A rifle or a shotgun, Bateman? You posted it.
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The Iraqis, Their Weapons And Gun Control
First in dealing with this subject, a bit of background is in order for my readers who were not around for my military coverage and commentary. My son Daniel was in the 2/6 Marines and conducted a combat tour of Iraq in 2007 to Fallujah. At this time, the foreign fighters were retreating from Ramadi due to robust Marine Corps (and other) operations there combined with the so-called tribal awakening. Fallujah was a bad place, and the baddest of the fighters had ensconced themselves there.
The people were so aligned with the insurgents that upon the initial patrols by the Marine Corps, the Marines found themselves to be surrounded by the children of the city, carrying black balloons, the balloons being used to assist the insurgents to sight mortar fire. As I said, it was a bad, bad place.
The people were willing to send their children out to assist the insurgents. My son was a SAW gunner, and in addition to patrols and other city-wide operations, he shot insurgents crossing the Euphrates river attempting to enter Fallujah.
Robert Bateman isn’t limited to one idiotic article (indeed, he has written a multitude of them) – he has penned yet another one.
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