Fallujacide to Get Much Worse

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. forces are gearing up for a major operation against the insurgent stronghold Fallujah, a U.S. general said Friday, as hundreds of British troops reached a base near Baghdad to free American forces to join the assault.

"We're gearing up to do an operation and when we're told to go we'll go," Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said at a camp near Fallujah. "When we do go, we'll whack them."

Because that's what liberation's all about, right, General?

BTW, the blog Whatever It Is, I'm Against It has been reminding us that Fallujah has been in our bomb sights for a long time (see the previous posts here). WIIIAI's most recent post quotes Ramsey Clark's eye-opening book about the first Bush war against Iraq, The Fire This Time:

"In mid-February [1991], missiles accounted for at least 200 reported civilian deaths and 500 more injured in the town of Falluja. ...These deaths were the result of two separate attacks, allegedly on bridges. ... However, witnesses disagree, calling the bomb placement intentional." The bridge was 1 1/2 km. from the bridge. "The other attack destroyed a row of modern concrete five- and six-story apartment houses near another bridge, as well as several other houses nearby. As Middle East Watch described it, 'All buildings for 400 meters on both sides of the street, houses and market, were flattened.'"