A Marine’s Order: Feed the Hand That Bit You

[babylonsister]

A Marine’s Order: Feed the Hand That Bit You

By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: December 30, 2007

FALLUJA, Iraq



CAPT. SEAN MILLER shook his head like a big brother. He and his marines had just walked by a cluster of large orange garbage bins, American-bought, from which thieves had ripped the wheels, and now they confronted a cemetery entrance that Captain Miller had paid an Iraqi contractor to fix. It was still broken.

He snapped a photograph and moved on.

It was one more day on the job here in Anbar Province, where fighting has given way to fixing. But reconstruction was hardly the only thing on the captain’s mind. Falluja’s past as the epicenter of the Sunni rebellion was with him too.

“The road we just walked down, I lost three marines on that road,” said the captain, a compact 32-year-old company commander from Virginia. “I was wounded in Falluja too, so walking down these streets — it’s not easy.”

“Reconciliation,” he said, eyeing some Iraqi policemen nearby. “It’s a hard pill to swallow.”

Since long before this war, forgiveness has been Iraq’s greatest challenge. What does it take for an abused, angry population to move on after so much suffering? Can they ever learn to trust one another?

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/weekinreview/30cave.html?ref=todayspaper

[Selatius]

1. They ultimately took Fallujah by cratering like half the city and it still hasn't stopped resistance

Fallujah suffered extensive damage to residences, mosques, city services, and businesses. The city, once referred to as the "City of Mosques", had 200+ pre-battle mosques of which 60 or so were destroyed in the fighting. Perhaps half the homes suffered at least some damage. Of the roughly 50,000 buildings in Fallujah, 7,000-10,000 were estimated to have been destroyed in the offensive and from half to two-thirds of the remaining buildings had notable damage.

...

Since the US military operation of November 2004, the number of insurgent attacks has gradually increased in and around the city, and although news reports are often few and far between, several reports of IED attacks on Iraqi troops have been reported in the press. Most notable of these attacks was a suicide car bomb attack on 23 June 2005 on a convoy that killed 6 Marines. Thirteen other Marines were injured in the attack. However, insurgents are no longer able to operate in the city in any significant numbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah#Aftermath

[gratuitous]

2. This isn't a job for the military

Their job is to blow things up and kill people. Fixing the things blown up and repairing the relations with the survivors of the people killed is the province of someone else.