It annoyed me that our careful offensive in 2004, started after we got as many civilians out of Fallujah, was portrayed by our left as a virtual Dresden via soldiers and Marines.
Yes, we leveled defended structures rather than endure needless casualties (and we suffered more KIA taking that city than we did in the conventional combat to break Saddam's army and capture Baghdad), but we fought our enemies there.
Nobody seemed to really acknowledge the houses of horror we liberated.
Iraqis seem to be pining for our method of waging war as Fallujah is again a battlefield:
In 2004, when American forces warned civilians to evacuate, Ms. Rasheed and her family spent a month in the countryside. The mother of six children, all under the age of 11, says this time is worse. ...
“In 2004, the Americans were just hitting military targets,” [another woman] says, referring to mortars aimed at insurgent strongholds in her city. “But this is random shelling.”
Yeah. We're always missed when we're gone and the alternative becomes obvious.
