posted on November 14, 2004 06:27:15 AM new
Sunday November 14, 2004
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - The weeklong U.S. offensive to retake the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah has claimed the lives of 31 American troops and six Iraqi soldiers, a U.S. general said Sunday.
Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, made the remarks at a U.S. base near Fallujah, which lies 40 miles west of Baghdad.
``Right now it looks like we've lost 31 coalition warriors who've fallen in combat, soldiers and Marines, and six Iraqi warriors who are fighting side by side with us,'' he said.
The number of injured U.S. troops was ``up in the high 200s,'' Sattler said. Some of them have been returned to duty already, he said.
Earlier, U.S. commanders said more than 1,200 guerrillas have been killed during the American assault that started Monday.
posted on November 14, 2004 07:48:13 AM new
Yeager , you might as well give up.....recipes and laundry detergent are so much more important than out soldiers dying.
Or, it makes neocons happy like classless to KNOW so many of our soldiers are dying.
Of course, they are all safe here thinking of their little turkey dinners and don't give a damn how many Americans die in Iraq and you can be damn sure they don't care how many Iraqis are killed.
posted on November 14, 2004 08:05:48 AM newOne soldier being treated at Walter Reed, who spoke on condition of anonymity, walks the hospital campus in the bloodied combat boots of a friend he watched bleed to death.
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
These Unseen Wounds Cut Deep
A mental health crisis is emerging, with one in six returning soldiers afflicted, experts say.
WASHINGTON Matt LaBranche got the tattoos at a seedy place down the street from the Army hospital here where he was a patient in the psychiatric ward.
The pain of the needle felt good to the 40-year-old former Army sergeant, whose memories of his nine months as a machine-gunner in Iraq had left him, he said, "feeling dead inside." LaBranche's back is now covered in images, the largest the dark outline of a sword. Drawn from his neck to the small of his back, it is emblazoned with the words LaBranche says encapsulate the war's effect on him: "I've come to bring you hell."
In soldiers like LaBranche their bodies whole but their psyches deeply wounded a crisis is unfolding, mental health experts say. One out of six soldiers returning from Iraq is suffering the effects of post-traumatic stress and as more come home, that number is widely expected to grow.
The Pentagon, which did not anticipate the extent of the problem, is scrambling to find resources to address it.
posted on November 14, 2004 09:02:14 AM new
::The Pentagon, which did not anticipate the extent of the problem, is scrambling to find resources to address it.::
It's so reassuring to know that our military seems to have learned ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from Vietnam. How in the world could they not think there were going to be some lasting mental effects? Idiots!
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on November 14, 2004 10:12:57 AM new
My wife is a mental health professional,her practice deals specifically with trauma and she has counseled numerous vets with PTSD at our local veteran's hospital.
Contrary to the cited LA times piece, the Pentagon has done substantial work re PTSD.
The larger issue involves mental health in general and society's stigmatization of those who are diagnosed or seek help. The fact is that a significant portion the vets who are diagnosed do not seek help for fear of stigmatization in their career. And this fear can be understood and witnessed in society as a whole.
Overall, as with most societal issues, the military is a reflection of our society itself.
Mental Health, its diagnosis, treatment and understanding, lies at the heart of every significant social metric and until we truly rid ourselves of our medieval notions of mental disease, we will continue to merely address the symptoms.
Sweeping generalizations such as the Times piece are factually wrong, transparently biased and counterproductive.
"Drop, drop in our sleep, upon the heart sorrow falls, memory's pain, and to us, though against our very will, even in our own despite, comes wisdom by the awful grace of God"
~Aeschylus
posted on November 14, 2004 10:31:01 AM new
You know, fenix, I bet you those are the words of the writer and not the pentagon. If they dont admit to anything (as so often claimed) why would they outright state they had not anticipated this problem??
Do you really think in over 200 years nobody has given thought to the after-effects and trauma of war just yet? Boy, if that is true, then our military must really be a bumbling bunch of fools.
If you choose to be a painter, you will smell paint. Choose to be a doctor, make sure blood doesnt make you sick on sight. Join the military, you might have to own up to the fact there is a chance you will be deployed to war.
