A model city
The US occupation forces are not insensitive to the plight of the around 300 000 people they have driven from Fallujah. In fact, once the refugees are allowed to return, the ruins of their city are to be a model for the rest of Iraq. Dahr Jamail reports:
Another example of the winning of hearts and minds of Iraqis is being formulated for the residents of Fallujah. The military has announced the plans it is considering to use for allowing Fallujans back into their city.
They will set up "processing centers" on the outskirts of the city and compile a database of peoples' identities by using DNA testing and retina scans. Residents will then receive a badge which identifies them with their home address, which they must wear at all times.
Buses will ferry them into their city, as cars will be banned since the military fears the use of them by suicide bombers.
Another idea being kicked around is to require the men to work for pay in military-style battalions where these "work brigades" will reconstruct buildings and the water system, depending on the men's skills.
As with a number of other plans of the occupying forces, I am not sure which is more amazing: the plans themselves, or the expectation that they could really be implemented.
Who would monitor and enforce the wearing of badges, for example? The local collaborators cannot stand up to the resistance, and the US doesn't have enough troops to control the whole country. Now that US troops are caught up in Fallujah, the resistance has moved elsewhere. Dahr Jamail writes from Baghdad:
The goal of crushing the resistance and creating stability by destroying Fallujah has gone so well that resistance fighters here roamed freely about Haifa street today hunting for Iraqis collaborating with US forces.
They executed a man they suspected as being a collaborator in Tahrir Square, and then they moved on to Mathaf Square, just 3 blocks from the "Green Zone" where the interim government and US embassy are located.
When the US troops leave Fallujah, more members of the armed resistance (who are still fighting the US troops in the city) will return. Somehow, I don't see the collaborators who are executed three blocks from the Green Zone overseeing a system of ID badges and labor gangs in Fallujah.
Another example of the winning of hearts and minds of Iraqis is being formulated for the residents of Fallujah. The military has announced the plans it is considering to use for allowing Fallujans back into their city.
They will set up "processing centers" on the outskirts of the city and compile a database of peoples' identities by using DNA testing and retina scans. Residents will then receive a badge which identifies them with their home address, which they must wear at all times.
Buses will ferry them into their city, as cars will be banned since the military fears the use of them by suicide bombers.
Another idea being kicked around is to require the men to work for pay in military-style battalions where these "work brigades" will reconstruct buildings and the water system, depending on the men's skills.
As with a number of other plans of the occupying forces, I am not sure which is more amazing: the plans themselves, or the expectation that they could really be implemented.
Who would monitor and enforce the wearing of badges, for example? The local collaborators cannot stand up to the resistance, and the US doesn't have enough troops to control the whole country. Now that US troops are caught up in Fallujah, the resistance has moved elsewhere. Dahr Jamail writes from Baghdad:
The goal of crushing the resistance and creating stability by destroying Fallujah has gone so well that resistance fighters here roamed freely about Haifa street today hunting for Iraqis collaborating with US forces.
They executed a man they suspected as being a collaborator in Tahrir Square, and then they moved on to Mathaf Square, just 3 blocks from the "Green Zone" where the interim government and US embassy are located.
When the US troops leave Fallujah, more members of the armed resistance (who are still fighting the US troops in the city) will return. Somehow, I don't see the collaborators who are executed three blocks from the Green Zone overseeing a system of ID badges and labor gangs in Fallujah.
posted by Syksy at 20:15
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