Thursday, December 09, 2004
The Fallujah Archipelago. posted by Richard Seymour
One way to tackle the jaw-dropping levels of unemployment in Iraq is to have forced labour organised by the US military . Yes, but before they get that far, returning refugees will have to suspend the search through the rubble where their homes once stood and submit to a procedure of prodding and branding:Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times.
There is, however, a commendable commitment to public transport:
Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned.
So this is what it takes to get American troops enforcing the Kyoto protocols. Now, as you all know, this operation was conducted to allow the weary citizens of Fallujah access to a voting station come January. What? You dare to doubt the Bush administration's commitment to democracy? This is a government, I remind you, that stood in two elections to win one - I call that commitment.
But anyway, the trouble is, as they 'funnel' the residents back into the city, they have to watch for insurgents:
One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoons.
"You have to say, 'Here are the rules,' and you are firm and fair. That radiates stability," said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Bellon, intelligence officer for the First Regimental Combat Team, the Marine regiment that took the western half of Fallujah during the US assault and expects to be based downtown for some time.
I like 'radiation' metaphor.
Meanwhile, on the hearts and minds front, the resistance are learning a few tricks themselves according to Patrick Cockburn :
To avoid alienating locals, especially Christians who are numerous in Mosul, resistance leaders have not forced alcohol shops to close. In Fallujah, CD, musical-instrument shops, hair-dressers and coffee shops had all been forced to close.
See, that was a bad move. Everyone knows that hairdressers and coffee-shops are packed with people who know how to run the country. Why deplete your potential resources? Still, those who in the UK are currently calling for the right to kill burglars will be happy to know that Iraqi insurgents are one step ahead of them:
The resistance has also reportedly launched a campaign against criminals, releasing a video showing the beheading of three men who had kidnapped a Christian shopkeeper. A ransom was repaid.
This reminds me of how the IRA would mete out justice in working-class Catholic areas of Northern Ireland when the locals didn't trust the cops (oh, they trust them now, uh huh, everything's fabulous now). It was never pretty, and I'd have a tough job trying to count how many knee-caps were turned into spongy messes either with the use of drills or bullets. Much as this was resented (and I certainly know it was tolerated through gritted teeth), the thought of an occupying army with its own torture centres, its own record in terror, and its use of paramilitary murder squads, can't have been far away.
Work beckons.