They are all given training, assessments, briefings and guideline materials prior to deployment anywhere. You cannot blame the military as an institution if somebody cracks up from trauma. This is what they do. They train for war to protect and serve their countries. If these soliders have any sense of humanity(and they work hard to drill it out of them) there is always going to be some post war trauma. The best they can do is make assessements, but what happens in, during, and after trauma cannot be catagorically predetermined or escaped by anyone. People all internalize it differently. Not one scientist yet has figured why one snaps and another doesnt. They can only conclude some predisposition to it.
posted on November 14, 2004 10:37:53 AM new
pandorasbox: I was writing my post while you posted. Just want to say you are a refreshingly educated commentator to this board, in my opinion.
posted on November 14, 2004 01:52:29 PM new
Nero - please don't misunderstand me - I am not blaming the military for the after effects a soldier has from combat. I just believe that there needs to a more efficient and responsible way of dealing with it.
Don't wait for them to come to you for help, bring the help to them and do it right away. Isn't it more financially as well as socially responsible to help these men deal with reprocussions up front and immediately rather than wait 10 years until they are now dealing with drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness, joblessness, and many of the other side effects?
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on November 14, 2004 03:03:59 PM new "Sweeping generalizations such as the Times piece are factually wrong, transparently biased and counterproductive."
This is a news story, pandorasbox and as such it's informative to the average reader. What newspaper do you suggest that we read to become better informed about this issue?
posted on November 14, 2004 04:55:52 PM new
What I believe some don't understand is that 'help' cannot be forced. Help is there but they have to want it and ask for it. Many don't.
---------
And I totally agree with you on pandorasbox, neroter. VERY refreshing.
posted on November 14, 2004 05:34:40 PM new
That doesn't surprise me, Linda that you find pandorasbox refreshing. I am sure that your good opinion of him is reciprocated.
I am equally sure that he will either ignore or find your sources wonderful too.
posted on November 14, 2004 08:40:32 PM new
Helen;
You've raised some good points.
From the article:
"A study by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research found that 15.6% of Marines and 17.1% of soldiers surveyed after they returned from Iraq suffered major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder a debilitating, sometimes lifelong change in the brain's chemistry that can include flashbacks, sleep disorders, panic attacks, violent outbursts, acute anxiety and emotional numbness."
I am not for a moment going to minimize the trauma inherent in combat.
However, from my wife's experience, depression is many times undiagnosed or misunderstood throughout the population. Soldiers suffering from depression prior to deployment are not accounted for in these statistics...and it is not a minor issue.
Combat can and does serve to exacerbate pre-existing mental conditions. Moreover, there are a host of other societal & familial aspects that are indicators of a pre-disposition to depression that are not addressed in a post-deployment assessment or even in pre-deployment insofar (as I stated in the earlier post)our society essentially stigmatizes any admission of mental disease.
The professional response hinges on the fact that the military's estimates re PTSD did not anticipate the insurgency and its particular set of traumatizing factors. This is something I agree was/is worthy of harsh criticism.
From the article:
"Until this year, Congress had allocated no new funds to deal with the mental health effects of the war in Iraq. And when it did earmark money, the sum was minimal: $5 million in each of the next three years.
"We're gearing ourselves up now and preparing ourselves to meet whatever the need is, but clearly this is something that could not be planned for," said Dr. Alfonso Batres, a psychologist who heads the VA's national office of readjustment counseling services."
The first paragraph underscores my point of how institutionalized the underestimation of mental illness(in this case PTSD)is. Congress and by extension we the electorate, prioritizes societal issues according to deep cultural pre-disposition. Congress is only as wise as we the electorate. In the most recent election, I saw no one on the national or local scene(from either party) championing mental health care as the serious, overarching imperative I believe it to be...and it would have been, pragmatically speaking, a losing proposition for any candidate to make it so. More's the pity.
As for the use of statistics, we have its curious application to consider.
When, as the author states:"A study by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research found that 15.6% of Marines and 17.1% of soldiers surveyed after they returned from Iraq suffered major depression, generalized anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.."
The statistical sample could be, in one sense, actually underestimating the prevalence of PTSD. A small percentage of troops actually see combat. The majority are in logistical, rear echelon positions.
