History - Shootout : Return To Fallujah Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)With the Shootout series, history channel seems to be either hit or miss and sadly, this one is a few inches short of a bull's eye. It's not like they've never had any luck, Shootout: An Nasariya and Shootout: Fallujah, were both OUTSTANDING but this one fails to live up to it's peers. Allow me to outline some pro's and con's.
What I liked:
-Did an excellent job detailing the bravery and sacrifice of those involved. During WWII, we made it a point to praise and honor those who fought for this country. Sadly the liberal media would rather crucify a Marine or soldier than praise him. (want proof? Bing West pointed out in his article "Distinguished Disservice: In honoring Murtha, the Navy insults its own." that a web search for "Kasal" returned 30,000 hits, while a search for "Haditha" returned 700,000)
-Well documented and recreated combat scenes (Please note this is NOT, repeat NOT, to make it sound like the deaths of American soldiers/Marines are nothing more than entertainment, but the fighting does grab your attention and forces you to stay with it.)
What I didn't like:
-Without a overall review of the plan to clear the city, the viewer is left uncertain as to whether or not the fighting is going on simultaneously or over a period of several weeks/months, etc. Obviously there must have been some sort of a timeline, since a place like Fallujah would NEVER just allow itself to be cleaned out overnight, even during mop up operations.
-On a similar note to the complain above, this particular shootout episode should have taken a leaf out of Shootout: An Nasariyah, and talked about what exactly the objective was, the American's plan to attain it, and what specific types of enemy forces were thought to be operating in the area. This episode mentioned NONE of those. It merely stated that there were still insurgents in the city (no really?) and that they needed cleared out. It left unanswered what nationality they were, what types of weapons they carried, etc
-It detailed only three firefights, again leaving the viewer with the impression that the mop up was nothing more than small scale stuff fought with rifles and grenades. If that's the case then why mention the Bradley's and Abrams in one of the fights? I couldn't help but wonder if they were used or not, since they were mentioned and then forgotten.
Closing comments:
My advice, skip buying this DVD and watch it on youtube.

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