questions. Who struck the ɹrst blow is the last thing on
anyone’s mind as every man fights for his life.
Perhaps it is enough to say that with two such huge
armies face-to-face, with every man fully armed and
geared up to ɹght, outright battle was the only possible
outcome. All we know for sure is that nobody would take
“credit” this time, not for this battle, not for the
thousands who were to die on this October day in the
year 656.
And so it began, the ɹrst battle in the war that it
seemed nobody wanted yet nobody could avoid—the
civil war still being fought in the twenty-ɹrst century
and in the same place it all began, Iraq.