Boston Globe: Rebuilding Fallujah will test US next

[maddezmom]

very long, but worth the read:

~snip~
Fallujah, for all its violent street clashes, was relatively empty of civilians, who fled ahead of the assault, which had been threatened for six months. Still, coalition forces seem to have inflicted more damage than they expected was necessary to subdue the insurgents: Glimpses of the city and the fighting during the week showed that US forces have destroyed large swaths of neighborhoods.

In residential areas to the north, clusters of houses thought to be insurgent strongholds have been heavily bombed. On streets more peripheral to the fighting, some houses have collapsed or are pockmarked with bullets, partly the legacy of US bombing that went on throughout the summer.

"How do you move 250,000 people back into your city without infrastructure?" said Army Lieutenant Colonel Peter Newell, who is leading an armored task force of the First Infantry Division in Fallujah. "It's a challenge to do that at the same time that you try not to let the anti-Iraqi forces come back in. And they will try."

~snip~

Further south, neighborhoods where insurgents are making their last stand are still being pummeled by artillery, airstrikes, and tank fire. Hardest hit are the areas where insurgents have built networks of tunnels and bunkers. There, troops say, there is no way to drive out insurgents except by leveling buildings. In one section, troops of the First Infantry Division were ordered to punch holes in every house in an area about 600 square yards to deny insurgents a place to hide.

"We can win; we just have to blow the hell out of Fallujah," said Staff Sergeant Durrelle Loggins, a commander of a tank with the nickname "Aftermath" stenciled on its barrel.

There will be a fleeting opportunity, commanders said, to start reconstruction
much more: http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/11/14/re...

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. with the nickname "Aftermath" stenciled on its barrel.

Different sort of "aftermath" I imagine.... different from the one that has some real significance if it ever sinks into the collective conscience of what we call America.
http://www.akpress.org/2004/items/aftermathdvd


This new documentary (narrated, and with an original score by Paris), looks to find answers from the real questions surrounding 9/11. What did the Bush Administration know and when? What ties does the US government and intelligence agencies have with the terrorists? Were there plans for war in Central Asia prior to September 11th? What has been the effect at home, with such legislation as the Patriot Act and Homeland Security Act? Featuring, amongst others, grappling with such questions, Mike Ruppert, Nafeez Ahmed, former CIA analyst David McMichael, Peter Dale Scott, John Judge and more. New DVD edition includes over 90 minutes of bonus interview footage and a live panel discussion from the sold out San Francisco screening.

[maddezmom]

3. definition of aftermath

Main Entry: af·ter·math
Pronunciation: -"math
Function: noun
Etymology: 4after + math (mowing, crop)
1 : a second-growth crop -- called also rowen
2 : CONSEQUENCE, RESULT <stricken with guilt as an aftermath of the accident>
3 : the period immediately following a usually ruinous event <in the aftermath of the war>

[comradebillyboy]

11. aftermath, the title of a rolling stones album

released shortly after their disasterous and deadly concert at altamont, where the stones foolishlu hired a bunch of hells angles for security.

[Dr Fate]

17. Music geek alert!!!

Nope- Aftermath was released in 1966. Altamont happened a few LPs later- around the time of "Let it Bleed"

[Barrett808]

2. "If you mix a bunch of civilians in, you're reduced to slow and methodical

"If you mix a bunch of civilians in, you're reduced to slow and methodical operations."

But the civilians of Fallujah are not as lucky.

[maddezmom]

4. this part is chilling: They need to be there with a line of bulldozers

The Iraqi government should take the lead," said Colonel John C. Coleman, chief of staff for the First Marine Expeditionary Force, in an interview several days before the assault. "We want to become invisible at that point. It's really important to get the Iraqi government out in front, showing up in force, with signs on their backs saying: 'Your Tax Dollars at Work. Your Government Here to Help You.' They have a real window of opportunity. They need to be there with a line of bulldozers, garbage trucks, cement trucks."

What about medical supplies, food, water, electricity???

[teryang]

5. They didn't rebuild the country

security conditions are worsening. who really believes they'e going to rebuild Falujah?

[aquart]

6. Exactly. This is a delusional fantasy.

[maddezmom]

7. not me.....and the amt of money pledged is inadaquate to say the least

There will be a fleeting opportunity, commanders said, to start reconstruction in the city and persuade residents that the interim Iraqi government is there to help them, before they grow resentful. The Iraqi government has appointed a representative to spearhead the effort, as well as pledging $40 million. The United States is ready to spend $70 million more, and company commanders each have $5,000 in cash for immediate restitution and reconstruction payments.


No amount of money is going to change the hatred towards the US and Iraqi gov't.

[bemildred]

10. I believe we are about to crank up a civil war.

Draft anyone?

[Deja Q]

14. We've already given the Iraqis their own civil war.

Trounce in on unsubstantiated and proven false information and then pit one side against the other.

I hope the $70 mil goes to rebuild that city. And not to helliburton's CEOs.

[bemildred]

16. The city will not be rebuilt.

There will never be enough "security" for that.

[bhikkhu]

8. Just like rebuilding the rest of the country...

having laid so much to waste, we're still wait for the people to stop shooting at us. Outside of the Green Zone very little has gotten done. It is unlikely US initiative will ever rebuild anything in Falluja.

[maddezmom]

9. nothing is safe, not even in or around the green zone

Blast echoes near central Baghdad's Green Zone
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/NUE460138.htm

Mortar fire heard near Baghdad's Green Zone
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13396137.htm

Car bomb explodes in central Baghdad, police say
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-11-11-iraq...

[DELUSIONAL]

12. Roll out the pork barrels -- Halliburton needs feeding

how much is going to make it down to the level of the poor people who managed to survive the invader's bullets and bombs?

[Zorra]

13. How the HECK are we going to pay for this? Bu$h is fucking insane!

How could so many people in the US be so damn stupid as to vote for this nutcase?

Aaaaaaaaargh.

[Deja Q]

15. There will be no Homeland left to secure. No economy. Nothing.

2 years tops, before we crumble. At this rate.

Less if we go at it with another eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil country.

Less if peak oil hits sooner than anticipated.

Less if the housing bubble breaks.

Less if foreign investors pull out, seeing the dollar as a liability instead of a commodity.

Less if outsourcing skyrockets.

Less if Bush and his republican buds keep shifting the tax burden onto the middle and lower classes because that will destroy our economic system (2/3rds+ depends on the non-wealthy to buy the plastic trinkets) and if the lower class can't even manage to live... (wait until they nix the minimum wage laws.)

Everything is poised for a disaster that would make the sun's supernova a picnic in the park by comparison. Except the supernova isn't expected for billions of years, so we are the generation lucky enough to witness what could potentially be the end of the Americanic Empire.

[meisje]

18. He's got God's Gold Card

[A-Schwarzenegger]

19. Gee, I wonder how it's all going to turn out over there.

Utter madness times complete insanity plus pure delusion equals ?

[LibertyorDeath]

20. "Rebuilding Fallujah" what planet are they on?

"Rebuilding Fallujah" LOL yeah I'm sure it's a high priority