Operation Eternal "Liberation"

From Steve Gilliard.

AP Photographer Flees Fallujah:

In the weeks before the crushing military assault on his hometown, Bilal Hussein sent his parents and brother away from Fallujah to stay with relatives.

The 33-year-old Associated Press photographer stayed behind to capture insider images during the siege of the former insurgent stronghold.

"Everyone in Fallujah knew it was coming. I had been taking pictures for days," he said. "I thought I could go on doing it."

In the hours and days that followed, heavy bombing raids and thunderous artillery shelling turned Hussein's northern Jolan neighborhood into a zone of rubble and death. The walls of his house were pockmarked by coalition fire.

"Destruction was everywhere. I saw people lying dead in the streets, wounded were bleeding and there was no one to come and help them. Even the civilians who stayed in Fallujah were too afraid to go out," he said.

"There was no medicine, water, no electricity nor food for days."

If you have the time to link to the story, you'll note American troops firing on civilians swimming across the Tigris River, American troops firing randomly at houses, and so on. Between that, the airstrikes, the tank and artillery rounds, we've managed to "Afghanistanize" Fallujah, to coin a term--or, you could say we've "Fallujah'ed Fallujah. Or "Cheney'ed" it. Rregardless of what terminology you use, the fact is that our "liberation" of Iraq is roughly akin to calling the Reign of Terror in France an event which resulted in the liberation of many heads from their associated bodies.

Bush is calling it something different, as you might expect--he considers obliterating a city and who knows how many of its inhabitants "progress."