A calling card for death and destruction on recruiting day
Bill Ardolino
Fallujah, Iraq - Editor’s note: Blogger Bill Ardolino is embedded with a U.S. Marine unit in Iraq. He’s there to find out the truth about the U.S. war effort on the ground in Iraq. Unlike the vast majority of mainstream media journalists who stay within the Green Zone in Baghdad, Ardolino is on patrol in the streets wherever his embedded Marine unit goes. This is his third exclusive dispatch for The Examiner.
A slight tension shadowed the professionalism of the Marine Corps Police Transition Team stationed at Fallujah Police Headquarters. It was recruiting day for the city police department. Recruiting drives throughout the country — key milestones in the development of Iraq’s security forces — have been the scenes of some of the war’s worst attacks, as insurgents view them as opportunities to destabilize the young government.
The two previous recruiting days in Fallujah were hit by improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. There were no recruit, police or Marine casualties but three insurgents died. Still, as PTT commanding officer Major Brian Lippo remarked, “You have to advertise these things, and they can be a calling card for death and destruction.” ...
