We are publishing his and other eyewitness accounts from the city in order to provide the fullest possible range of perspectives from those who are there:
[November 11:]A row of palm trees used to run along the street outside my house - now only the trunks are left.
The upper half of each tree has vanished, blown away by mortar fire.
From my window, I can also make out that the minarets of several mosques have been toppled.
There are more and more dead bodies on the streets and the stench is unbearable.
Smoke is everywhere.
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I tried to flee the city last night but I could not get very far. It was too dangerous.
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Without water and electricity, we feel completely cut off from everyone else.
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It is hard to know how much people outside Falluja are aware of what is going on here.
I want them to know about conditions inside this city - there are dead women and children lying on the streets.
People are getting weaker from hunger. Many are dying from their injuries because there is no medical help left in the city whatsoever.
Some families have started burying their dead in their gardens.
I think it is misleading to say the US controls 70% of the city because the fighters are constantly on the move.
They go from street to street, attacking the army in some places, letting them through elsewhere so that they can attack them later.
The fighters have told me they are prepared to resist the Americans until the death.
They say they are fighting not just for Falluja, but for all Iraq.
In the Hasbiyyah area, I counted the bodies of at least six US soldiers lying on the ground.
Some of them were badly mangled with various bits blown off. Others were in better condition, as if they had taken small-arms fire.
I noticed two of the US soldiers were still clutching their guns tightly across their chests. But most of their weapons were missing.
Some of the dead are beginning to rot in the streets.
But the living do not exactly smell great either - I have not had a bath for a week.
Hospitals have all but run out of supplies and most people know this.
But still the injured are being taken there - just so that they can be near the doctors and receive some comfort.
The Iraqi health ministry has not sent any extra supplies.
Food supplies are also running out. All shops are shut.
Some people who fled the city a few days ago have begun returning because they ran out of food.
Iraq War vet speaks out
Massey entered Iraq as part of the initial US invasion in March 2003. He witnessed—and in some cases participated in—the killing of innocent civilians. During a single 48-hour period, he says, he saw as many as 30 civilians killed by US gunfire at highway checkpoints.
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Massey said that the hostility of the Iraqi people to the presence of the US military grew exponentially over the time he was there in direct response to the brutal methods employed by American troops against the entire Iraqi population.
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"When you put your hand up in the air with a closed fist, in the Marines it means you want them to stop," he said. "But, as we later learned, it's actually the international sign of solidarity. It has a totally different meaning for the Iraqis - to them it was a sign like hello. And that was just one example of how we were not trained properly to understand the cultural differences between us and them.
The bottom line is they [the military command] don't see the need to teach culture and humanity to men whose singular purpose is to kill. And that was just one of the cultural miscues."
I'm sorry, but I have to stop right here and interrupt. That's not a cultural miscue. That's insane. Surely there are military policy makers and trainers in the Marines who are old enough to recognize the American Black Panthers' most famous gesture. Surely there are some who have seen this gesture used around the globe. How can the Marines encourage their troops to use such an obviously well-known gesture of solidarity for another purpose in communicating in a foreign land? What the hell is wrong with an open-faced palm? Now that's a universal gesture that means stop. Are the Marines so precious they think the world should know their own little club signals?
There is just so much wrong with that. The more I read about our military, the more amazed I am that they manage to survive.
Read the rest of this incredible interview yourself here.
...or do what you want...you will anyway.
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