thedrifter
03-22-08, 05:17 AM
Fallujah's rebirth 'outpaces expectations' Tens of millions spent for reconstruction reclaim former insurgency base
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
Article Last Updated: 03/21/2008 11:52:07 PM CDT
FALLUJAH, Iraq — The one-lane bridge over the Euphrates River where a mob hung the charred bodies of slain Americans four years ago is now a focal point in the revitalization of this war-ravaged city.
The Iraqi government and the United States plan to widen the pedestrian pathways on either side of the bridge so shoppers can stream into Fallujah's western neighborhood for food, clothing and other goods from stores that again line the streets of a city once given up for dead.
The comeback of Fallujah, the site of two major battles between Marines and insurgents in 2004, surprises even the most optimistic U.S. planners. "It continues to outpace all expectations," said Navy Capt. John Dal Sant, part of a State Department-funded effort called the Provincial Reconstruction Team for Fallujah.
City Council leader Sheik Hamed Ahmed said he was pleased with Fallujah's progress but that he needed more generators for his neighborhood. Ahmed's three predecessors were assassinated by insurgents, but he has refused to back down.
"Fallujah is alive again," he said.
Restaurants, bakeries, photo shops, tire stores, Internet cafes, a bodybuilding studio and other businesses line the avenues and side streets. BMWs share lanes with donkey carts on congested thoroughfares.
The Anbar provincial government and the central government in Baghdad have poured tens of millions of dollars into street repair, rubble removal and school reconstruction. The governor has assigned
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what Americans might call ward healers to tend to the needs of the city's nine districts.
In 2004, Fallujah was a major base for the emerging Sunni Arab insurgency.
On March 31 that year, it also was the site of one of the most macabre images to come out of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq: young Iraqi men dancing in glee as the burned remains of American private security workers hung from the aging bridge.
Most civilians had fled the city before the second Marine assault, in November 2004.
There are problems: an undersize police department; shortages of electricity, clean water and gasoline; high unemployment; and a small but resistant cadre of insurgents waiting to launch a counter-attack.
Yet Fallujah is vibrant again, and its population has nearly climbed back to about 300,000.
Police are on the streets. A new hospital is set to open this spring, funded by the United States and Iraq.
There have been soccer tournaments and art contests. And there are plans for a soft-drink bottling plant.
"Fallujah has gone through a metamorphosis — these people want their lives back," said Lt. Col. Christopher Dowling, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.
To ensure continued progress, Marines conduct late-night raids several times a week after picking up intelligence about possible insurgent activities. The troops also have sought to provide employment to young Fallujans to help win their loyalty.
One of Dowling's more successful efforts has been to pay Fallujah youths $10 a day to pick up trash. Fallujah also has a court system and judges, unlike most cities in the province west of Baghdad. Elsewhere, judges who fled the country have not returned.
"Two years ago ... people were stealing and hiding," said Iraqi police officer Jassim Hamid Khousan. "Now is better. God willing, if the insurgents come back, we will fight."
Ellie
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
Article Last Updated: 03/21/2008 11:52:07 PM CDT
FALLUJAH, Iraq — The one-lane bridge over the Euphrates River where a mob hung the charred bodies of slain Americans four years ago is now a focal point in the revitalization of this war-ravaged city.
The Iraqi government and the United States plan to widen the pedestrian pathways on either side of the bridge so shoppers can stream into Fallujah's western neighborhood for food, clothing and other goods from stores that again line the streets of a city once given up for dead.
The comeback of Fallujah, the site of two major battles between Marines and insurgents in 2004, surprises even the most optimistic U.S. planners. "It continues to outpace all expectations," said Navy Capt. John Dal Sant, part of a State Department-funded effort called the Provincial Reconstruction Team for Fallujah.
City Council leader Sheik Hamed Ahmed said he was pleased with Fallujah's progress but that he needed more generators for his neighborhood. Ahmed's three predecessors were assassinated by insurgents, but he has refused to back down.
"Fallujah is alive again," he said.
Restaurants, bakeries, photo shops, tire stores, Internet cafes, a bodybuilding studio and other businesses line the avenues and side streets. BMWs share lanes with donkey carts on congested thoroughfares.
The Anbar provincial government and the central government in Baghdad have poured tens of millions of dollars into street repair, rubble removal and school reconstruction. The governor has assigned
Advertisement
what Americans might call ward healers to tend to the needs of the city's nine districts.
In 2004, Fallujah was a major base for the emerging Sunni Arab insurgency.
On March 31 that year, it also was the site of one of the most macabre images to come out of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq: young Iraqi men dancing in glee as the burned remains of American private security workers hung from the aging bridge.
Most civilians had fled the city before the second Marine assault, in November 2004.
There are problems: an undersize police department; shortages of electricity, clean water and gasoline; high unemployment; and a small but resistant cadre of insurgents waiting to launch a counter-attack.
Yet Fallujah is vibrant again, and its population has nearly climbed back to about 300,000.
Police are on the streets. A new hospital is set to open this spring, funded by the United States and Iraq.
There have been soccer tournaments and art contests. And there are plans for a soft-drink bottling plant.
"Fallujah has gone through a metamorphosis — these people want their lives back," said Lt. Col. Christopher Dowling, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.
To ensure continued progress, Marines conduct late-night raids several times a week after picking up intelligence about possible insurgent activities. The troops also have sought to provide employment to young Fallujans to help win their loyalty.
One of Dowling's more successful efforts has been to pay Fallujah youths $10 a day to pick up trash. Fallujah also has a court system and judges, unlike most cities in the province west of Baghdad. Elsewhere, judges who fled the country have not returned.
"Two years ago ... people were stealing and hiding," said Iraqi police officer Jassim Hamid Khousan. "Now is better. God willing, if the insurgents come back, we will fight."
Ellie