Almost Ten Years Later, Al Qaeda Flags Fly over Fallujah

It was probably chilly that December day in Fallujah back in 2004. A man you probably never heard of, Lance Cpl. Franklin Sweger — along with thousands of Marines and soldiers — was engaged in some of the worst combat since Vietnam.

“Everything’s OK mom, don’t worry about me,” he told his mother two weeks before. “I think I’m going to make it.”

In less than ten days, the city would be for the most part, secure. Its residents would need years to rebuild after the destruction, and its children would see an astronomical rise in birth defects and other abnormalities.

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