A Liberal Hawk And A U.S. Marine

Tim Cavanaugh | November 11, 2004

Blogging Superstar Andrew Sullivan:

The war in Iraq has now officially re-started for the third time. I'm counting 1990, 2003, and November 2004. We are rightly focusing on the coalition's attempts to retake Falluja. But we should not ignore the insurgents' previous onslaught...

Samarra - the success story - sees a new bloodbath. Allawi imposes martial law without an army to enforce it. And the possibility palpably exists for a full-scale national uprising in response to the battle for Falluja. This really is the third Iraq war. And this time, thanks largely to decisions made by this president, it is by no means certain who will win.

1st Lt. Paul Webber, U.S.M.C.:

Webber, a platoon commander, said he was sitting in his vehicle turret Monday when a man in a white T-shirt and black sweat pants stepped out of the bushes 25 yards away and hunkered down to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the vehicle.

"I saw him, and I was in shock, in awe," Webber said. He fired, wounding the man in the leg, but the attacker managed to launch the rocket.

"I felt the heat," Webber said. "He missed by just a few meters."