Letter: Siege of Fallujah was nothing to celebrate

Monday, June 5, 2006 | 7:18 a.m.

No one denies the courage and skills of American troops, especially on Memorial Day. Yet the Sun's choice of the siege of Fallujah as an example of our troops' valor was a poor choice in a May 29 editorial in the newspaper. Any military solution to an insurgency against the military occupiers is bound to end poorly.

The "American contractors" who were killed in Fallujah were mercenaries hired by private companies. Ten percent of our forces in Iraq, including those at Abu Ghraib, are corporate warriors. As such they are not answerable to military justice or the laws of Iraq. They are something other than civilians.

It may be that many of the 300,000 civilians had fled Fallujah, but certainly many could not or would not leave. According to an Iraqi news source, an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 civilians died there. Some may have been insurgents, but many were not. What if after Hurricane Katrina we had declared New Orleans a free fire zone because the only people left there must be looters? Would we fire on ambulances and hospitals and on those trying to help the wounded and those trying to flee the carnage by swimming across a river? Is there any wonder that the Sunnis have aligned with their enemy al-Qaida?

Nasty things happen in wars, and our troops should be honored for risking their lives. All they ask is that the war be justified. This time it was not. We could best honor the troops today by bringing them home.

Jerry Bitts, Las Vegas