It is arguable that as a raw percentage, the 18% cited, would actually be much higher if the sample was limited to those who actually saw combat. Such is the nature of statistics.
My point is that the average reader needs not so much to read any particular source as to understand what he/she is reading.
Truth is not the product of what you read but of how you read.
The author of this article chose to emphasize the 18% or so of those suffering PTSD. The corollary could also have served; namely that 70-80% are returning with no discernible damage and I'm sure he could have found supporting anecdotal quotes to buttress this angle. But he didn't because he had a point to make and chose to say what he said and how he said it to write a story better suited for op-ed, IMO.
"Drop, drop in our sleep, upon the heart sorrow falls, memory's pain, and to us, though against our very will, even in our own despite, comes wisdom by the awful grace of God"
~Aeschylus
posted on November 14, 2004 08:54:27 PM new "My point is that the average reader needs not so much to read any particular source as to understand what he/she is reading.
And what exactly leads you to believe that only you can understand this article. I'm sure that most people interested in this problem can interpret it just as well as you can.
posted on November 14, 2004 09:19:01 PM new
You asked:
" What newspaper do you suggest that we read to become better informed about this issue? "
And my response:
"My point is that the average reader needs not so much to read any particular source as to understand what he/she is reading. "
I do not maintain that I have any particular corner on the truth.
"Drop, drop in our sleep, upon the heart sorrow falls, memory's pain, and to us, though against our very will, even in our own despite, comes wisdom by the awful grace of God"
~Aeschylus
posted on November 14, 2004 09:29:00 PM new
I'm thinking that I'm going to just LOVE watching this new relationship grow between helen and pandorasbox.
posted on November 14, 2004 09:37:30 PM new
You said, "Sweeping generalizations such as the Times piece are factually wrong, transparently biased and counterproductive."
I interpreted that as a critical analysis rejecting the article completely. I am pleased to learn that you believe that we are able to analyze the article as well as you are.
posted on November 14, 2004 09:46:28 PM new
Linda says,"I'm thinking that I'm going to just LOVE watching this new relationship grow between helen and pandorasbox"
It's your "relationship", linda. I have nothing more in common with pandorasbox than I have with you.
posted on November 14, 2004 09:47:00 PM new
I'm sorry but I missed your analysis...could you please re-post?
"Drop, drop in our sleep, upon the heart sorrow falls, memory's pain, and to us, though against our very will, even in our own despite, comes wisdom by the awful grace of God"
~Aeschylus
posted on November 14, 2004 11:38:41 PM new
Hi fenix. Well, I think pandorabox is pretty right on when he said about they wont seek help because all that goes on record and then becomes a damaging point in their career. Even many police officers are afraid to get help as it then labels them unstable. So they suffer with it, and hide it.
I think you are correct though in that some dont even recognize early warnings of it. Neither do the superiors. They aren't really trained to think about peoples mental condition. And you're right, there should be more awareness and education in the ranks to effectively deal with it. But honestly, I dont think the military cares all that much, you know? I mean, there is help available, but the nature of that institution is not one that is built on a pouring resources into individuals. Its building a force and towing the group line. If one cant, wont, or dont do that you're of little use to them. Besides, I dont think they hold the same standards of what constitutes normal mental and emotional health as the civilian world does. We think its barbaric and mental to kill, esp.unprovoked, and thats what these 'people'- 'soliders' are sent to do! (Can you even imagine the mental processes that flip on and off between 'soldiering' waring and then 'depressurerizing back?' I dont think I could see slaughter, and able to work my nerves and brain that way. It must do somethingto them. Thats why I think they are a breed apart (and purposely bred-sp? that way by the military)
edit to add
[ edited by neroter12 on Nov 14, 2004 11:47 PM ]
posted on November 15, 2004 06:03:08 AM new
Pandorasbox,
Other than your attempt, no one analyzed the article on this thread, including myself and I doubt that anyone plans to do so. You are a pompous, tedious personality that I really have no desire to communicate with. Besides your arrogant personality, your verbose writing is redundant. For example, in your first post on this thread I was able to restate your comment with clarity using only two sentences not including the final one calling my news article a sweeping generalization, factually wrong, transparently biased and counterproductive.
posted on November 15, 2004 06:23:24 AM new
classic, I'm very versatile, sweetheart. I can play with intellectual BS almost as well as I can play with you. I'm surrounded by intellectuals at home and a lil bit has rubbed off on my beautiful bod.
posted on November 15, 2004 06:47:54 AM new
From the article. "One soldier being treated at Walter Reed, who spoke on condition of anonymity, walks the hospital campus in the bloodied combat boots of a friend he watched bleed to death."
