Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Iraq Journal: A Plan to Kill Everyone


FALLUJAH, Iraq — Michael J. Totten is an independent journalist reporting on the war in Iraq. Here is a portion of his latest journal entry provided exclusively for FOXNews.com.

"A sign on the door leading out of India Company’s Combat Operations Center says “Have a Plan to Kill Everyone You Meet.” For a fraction of second I thought it might be some kind of joke. But I was with the Marine Corps in Fallujah, and it wasn’t a joke.

I asked Captain Stewart Glenn if he could explain and perhaps elaborate a bit on what, exactly, that sign is about. “It’s pretty straightforward,” he said rather bluntly. “It means exactly what it says.”

Welcome to counterinsurgency.

A sign outside Lieutenant Nathan Bibler’s Joint Security Station in the slums of Fallujah makes the point a little more clearly, and delicately. “Look at everyone as though they are trying to kill you, but you cannot treat them that way.”

Oh gosh and golly! He asked those brutes what the sign meant and they...gasp...told him it meant what it meant!

Sniff.

And say, Mikey? That "Plan" has been in effect one way or another for over 200 years now, pal. Sorry to bruise your gentile sensibilities but Marines are paid to break things.

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