Reversals in hard-won Iraqi city vex veterans

Reversals in hard-won Iraqi city vex veterans

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The image of two charred American bodies hanging from a bridge as a jubilant crowd pelted them with shoes seared the name Fallujah into the American psyche. The brutal house-to-house battle to tame the Iraqi insurgent stronghold cemented its place in U.S. military history.

So it is no surprise that the city’s recent fall to al-Qaida-linked forces has touched a nerve for the service members who fought and bled there.

Some call the news “disheartening,” saying it revives painful memories of their sacrifice, while others try to place it in the context of Iraq’s history of internal struggle since the ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.