What is wrong with this statement?. Blooded boots. Imaginary, yes. Reality no. But, in all fairness to the time reporter I will e-mail my friend, who is head of security at Walter Reed to see if veterans are allowed to wear bloodied combat boots on campus walks.
With that said. Post-Traumatic Stress. All Solders have some type of it by the type of job they have. Post-Traumatic Stress after combat is the most serious for one reason. A few can't handle it but Most do. Just like those in civilian life the ratio is the same, some can handle it, some can't.
Rebels are reportedly making their last stand in Fallouja. The next step, reconstruction, could cost the U.S. tens of millions of dollars.
By Patrick J. McDonnell, Times Staff Writer
FALLOUJA, Iraq Even as small groups of guerrillas continued putting up fierce resistance here Sunday, U.S. commanders were preparing for the next phase of the operation: the complete reconstruction of a city that has been devastated in battle.
"It's a monumental task," acknowledged Marine Maj. Timothy Hanson, one of the first civil affairs officers on the scene to assess the scope of destruction in the city that had become the tactical and inspirational capital of the Iraqi insurgency.
Reconstruction of Fallouja is on hold as the fighting persists, especially in southern areas of the city, where some of the most die-hard guerrillas are reported to be making a last stand. Some have burrowed underground, prompting U.S. forces Saturday to drop a 2,000-pound bomb the most powerful munition used here to date on a tunnel complex.
Marines and allied Iraqi troops sweeping through the southern neighborhoods have found numerous bomb-making factories and massive arms caches, underscoring Fallouja's role as a supply center for the insurgency nationwide, commanders say. Moving the vast storehouses of weapons and destroying them has proved a logistical challenge in this war-ravaged city.
"We want to clean this city up," declared Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commander of the 1st Marine Division. "We want to get the people back here. But we can't bring them back until the city is secure."
Automatic-weapons fire and explosions continued to rock the center of the city, though much diminished in the past 24 hours. The U.S. military reported that at least 38 American troops and six Iraqi soldiers had been killed in eight days of fighting.
Elsewhere in Iraq on Sunday, insurgents destroyed the highway bridge in Baiji, forcing the closure of the main road from the northern city of Mosul to Baghdad. In Mosul, U.S. and Iraqi troops fought a six-hour battle with insurgents, and casualties were believed to be heavy, although hospital officials refused to discuss figures. Militants seized a police station, but U.S. and Iraqi forces regained control.
In Baghdad, more than a dozen insurgents attacked the Polish Embassy and exchanged gunfire with embassy guards for half an hour, a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Warsaw. No one was reported killed or wounded.
In Fallouja, U.S. troops said they found the mutilated body of a woman covered with a blood-soaked cloth in a street. News services quoted a Marine saying he was "80% positive the body was that of a Westerner." Two Western women are known to have been kidnapped and are still missing: Margaret Hassan, the director of CARE International here, and a Polish woman who is married to an Iraqi.
The reconstruction effort in Fallouja will require tens of millions of dollars in U.S. funds to compensate residents for damaged property and to rebuild large parts of the city damaged by weeks of U.S. airstrikes and street-by-street fighting.
The project seems likely to dwarf the large-scale rebuilding scheme in the southern city of Najaf, where damage was estimated at $500 million after a Marine offensive in August ousted Shiite Muslim militiamen.
Fallouja once was home to almost 300,000 people, though most fled before U.S.-led forces launched the assault early last week. The city now lies abandoned and in ruins, a tableau of the aftermath of urban warfare.
The town's main east-west drag, a key objective of U.S. troops, is a tangle of rubble-filled lots and shot-up storefronts. Shattered water and sewage pipes have left pools of sewage-filled water, sometimes knee-deep. Scorched and potholed streets are filled with debris; power lines droop in tangles or lie on the ground.
