Fallujah could not continue to be a haven for terrorists

The conduct of the war in Iraq from the first day to the last -- however far in the future that may be -- will be debated for years. But the battle for Fallujah, now in its fifth day, is not a matter of debate. Given the conditions on the ground, it was absolutely necessary.
And given what we've already seen and what we expect to see, it will be absolutely brutal.
The brutality of Iraq's insurgency was seen last April when a mob set upon four U.S. private contractors, killing them and then defiling their bodies. Charred corpses were hung from a bridge while crowds chanted their approval.
A dangerous symbol
In subsequent months, Fallujah became a symbol not only of resistance to the interim Iraqi government and to the U.S. presence, it became a symbol of the bloodthirsty nature of the terrorists who had found sanctuary in the city.
Videotape after videotape was released to the Arab press and posted on Internet sites showing the murder of helpless hostages.
An estimated 1,200 to 3,000 insurgents were in the riverside city of 300,000, about 30 miles west of Baghdad, from which militants launched attacks on U.S. forces, Iraqi police and civilian targets.
With the scheduled date of Iraq's elections approaching an assault on Fallujah could be delayed no longer.
There have been and will be U.S. casualties and civilian casualties. But the toll on the insurgents will be greater. Hundreds have already been reported killed. Hundreds more are likely to be killed or captured.
To be sure, many have already escaped, including some of the insurgency's leaders.
The price of brutality
The best that can be hoped is that wherever they go next, the population will not welcome them with the same sense of enthusiasm shown by much of Fallujah's population. Those Fallujans who hooted and celebrated and acted as if it were a festival when those defenseless Americans were killed last spring could not have imagined the price that their city would have to pay.
It is not a matter of vengeance. Vengeance is not the job of soldiers. It is a matter of removing an immediate threat to order from one city, and sending a message to other cities that no haven for insurgents is a safe haven.
No officer sends his troops into battle lightly. But in the case of Fallujah, the commanders know that their soldiers and marines would be in greater peril in the months and years ahead if nests of terrorists such as those operating in Fallujah were not cleaned out.