A Vision of Hell -- Fallujah

The Scotsman prints a good descriptive piece on life, such as it is, in Fallujah.

Curfew begins at 10pm and residents have to wait at US marine checkpoints to enter the city, which they can do only with special ID badges, provided by the Americans, which include a retinal scan and fingerprinting. Despite the security precautions, low-level fighting continues in the former rebel stronghold, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

A visit to the city found local police hard at work adding razor wire and concrete blast barriers to the already sprawling fortifications around their main station, while US and Iraqi army patrols traversed the main street, the Iraqis firing their rifles in the air to clear traffic. Small arms chattered somewhere in the distance, followed by a response from a larger gun.

"They are killing one or two of us every day," said an Iraqi soldier at one of the checkpoints. This is confirmed by doctors at Fallujah's general hospital....

At Al-Furqan Mosque, one of the more moderate places of worship, some men stay after prayers to discuss the situation. Even more than the US military, they feel the new government has laid siege to their city. "They use their weapons to clear traffic," said Imam Abdul Majid.

"We can say the Americans are better than them. Let me speak frankly - the new government has failed. Before, we were oppressed by invaders. Now it's getting worse."

Most of the reconstruction that has taken place since the fighting has been the partial rebuilding of houses. Ayad Allawi's interim government sent 20 per cent of the promised compensation, but the money has since dried up, as more needs to be spent on security.

"Shops are broken into at night," one of the men gathered at the mosque said. "Tell me, if there is a curfew and the army and the police control the streets, who is breaking into our shops?"

Read it here.

This is the fundamental point upon which everything depends in Iraq -- the new government must be able to protect the lives and property of its citizens. The example of Fallujah gives the lie to those who claim that more "boots on the ground" would provide security. Even with an overwhelming US military presence there is no security in this unfortunate city. Ultimately a political accommodation must be reached and that, unfortunately, is in the hands of the Sunni insurgents. And now that the US has signalled its intention to start pulling out of Iraq next year, they have absolutely no incentive to suspend their terroristic activities.