Gary Anderson
My colleague Roger Kaplan recently wrote an excellent review of the PBS documentary, The Last 600 Meters, which is an excellent description of the battles of Najaf and Fallujah during the Iraq war. The primary assault troops in both battles were U.S. Marines, and the primary figures in the narrative are Marines whose tales are told in their own words. The program is gripping and vivid. It is “must-see” viewing for anyone interested in what really happened in the war.
Marine Corps tactics in those battles were not an accident. The Corps had been carefully refining its approach to urban warfare since the events in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993. Through wargame simulations and physical experimentation culminating in the 1998 Urban Warfare experiments in cities such as Charleston, SC, Jacksonville, FL, and Oakland, CA, the Marine Corps developed new tactics and technologies designed to limit both U.S. and civilian casualties while inflicting unacceptable losses on the enemy. (RELATED: Real Leadership in the Unsung Men of the Armed Forces)
These efforts resulted in a philosophy called the “Three Block War,” where Marines were taught to be prepared to fight high-intensity battles in one part of a city, do police-like peacekeeping in another, and humanitarian operations in yet a third. This was particularly important in Najaf, where the Grand Mosque, sacred to Shiite Muslims, was s key objective for both sides. It was critically important to U.S. planners that the U.S. forces not further anger the Shiite majority of the country.
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