Many mosques, the city's pride and joy, are a shambles after insurgents used them as shelter and firing positions, drawing return fire from the Marines.
Houses have been ransacked by insurgents and further damaged as U.S. troops chased snipers, searched for weapons caches or took cover in the homes. Marines routinely called in tanks, artillery and airstrikes to take out gunmen.
But the bombed-out buildings are only the most obvious damage.
There is no running water or electricity. The water, power and sewage infrastructure will probably need complete overhauls.
Food distribution systems must be reinstituted. Shops must be reopened, commerce resumed. Battered hospitals, clinics and schools must be patched up and reopened.
Beyond that, U.S. officials have lofty plans to help install a democratic government here that will answer to the administration of interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. A police force of more than 1,000 officers must be deployed in a city where police have been consistently targeted for assassination in the past as collaborators with the Americans.
"The challenge is to get a civil administration up and running, and they are starting from zero," said a senior U.S. diplomat. "They have to do everything from getting the director of the waterworks to come back to work to getting a chief of police."
And, if all that wasn't enough, commanders would like the city to be ready to hold peaceful elections in January, when Iraqis nationwide are scheduled to choose a national assembly.
In all, it is a colossal challenge of nation-building albeit concentrated in one city made all the more difficult because Fallouja remains in the heart of the Sunni Triangle, long a source of support for ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and resistance to U.S. and coalition forces.
"This is very important: to restore the infrastructure of the city and get the Iraqi government and the police established, and keep the insurgents from coming back in," Natonski said.
Despite the clear military gains, the city remains insecure enough that major civil affairs units that will oversee reconstruction have yet to arrive. But more than $50 million in contracts has already been let, and people are standing by, ready to start work as soon as it is safe enough.
A coordinating team including officials from the U.S. military and civilian agencies as well as the Iraqi government has been meeting for the last two weeks to figure out how to spend the roughly $200 million allocated for Fallouja and nearby Ramadi.
Overall responsibility for rebuilding Fallouja will fall to the Marines' 4th Civil Affairs Group, a largely reserve unit based in Washington that is poised on the outskirts of the city.
Mortuary teams to pick up the remains of hundreds of insurgents killed in the fighting also have been held back, as bodies rot in the streets.
"It's a health hazard," conceded Natonski. "We'll soon be taking care of that . We just need to ensure that we're not taking casualties taking care of bodies."
It is unclear when residents will be allowed back into the city. A 24-hour curfew is in effect, and those civilians still present have been warned to stay in their homes, as food and water supplies dwindle. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been handing out emergency water and rations.
On Sunday, when Muslims marked the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, virtually no one was seen on the streets besides U.S. troops and their guerrilla quarry.
Marines are constructing a displaced-persons camp east of the city, though most former residents appear to have settled in with extended family members in Baghdad and elsewhere.
The abandonment of the city made the Marines' job a lot easier during combat, reducing the threat of civilian casualties.
Now, commanders worry that a large-scale return of residents and vehicles will increase the peril, especially from suicide car bombers.
"As civilians begin driving around, the [car bomb] threat is going to be at its highest point," said Lt. Col. Gareth Brandl, commander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.
Plans are already in place to screen returning civilians, especially military-age males. But differentiating between fighters and noncombatants is likely to be a difficult task, given that many of Fallouja's native sons are known to have joined the insurgency.
In the works is some kind of "Welcome Back to Fallouja" campaign, directing residents to military civil affairs offices where people can find reconstruction help.
"It won't be a fruit basket or anything like that," said Hanson, the Marine major. He had $500,000 in cash for various expenses: compensating civilians who had suffered property losses or injuries or lost relatives deemed not to be insurgents.
Money also will be spread around to pay residents to help clean up the streets, assuming the people of Fallouja would be willing to take money from Americans and overcome fears of being branded collaborators.
Establishing security will be essential to allowing U.S. personnel and Iraqi contractors to work.
"We have to be able to allow the Iraqis to come in and work freely and independently without being terrorized and intimidated and corrupted," said Hanson, a reservist and police sergeant from suburban Omaha. "If they go into a building, they shouldn't have to worry about that."
