One year later: Fallujah mending, but still volatile

Marines speak with pleasant surprise at the lack of violence here during the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum. Under tight guard, Fallujah proved to be the most politically active city in all of insurgency-riddled Anbar Province, with a 93 percent turnout that accounted for more than half the ballots cast in the province. Voters roundly rejected the new constitution.

Unlike any other city in Iraq, Fallujah is sealed off, with six entry checkpoints; only residents are given identity cards that allow them to pass. The restrictions mean that insurgents can't draw upon an unlimited supply of recruits in the city, or easily replace discovered weapons caches.

But local tip-offs have been few.

"They don't like foreign armies in Fallujah," says resident Abdusalem al-Duleimi, referring to US and Iraqi forces. "The Iraqi Army here from the south, is no good." There is deep mistrust between Sunni Fallujans and Iraqi Army units, made up primarily of Shiites that control parts of the city.

Iraqi police in Fallujah have a different problem: Many are from Fallujah itself, and so are more vulnerable to intimidation.

"It's difficult to make a split with the bad guys, when your family is right there," says Capt. William Grube, the Fox Company commander. "Insurgents pay visits to people, and we can't be everywhere. They can't either, but it only has to happen one or two times for people to get the message."

"If we lose Fallujah, then we look like a bunch of yahoos who can't control one city. But we won't," says Captain Grube, from Emmaus, Pa. "It's a winnable war, if we make the right decisions."

Among those decisions is an "escalation of force" policy for stopping oncoming cars before using lethal force - an eight-step protocol meant to save lives of civilians, while still protecting them from car bombs.

Other decisions are made on the streets, too. As Estrella's morning patrol passed, a small boy showed a scratch on his knee. "If it were fresh, or bigger, I would have the doc look at it and clean it up - you know, the hearts and minds thing," said Estrella. "It works for some people. But there is still that 10 or 15 percent who want the insurgency, who want to hurt us."

If anything shows how US Marines in Fallujah view their "battlespace" one year after retaking the city, it is a speech this past weekend by Lt. Col. Scott Aiken, commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion 6th Marine Regiment, to his Fox Company.

Colonel Aiken, from Nashville, Tenn., had just awarded three Purple Hearts to wounded marines who had rejoined the unit. He thanked them for the calm that prevailed on Oct. 15 - when Iraqis voted to approve a constitution - and reminded them that violence can erupt "at the drop of a hat."

What follows are excerpts:

"You have taken numerous weapons caches off the street in the past week; some of you were involved in finding the 'Mother of all Caches' just down the road here - suicide vest [and] SA-7 surface-to-air missiles ... that made the airmen really, really happy.

"The insurgents have lost a [lot] of stuff, and I think they are going to have retribution towards us - it's something we need to be ready for, be alert for. But if we are lucky, they will tip their hand, and come into the open, and we get to [kill] them.

"Sometimes a guy says 'screw it, I am no longer an insurgent,' and at that point in time he becomes a part of society, and it is up to us to reinforce that, and keep that going. If you say, 'This guy was a Muj ten years ago, let's take him down and send him to Abu Ghraib,' [then] let's just take everyone to Abu Ghraib, because this place would just be an empty shell.

"I have to applaud you all. You are right now dealing with a tactical situation that none of your forefathers have ever dealt with. Your dad who fought in Vietnam never had to deal with 'escalation of force.' Your granddad, who fought in World War II, never had to deal with 'escalation of force.'

"They were never thrust into a sea of half-innocent people, with a few knuckleheads running around. They did not have to face a suicide vehicle-borne IED threat."

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