'Blackwater Bridge' in Fallujah Refurbished
By James Gordon Meek
It was America's Mogadishu moment - only with civilian private military contractors going down in Fallujah, Iraq instead of Army Blackhawks in Somalia's capital.
The Marines are trying to wipe the slate of history clean today with a few coats of fresh paint splashed over a ghastly landmark in America's painfully long war in Iraq.
Four years ago today, four American security men from Blackwater were ambushed in Fallujah. They were shot in their vehicles, doused in gasoline and set afire, mutilated and strung up on a bridge over the Euphrates River. The grisly images of their blackened corpses dangling from the steel bridge fueled the drive for a horrific Marine offensive into the city days later to exact revenge on Sunni insurgents.
Today Fallujah is enjoying a fragile peace. So to highlight how far the city has come since it was overrun by insurgents - including Al Qaeda in Iraq's late leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - the military announced the infamous site nicknamed "Blackwater Bridge" has been "completely restored and improved."
It is even being named after King Feisel, who dedicated it himself in 1927. Click here to see the Marines' press release and photos.
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