The Short Road To Fallujah
By David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau
We’re spending a week embedded with 1st Battalion, 4th Marines at Camp Baharia on the outskirts of Fallujah. This is my first trip back to Anbar Province since June 2007, and I’m working with producer Tiho Ladisic and cameraman Uday Shandal.
Usually when we go on embeds we rely on the military to get us from point A to point B. Today we decided to try something different and drive the 60 or-so miles from our Baghdad bureau to Fallujah. It’s remarkable that we even considered doing it. Just four years ago Fallujah was in flames, after some of the most ferocious fighting seen in Iraq, the US marines pitted against Sunni insurgents. The city was brought to its knees.
Print journalists have had some bad luck on this road over the years, with a number of kidnappings that spring to mind. Until now, it’s not been possible for us to consider driving to somewhere like Fallujah (although Iraqis do it all the time, of course). The security situation has improved beyond belief, which is why we were able to make the trip today.
Camp Baharia is an unusual place. A lot of U.S. military camps are established on the site of former Iraqi military bases. Baharia used to be known as “Saddamiya til Falluja” – a sort of resort for sons Uday & Qusay and their buddies, and for Iraqi military officers.
There’s a lot of landscaping, palm trees, bridges and an ornamental lake on the camp (as you can see from the pictures), and our accommodation is one of the many small brick chalets which line the lakeside.
We spent most of the day in Fallujah, and we’ll do the same tomorrow – visiting a market and even a KFC: yes, one Iraqi entrepreneur liked the franchise so much he wanted to start a restaurant in downtown Fallujah. We’ll have more pictures of that in the coming days, so check back – and watch out for the KFC restaurant to feature in one of our TV stories soon!
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Thank you so much for this up-to-date report on the conditions on the ground today in Anbar. It’s so good to see how much life there has improved! The peace and prosperity you show in these segments is a tribute to all those who have served and given their lives for our country’s security and for the people of Iraq. So many people who are calling for the immediate withdrawl of troops are not educating themselves on the current reality there. They don’t see what our troops are doing day-to-day in Iraq. Other news organizations are not reporting current conditions & missions. People are relying on memories of news footage from years ago. When they think of our troops in Fallujah, they think of the heavy fighting from years past, not what’s actually happening today. The public needs to see current reporting like this. Thanks again!
Paul
Rochester, NY
Please take as many pictures as possible of the Marines at Camp Baharia!! My son is there somewhere….
I’ve been a U.S. Marine for over 11 years, and I’ve become disgusted with the mainstream media, which is more interested in scoring political points than reporting the truth. You would never see an articles like this in most other venues. Thank you.
Comment by Paul.Well said. It is great to see the positive. Folks go to Truthorfiction.com and click on the search engine for “yellowcake”. This is something the public needs to know as well.