insurgents = normal people

they should have shouted to them in arabic.
...but if they'd surrendered, the americans would probably have killed them anyway.

I re-used the term as a shorthand for "normal people, possibly armed" also known as nationalist resistance forces or religious extremists - can't tell from the context here so again, convenience triumphed.

Johnald128... I take it from your comment that you haven't served. Speaking as an OIF vet I can tell you that getting an Arabic translator in there would do absolutely no good. These people have no interest in negotiating or surrendering. They fight to the death. Did you hear them chanting in the video? These "normal people" also hold neighborhoods hostage and threaten to murder the families of anyone who speaks to US troops. I've seen these "normal people" slaughter innocent children with VBIED's and suicide bombers to kill soldiers handing out toys and school supplies. Now I've barely ever posted here since I started checking the Sift a year ago, but ignorant comments like yours make me too angry to sit silent. I've got friends in what's now their third rotation to that damned place, and your implication that we're all mindless enough to kill surrendering combatants makes me sick.

Thanks for the comment Lurch, it was needed here.

Why don't they have flamethrowers anymore? That would make clearing a building a lot easier.

lurch,
i've listened to thorough accounts of soldiers that have returned and some have killed hundreds of innocent people, so dont put it across like they're doing a good job.
how many people will they have to kill do you think?
they just want the troops out.

Lurch, I have immense respect for the people that serve in a all voluntary army (this is besides the vicious head hunting) but I don't support troops being sent into a location that doesn't want them nor need them. I don't support them carrying out policing duties using equipment not suited for that (open top Humvees). I don't support them driving patrol along similar routes over and over, so insurgents can lie down IEDs.

The Military is created to fight another cohesive force that endangers the security of the continental United States. Not as a peacekeeping operation designed to bring democracy.

After Vietnam I thought it was well learnt that you ask young men to sacrifice ONLY under the most ardent of conditions. Not because of a few cheap power point presentations and dubious cherry picked information. It's an insult to everyone who wears the uniform to be forced into conflict by politicians who themselves done nothing but dodge military service, yet at the same time so ardently believe that sending more troops (yet but below the actual military requirement) would solve the problem.

The first think you learn in the army is to kill, to desantisize yourself from taking a life. Military forces are created to fight wars, not bring democracies.

Bring the troops back.

"Comments are welcome because I'm not entirely sure what happens - whether the building is demolished on the insurgents or whether they manage to sneak away."

It seemed like they were spending most of the video trying to pin down the exact location of the insurgents. I think the roof they were standing on was the roof of the building that they destroy at the end of the clip. It looks like they decided that it was going to be way too dangerous to try to clear that building, so they keep it surrounded and then clear another building where they think insurgents might be (the bit in the stairwell). Finally, it looks like they destroy the building with what sounded like 25mm cannon fire from either a LAV or Amphibious Assault Vehicle. When they're going through the wreckage at the very end you get a brief glimpse of one the mangled bodies of the insurgents.

Allahu Ackbar!

Reeetards.

*waronterror

Adding video to channels (Waronterror) - requested by raven.

I noticed something worthy of resurrecting this old clip. Farhad posted the entire documentary this originated from. http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Second-Battle-of-Fallujah

In part 3, found here http://youtube.com/watch?v=KsmiceTjbAE , the reporter describes how translators called to the men in arabic to lay down their weapons. You can also watch other points throughout the entire fight for Fallujah where numerous measures are taken to avoid unnecessary loss of life. The final decision to level the building was made after attempts at reason failed, and the chanting made the Marines worry that this was going to be a suicide bombing.

*dead

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