Thank God for the fucking Marines.

I mean it. Thank God that we have a corps of warriors who can storm a city like Fallujah, and completely conquer it. Thank God we have men such as these. MOUT, or urban fighting is historically some of the most bloodiest. Urban warfare is like fighting just by headbutting. It's repetitively very sudden, and twice as violent. You toss a grenade in, and follow the blast into the room. You storm in to what may be nothing or what may be a squad of bad guys. You just run in, and hope to kill them in that frenzied second before they kill you. Then you do it again. And again. And again. You keep doing it until you run out of rooms, or run out of luck.

Thank God we still have Marines who can do this. Growing up in America these days, we are constantly told about how our grandparents did such a smashing job. They weathered a depression, and then saved the world for an encore. They fought all across the globe. As a young Marine, when you wallk across that grinder for the last time, they call out over loudspeakers where other Marines who had marched that grinder had marched into next; Tarawa. Okinawa. Lebanon. Iwo Jima. Khe Sahn. The Chosin reservoir. It is easy when you recall such battles, such examples of fortitude and courage on earth made Hell, that maybe oure best days are behind us. Maybe we will just have to accept that we and our children, and our children's children will be condemned to living in the shadow of their forefathers. Maybe, that was as good as it got.

And then the Marines go in. They go in and they fight. They fight and they bleed. They fight and they tire. they fight and they die. And yet, still...they keep fighting. Through the hail of automatic weapons, the rain of mortars, and the thunder of RPG's they fight an enemy entirely prepared for and committed to killing as many as they can before they are killed themselves. But no matter how determined and how zealous the enemy, the Marines prevailed. Against all of this, they prevailed magnificently.

The Marines went in and a flagging cause was resurrected. The Marines went in and while saving a city, they reaffirmed their standing as the warrior sentries of civilization. Maybe some day, Americans will have to live in the shadow of days long gone past. Maybe one day they will think that the Hall of heroes is full, and there is none left to enter. Maybe some day this will happen.....but not today.

Today they are standing tall; bloodied but unbowed. Today they have proven themselves as good as their title. Today the battle of fallujah is added to the list of battles that will be called out as new Marines march across the old grinder. Today.

Today, I thank god for those fucking Marines.