqi government, not loyal. However, the fighting has been very intense, with very strong American firepower being used. It seems this firepower runs the gamut from "daisy cutter" bombs [these bombs are designed to set off by their pressure wave land mines, booby traps, etc.], TOW missiles, direct tank fire, etc., has been employed to destroy the insurgent "nest". And successfully so.

The city has been recaptured.

But it seems that a lot of destruction to private dwellings and the infrastructure has been done too. And this is not avoidable. To recapture the city firepower had to be used. But it must be understood that when the decision to use that firepower is made, you are going to have this type of destruction. Now a massive rebuilding task must commence. A rebuilding task that will be hampered by further insurgency and lack of resources. This will create perhaps even more animosity among the Sunnis that existed before the American offensive to retake the city.

Further, a perspective may be created that the entire town of Falluja was destroyed in the process and this effort only becomes self defeating. As it seemed to at Ben Tre, Vietnam. We are not winning the war it seems, rather, we are as elephants stomping ants in an indiscriminate manner.

It seems the tactic being employed now by the provisional government in Baghdad and the American forces is to clear these insurgent "nests" out one city at a time, hope to restore order, and prepare for the forthcoming elections. Only time will tell if this tactic will work.

I am sure Falluja, either before the offensive, and surely after, is not going to be strong supporters of the central government in Baghdad.

[personal note: It is just astounding that already many anti-war blogs I have visited have hit upon this same subject and are creating the perspective and image that there IS an almost exact parallel between Ben Tre and Falluja. THE TOWN IS BEING DESTROYED TO SAVE IT.]

coolbert.