U.S. officials also hope to work with civilian leaders to select a representative council. Thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers are said to be ready to be deployed to Fallouja. Many are from outside the city, in the hopes that they will be less susceptible to intimidation.
The entire municipal government complex must be rebuilt and secured. The police station, City Hall and other government buildings have been seriously damaged, heavily looted and are occupied by Marines.
The compound is probably going to be refurbished and expanded to house both the Iraqi government and U.S. forces, commanders say.
Inside an adjacent school complex where Marines also are posted, state-of-the-art photocopy machines and refrigerators stand gutted and abandoned, the remnants of earlier U.S.-funded reconstruction efforts. Marines say they are confident the next attempt to rebuild Fallouja will spur goodwill and divert people from supporting the insurgency.
"We're poised and ready to go to help Fallouja rebuild," said Marine Capt. Matt Nodine, an attorney for the 1st Battalion. "People will know where to find us if they need help."
posted on November 15, 2004 10:37:11 AM new
Then there's those who think the US soldiers have done a super job of taking over the city in very short order, like me. Only a few pockets of Iraqi fighters remain. The coaliation will now have control of a city where the worst of the worst hid out and built arms to use against the whole coaliation.
---------------
These leftist newspapers only focus on the negatives of war....not any positives like how the soldiers have done a great job of taking over this large city from the hands of the terrorists/insurgents/rerebels/etc. And they take great delight, it appears to me, in constantly mentioning those soldiers who paid the ultimate price.
While they appear to savor listing the 'civilian' deaths, not one ever discloses how they KNOW they were JUST non-fighting innocent civilians and weren't those firing against our soldiers. From most of what I've read the 'normal, everyday Iraqi citizens' had long cleared out before the fighting began...and most who were left were previous saddam supporters...who don't want to see the elections take place.
-------------
Drudge had some comments from US soldiers being taken to Germany because of their injuries....here's what was posted:
Wounded US soldiers being treated at the military hospital here on Monday gave a graphic account of the battle for the rebel Iraqi stronghold of Fallujah.
US-led forces said on Monday they had taken almost complete control of the city after a week-long battle but were still hunting for pockets of diehard rebels.
The handful of Marines and soldiers who met the press were flown to Landstuhl in southwest Germany, which is the largest US military medical facility outside the United States, last week.
They described the rebel fighters as young, disorganised and often reckless but well-armed.
"You recognise them easily. They wear masks, they carry weapons, they move in small squads," said 22-year-old soldier Kris Clinkscales, who suffered an arm injury from an exploding shell. "Civilians are usually wearing traditional gowns, they lift their hands when they see you." He said he was sure he had not shot at civilians because they were easy to identify. "There were bodies on the street, but only insurgents," he said.
Clinkscales is among the 275 wounded on the US side according to figures given by commanders in Baghdad, although a spokeswoman for the hospital said that up to Monday it had treated 419 injured servicemen, mostly from the Fallujah offensive, and that 46 more were due to arrive later that day.
Thirty eight US soldiers have been killed in the assault.
Clinkscales, who arrived at the hospital on Saturday, described the rebel fighters' approach as "reckless", "especially the young ones, aged 18 to 20. They were quite disorganised."
Travis Schafer, a 20-year-old Marine, who injured a hand when a shell exploded, said he was sure the rebels were prepared to sacrifice everything. "These guys are ready to fight to the death," he told the press conference. "I was surprised by the weapons they had," he added, describing seeing "loads of RPGs (rocket-propelled grenade launchers) and machine guns".
And Schafer said the battle had been conducted from street to street. "This is a rooftop to rooftop kind of fight. You see the snipers jumping from one roof to another."
Ryan Chapman, a 22-year-old Marine, was hit above the left eye by a sniper's bullet, but escaped with a fractured skull.
"People keep on telling me that I'm lucky," he said. "I don't mind being lucky." Despite his brush with death, Chapman was keen to return to fight in Iraq. "I want to go back. It kills me when I see the news, when I think of all my buddies back there."
More than 1,200 rebels have been killed in the battle, the US military said on Monday.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Four More Years....YES!!!
