Word: guerrillas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Adam and his friends were guerrillas - though the word wasn't commonly used until some 40 years later, when Spanish peasants harried Napoleon's army in the Peninsular War. Indeed, the Columbia Encyclopedia notes that guerrilla tactics have been called "the great contribution of the American Revolution to the development of warfare." In this early part of the conflict in Iraq, Saddam Hussein's forces have borrowed heavily from that old American innovation. Now, before you send off enraged e-mail, I'm not suggesting any moral equivalence between the Minutemen and Saddam's thugs. But it is surprising that...
...soldiers of Charlie Rock have learned to treat every Iraqi they come across as a potential enemy. The unit's commander, Captain Jorge Melendez, 31, thinks the guerrilla attacks will continue sporadically for "two or three months." Mitchell had hoped to be back in the U.S. by mid-April after three months in Kuwait, but he has resigned himself to a long, frustrating and bloody haul. "I've stopped telling her when I think I'll be home," says Mitchell, pointing to the picture of his wife Melina and son Garrett, 10, that is strapped to the outside...
...Iraq. The expected popular uprising and joyous welcome of coalition forces in Basra has not yet materialized, and Iraqi commanders have committed forces to slow the coalition advance in towns along the Euphrates, such as Nasiriyah, Najaf, Kerbala and Samawha, further south than expected. Iraqi political militias organized on guerrilla lines have put up stubborn, often suicidal resistance in towns all along the Euphrates and along U.S. supply lines that stretch 300 miles back to Kuwait. As Lt. Gen. William Wallace told reporters Thursday, "The enemy we're fighting is a bit different than the one we war-gamed against...
...Even during Tuesday's sandstorm, the U.S. 7th Cavalry fought off an attack by Iraqi guerrilla forces near Najaf, and fierce fighting continued Wednesday. U.S. Marines had earlier fought their way through Nasiriyah and across the Euphrates, but in that city too, fighting continues as Iraqi forces try to reinforce their defenses. Even as they prepare to tackle the Republican Guard units on the outer ring of Baghdad's defenses, coalition forces are also reportedly planning to deploy more of their resources to quell ongoing Iraqi resistance in the south, which has exceeded expectations and raised problems of harassment...
...sentiment, many thousands of Iraqis have taken up arms against overwhelming odds despite the coalition's exhaustive efforts to facilitate their surrender. That underscores the depth of the challenge that may lie ahead in pacifying Iraq. Many Iraqi forces are no longer in conventional military formation, but have adopted guerrilla tactics to face a more powerful enemy. Tuesday's sandstorm attack on the 7th Cavalry, for example, was carried out by members of the Fedayeen Saddam, a youth militia run by Uday Hussein, firing AK-47s and RPGs from SUVs and other non-military vehicles. And Saddam is certainly hoping...