U.S. Forces Hold 70 Percent of Fallujah

I would consider this story very good news... US casualties are very light, Iraqi soldiers have entered and found weapons caches in Mosques, and we have the insurgent terrorists cornered like the rats they are. Taking Fallujah will deal a great psychological blow to the resistance movements.

This article has some really interesting info, for instance, the US is doing everything they can to draw out the insurgents, including blasting on loudspeakers

Brave terrorists, I am waiting here for the brave terrorists. Come and kill us. Plant small bombs on roadsides. Attention, attention, terrorists of Fallujah.

I once knew a fellow who was fond of saying, "Come get you some" I'm not sure how that translates into Arabic.

Also interesting is that the CNN is allowing the US to broadcast obvious propaganda via their network; essentially serving the exact same purpose as the loudspeaker:

"I'm surprised how quickly (resistance) broke and how quickly they ran away, a force of foreign fighters who were supposed to fight to the death," Lt. Col. Pete Newell, a battalion commander in the 1st Infantry Division, told CNN.

Like it or not, the US had decided that enough is enough - I guarantee that the left, as soon as they recover from the shell-shock attributed with losing the election, will start crying foul because Bush waited until after the election to launch this strike.

The article contains a really good contrast between this assault and the last time we fought for Fallujah:

In Fallujah, U.S. troops were advanced more rapidly than in April, when insurgents fought a force of fewer than 2,000 Marines to a standstill in a three-week siege. It ended with the Americans handing over the city to a local force, which lost control to Islamic militants.

This time, the U.S. military has sent up to 15,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops into the battle, backed by tanks, artillery and attack aircraft.

Looks like this time we are fighting to win... and we are certainly bolstered by the Iraqi troops, who can do things like enter Mosques without having the same sort of outrage from the Muslim clerics.

It looks like this battle will be a decisive one... and all the news looks pretty good at this point. Lets hope the mainstream media will report this battle accurately, now that an election isn't looming for several more years. I expect that suddenly public opinion on Iraq may show improvements, except in the most liberal/anti-war circles, and that Bush will be allowed to take credit for some of the good things happening in Iraq; unless of course the lefty loonies are going to try to impeach Bush. If they are really serious about impeachment then I imagine the press will continue the selective reporting we've had to deal with this past election year.