In Falluja's Ruins, Big Plans and a Risk of Chaos -NYT

[Rose Siding]

snip>
As military officials here prepare to start letting the first residents return to Falluja, possibly as soon as mid-December, they face an unusual challenge: how to win back the confidence of the people whose city they have just destroyed. Their task will be made harder by the need to deter returning insurgents, who will try to sabotage the reconstruction with attacks, commanders say.

American officials say they cannot afford to let this former insurgent bastion become a microcosm of the broader struggle in Iraq - a rapid military victory followed by a lapse into violence and chaos.

Yet even some American officers here are skeptical about their ability to bring back safely more than a small number of residents in time for the national and provincial elections in January - a central goal of the offensive. Fighting goes on in the city's southern neighborhoods, where small groups of guerrillas are still holding out. American troops have found an unexpectedly large number of weapons storehouses, commanders say, and the need to dispose of them safely has delayed rebuilding efforts in those areas.

The full extent of the damage inflicted by American bombs, tanks and artillery is only now becoming apparent. The number of buildings destroyed in the fighting is far higher than 200, the figure released last week by the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, engineers and commanders say. The city's power lines are so badly damaged that in most of the city, they will have to be ripped out and rebuilt from scratch - a project that will take six months to a year, American engineers say. Damage to the city's water and sewer pipes, already badly corroded before the invasion, is milder but will also take months to repair.

The coordination of all this work will be hard........

http://nytimes.com/2004/12/01/international/middleeast/01reconstruct.html?hp&ex=1101963600&en=676615b4852deae0&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[KingChicken]

1. The Americans fuck and leave.

Just like Najaf, they only come into rebuild police and medical, the rest is the residents problem. U.S. cares about the U.S. the rest can die in our wake of distruction. Oh yeah I forgot, you get $2,500 if a close family member was killed by the U.S., if you can prove it, and to think I thought that Iraqis were worthless to the U.S.

[bemildred]

2. "first residents return to Falluja, possibly as soon as mid-December"

So much for "we control the city". Had a story a couple days ago
saying maybe as long as the end of January. To whihc I would add
maybe we have no idea when.

[Supersedeas]

3. the full extent now becoming apparent....where is the US Press/Media??

[maddezmom]

4. WTF...the head of every household will be asked to wear an ID badge???

To prevent looting, the head of every household will be asked to wear an identification badge, Colonel Ballard said, and American and Iraqi troops will be given special rules of engagement to deal with theft. No cars will be allowed in the city at first, to prevent car bombs. Instead, a bus system will provide free transportation.

Within two or three months, Marine officials say, bigger projects will be set in motion: a new $35 million wastewater treatment plant, four new school buildings, several new health clinics. Badly damaged homes will be bulldozed and rebuilt, or owners will be compensated. To help revive the city's economy, the Marines will ask all returning residents with relevant skills to take a job in the reconstruction projects.

In short, the Marines envision a huge effort of social and physical engineering, all intended to transform a bastion of militant anti-Americanism into a benevolent and functional metropolis. There are even plans to build new housing projects on the city's outskirts while the central areas are being rebuilt.

"The best place to bring a model town into place is Falluja," Colonel Ballard said. But if similar rebuilding efforts in Najaf and elsewhere are any guide, the project under way here - far more ambitious than anything yet tried in this country - will be more expensive and time-consuming than its planners think.

[gratuitous]

6. Steady, they're just felt six-pointed stars

Yellow, so they're easier to see. Nothing sinister going on at all.

I mean, how else can we convince a bunch of ingrates that we sincerely want to help them after we blew their homes to Kingdom Come?

[Barrett808]

9. Yes, and I'm sure no insurgents could get hold of these badges

Idiots.

[Tracer]

5. Urban Renewal the 'murkan way.

Wreck the place (at taxpayer expense), then "unwreck" it (at taxpayer expense).

I'll bet the Fallujans will just love living in the "housing projects".

[Laughing Mirror]

8. But those projects will be on the fringe of the city, safely out of sight

From whatever monuments will be constructed in a newly gentrified downtown to the glory of Fallujah's liberator, real estate mogul George Bush.

[Lerkfish]

12. ya know, I was wondering if that would happen: * monuments.

I have a feeling they will be erected.

[VegasWolf]

7. What exactly does it mean to return home when home is nothing

but rubble. I guess it means that the bodies of
the children have been swept out of the way.

[saigon68]

10. BIG PROFITS TO BEMADE FOR BIG CORPORATIONS

Like Halliburton.

[daleo]

11. They will re-build it so that it is easy to re-conquer

For example, wide sweeping boulevards for tanks to have easy access.

[ananda]

13. Model town?!!!

*"The best place to bring a model town into place is Falluja," Colonel Ballard said. But if similar rebuilding efforts in Najaf and elsewhere are any guide, the project under way here - far more ambitious than anything yet tried in this country - will be more expensive and time-consuming than its planners think.*

I -am- living in bizarro world. Maybe Ballard lives in an alternate universe...

Sue

[daleo]

14. "Model town" kind of reminds you of "strategic hamlets"

And that kind of reminds you of Viet Nam.