In Fallujah, civility returns

EVEN during the fighting last month, when this battalion shifted its forward headquarters into an apartment complex, claims were assessed. Families on their way out - to flee the fighting - were often paid $200 or so, for doors or windows that marines broke to gain entry. Officers made clear that premises were to be handed back as intact as possible - as they were on Wednesday, when marines vacated the apartments.

When company commander Capt. Jeff Stevenson of Oceanside, Calif., visited the Mukhtar village to discuss the damaged water pipes, he took a Humvee with him stacked with pre-packaged meals and bottles of water, as gifts.

"Sir, Thursday we damaged your village water pipes," he told Mr. Aswad. "Americans like to take responsibility for their actions, so I need to know who to pay."

A meet-and-greet walk around the hardscrabble desert village of 100 turned up several more men, who all agreed that Aswad was trustworthy enough to receive the cash and supplies for all.

Captain Stevenson asked if anyone in the village had been wounded in the fighting. None had. "God willing the fighting is over, the insurgents are done, and [Iraqi forces] are in control of the city," Stevenson told the men. They joked that their poor village - because it is so close to US positions - is now being called the "Village of Bad Luck."

"By us being out here, we have caused some discomfort," the captain said, as marines gathered boxes off the Humvee, and handed out leaflets with radio frequencies for coalition broadcasts.

Solatia payments are at the discretion of local commanders, and only provided in countries where it is customary to pay such blood money to end a feud. Officers first planned to pay $400 for the broken pipes - a half a dozen lines of brittle plastic tubing snaking just under the surface of the desert. Aswad bargained instead for $800, as villagers promised to put in a more permanent, larger pipe. The Americans agreed. "In my opinion, it was well worth the extra $400 to get them better pipes," says Captain Coughlin, wiping sweat from his brow.

The maximum payout through the commander's scheme is $2,500 per incident, and each battalion can have available up to some $500,000 per month. Far larger claims and projects - some already approved for Fallujah - are handled at a centralized claims office.

But this is the first time that Marine lawyers have been deployed at battalion level, a sign of how much the military recognizes the importance of minimizing the impact of US occupation.

Inside Fallujah, the imam of one mosque has been approached to determine what has been broken, such as buildings and water mains because of "collateral damage due to combat," says Coughlin. The key - and it is a fine line in this city - is to "make sure the people who owned it were civilians, and not using [a house] for insurgents."

Compensation is not the only means US forces use to connect with Iraqis. An older Iraqi woman living in a trailer hovel adjacent to the rail station says she was beaten by insurgents several weeks ago - accused of being a collaborator - and kicked in the stomach.

US servicemen evacuated Farha Abed Saad for medical treatment after dark, when her pain became unbearable. "Thank God, you have come here to Iraq and make us free," said Ms. Saad, kissing a soldier's hands. "When I see you, I see my own sons! Thank you, thank you."

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