Fallujah... posted by Richard Seymour

Fallujah, like your worst date, has been fucked and forgotten. There is no need to be comprehensive in our review of the facts, and there is certainly no sensible dispute about them.

When the war was initially declared 'nearly over', Fallujah was an island of tranquility amid the desert storm. Looting and resistance activity were scarce, and the town took control of its affairs quite rapidly. The first mayor, chosen by residents, was Taha Bidaywi - a staunchly pro-US figure. However, the occupiers' incompetence and brutality swiftly alienated local residents - first, they set themselves up in former Ba'ath headquarters, which annoyed a few. Then, when a relatively small demonstration gathered outside the building where US soldiers were stationed to demand their exit, troops fired on the crowd and killed 15 civilians. Patrols and frequent raids on houses agitated and alienated residents even further. Resistance cells began to develop and, to mangle a media cliche, the "cycle of violence" escalated. Following a particularly bloody attack on four American mercenaries, the occupiers prepared and carried out a horrendous assault on Fallujah, bombing civilian areas, sniping at the unarmed and filling ambulances with bullet-holes. Outraged, thousands of Iraqis from across the country - Sunni and Shi'ite - gathered on Fallujah with medical aid and assistance for their stricken countrymen. Bush, a uniter and not a divider, had practically the whole country against him. Control was finally handed over to Major General Muhammad Latif and a brigade including many of those who had resisted US troops. That was not a situation that was destined to last.

A propaganda line was prepared, while Fallujah was peppered with repeated bombardment. Foreign fighters had taken Fallujah, we were told. Zarqawi was in Fallujah. The greatest evil since Fu Manchu was weaving webs of destruction from a hidey-hole in a Sunni city. Fallujah was bombed, and stormed by troops who were prepared to fire on anything that moved. One hospital was bombed and another was siezed - in order, it was said, to prevent doctors from issuing negative propaganda about civilian casualties. There were no civilians in Fallujah, US military officials averred, even though they had forced all males of fighting age to remain in the city. Of course, Zarqawi was not found there, and the BBC reported in the 'preparatory' bombing phase that there was no reliable evidence of 'foreign fighters' in Fallujah . Zarqawi, like those elusive weapons of mass whatever, had sneaked across the desert and deposited himself behind a sand dune. It later transpired that the resistance leaders were local, not foreign . Via Remain Calm , I learn that Zarqawi was never expected to be there , according to Major General Richard Natonski, who ran the operation:

"We never expected them to be there. We're not after Zarqawi. We're after insurgents in general," Natonski said.

800 civilians were believed to have been killed.

Once the assault was over, residents were told that they may eventually be allowed to come back and live - but they would have to wear ID badges with their name and address clearly displayed and work in militarised labour camps . Meanwhile, the UN issued warnings about the state of refugees, who would take months and not merely days to return - they were subsisting without much food or water, and would have no electricity in their homes and hospitals when they returned.

So, how is Fallujah coming along? Try this : "completely devastated", "I don't see a single building that is functioning", "rotting bodies"... Fallujah is a "city of ghosts" where dogs feed on the decomposing corpses. This is what emerges in a documentary film to be shown on Channel Four news tonight. News reports illustrate some of the destruction :

Few houses escaped damage from the intense American air raids late last year and the insurgent bombings and shootings that followed. Work teams have cleared rubble from the streets, but it is still tangled with downed power lines. Craters cut off access to side streets, and some buildings have walls or ceilings missing if they weren't simply destroyed.

Unremarkably, the US has gained little from the attack except to spread the insurgeny and generate fury among Fallujans. Naturally, their troops continue to shoot up vehicles at checkpoints , torture and murder innocent people , and bomb houses containing civilians . On every index, the occupation of Iraq is a moral and political disaster. And Fallujah is the sign and symbol of that disaster.

Still, instead of thinking about that and the approximately 100,000 dead (before the attack on Fallujah), or the desperate plans to introduce 'death squads', or even the fact that child malnutrition is double what it was before the war, you could always have a read of the US government's assessment of the progress achieved in The New Iraq. What, I wonder, would they consider a failure?