Last week, Katie Couric traveled to Iraq to give the faltering CBS Evening News some credibility and a boost in the ratings. But by the time she left Fallujah, she might have proven that she has no business covering hard news.

Just think of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) or Sarajevo and the toll that war took upon those cities and their citizens. Books have been written of their struggle to survive against all odds. These were heroic people, no matter what their ideology, who lived amidst bombings, blockades, death and total devastation. They survived to rebuild and some how kept a connection to their city of old, refusing to let bombs destroy their culture.

Iraqis in the Al Anbar province city of Fallujah will have a mighty story to tell to future generations. Before the war, the city was a spiritual center with more than 200 mosques dotting its skyline. The city’s rich history goes back to Babylonian times and would make any people proud. At the beginning of the war, the city had a population of 350,000 (about the size of St. Louis). It was vital and growing metropolis in the Western section of Iraq. It was known as a stronghold for supporters of Saddam Hussein.

Then came the war and everything changed.

One of the most memorable quotes to emerge from the Vietnam War was, “We had to destroy the village to save it!” It came to represent the absurdity of the war and its impact on the people of Vietnam.

The same thing has happened to Fallujah. We destroyed the city to save it.

The battle for Fallujah was a horror for all involved, and especially for the civilians who called this city their home. During the battle for control, 9,000 of nearly 50,000 homes were totally destroyed and more than 66 percent of the remaining dwellings had serious damage. A third of the historic mosques lay in ruins and the others suffered damage. The entire city was largely reduced to rubble, with devastated infrastructure and scarce staples for basic survival, such as food and water.

Fallujah was one of the few places in Iraq where we used a form of napalm. Hundreds of civilians were killed or maimed in the battle including children. Thriving neighborhoods burned to the ground.

We destroyed the city to save it.

During her visit to Iraq, Couric sited Fallujah as an example of progress being made in Iraq.

A CBS News story from Baghdad stated:

CBS BAGHDAD, Iraq One week before Gen. David Petraeus is expected to give his report on U.S. progress in Iraq, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric says she has already seen dramatic improvements in the country.

"We hear so much about things going bad, but real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability," Couric said Tuesday. "I mean, obviously, infrastructure problems abound, but Sunnis and U.S. forces are working together. They banded together because they had a common enemy: al Qaeda."

Couric traveled to the city of Fallujah in Anbar province, which U.S. forces entered in April 2003 and again in November 2004. That is the same city where, in house-to-house fighting, American forces uncovered nearly two-dozen torture chambers.

"We found numerous houses, also, where people were just chained to a wall for extended periods of time," U.S. military intelligence officer Major Jim West said back on Nov. 22, 2004.

"The face of Satan was here in Fallujah, and I'm absolutely convinced that that was true," said Marine Lt. Col. Gareth Brandl.

It is also the city where four American military contractors were set on fire, mutilated and hanged from a bridge by insurgents.

Now Fallujah is "considered a real role model of something working right in Iraq," Couric said.

Couric made no attempt to present an opposing view, nor did she analyze the broader context of why such large-scale rebuilding in Fallujah is necessary.

That idea that Couric considered Fallujah a “real model of something working right” is absurd. If anything, our experience in Fallujah is an example of what’s wrong, particularly that we are sacrificing so much money and blood to destroy a country only to rebuild it again, all without a realistic plan of execution or exit strategy. In addition, if the death of a thriving city, countless civilians and their cultural history is a “real model,” then we’re in real trouble.

Couric couldn't contain herself in proclaiming that progress was being made in Iraq when she stated, "I think everyone I talk to agrees that restoring basic services is really an imperative step in bringing society to Iraq."

If there were not total devastation to begin with, there would be no society to rebuild. We are not bringing civilization to Iraq - it existed for hundreds of years, long before we invaded the country.