Fallujah As
A Model City
By Dahr Jamail
07 December, 2004
Dahrjamailiraq.com
Driving
across Baghdad yesterday a GMC full of armed men races past our car,
missing it by inches. Along with guns pointed out their windows at us
(and all the other cars), a couple of the men hold their hands out,
waving them down towards the ground in order to instruct the traffic
they are pushing their way through to stay back.
CIA and/or mercenaries
always travel like this here.
As the SUV passes
a gunman sits behind a metal barrier, with his machine gun aimed at
us. Hes flashing a light at us, to underscore the fact we should
stay back.
As a second SUV
full of armed men wearing helmets passes us my friend Ahmed turns to
me and says, We are nowhere here. Iraq is nowhere now. Look at
this life we are living.
The unbearable gas
crisis has worsened yet further. Lines at stations are up to 8 miles
long in places, causing people to wait hours, sometimes days, for fuel.
If they are lucky the station wont run out of gas before they
are allowed in to fill their tank.
Petrol on the black
market now, if you are lucky enough to find it, is nearly 1$ per liter!
Generators are now
running out of fuel-so people have no electricity
as the power
grid for most of Baghdad produces in most places 6 hours of electricity
per day. Much of Baghdad has 2 hours per day.
The gas crisis has
increased transportation costs, so the cost of food is skyrocketing,
along with cooking fuels like kerosene and propane.
Of course it doesnt
help that today yet another pipeline was sabotaged that links the Beji
refinery to Baghdad.
I took the day at
my hotel to catch up on some writing. Yet another large explosion nearby
rattled the glass of my windows, and of course there is sporadic automatic
weapons fire throughout the capital.
I hate this
fucking place, says Salam as he enters my room tonight. He is
pissed because he was instructed to be searched by Iraqi Police by soldiers
who are stationed nearby. One of the IPs told him, The soldiers
are stupid mother fuckers, so just let us search you. We know you come
here all the time, even though they cant remember. We have to
do our job.
It didnt help
his disposition any yesterday when he was at an internet café
and a tank could not make it past his car as it was parked on a narrow
street. An Iraqi policeman found Salam in the internet café nearby
and told him, The soldiers told you to move your car or they will
run it over. Youd better do it, because Ive seen them run
over a car there before.
Another example
of the winning of hearts and minds of Iraqis is being formulated for
the residents of Fallujah. The military has announced the plans it is
considering to use for allowing Fallujans back into their city.
They will set up
processing centers on the outskirts of the city and compile
a database of peoples identities by using DNA testing and retina
scans. Residents will then receive a badge which identifies them with
their home address, which they must wear at all times.
Buses will ferry
them into their city, as cars will be banned since the military fears
the use of them by suicide bombers.
Another idea being
kicked around is to require the men to work for pay in military-style
battalions where these work brigades will reconstruct buildings
and the water system, depending on the mens skills.
There will also
be rubble-clearing platoons.
The intent of the
US commanders and Iraqi leaders is to make Fallujah a model city.
I wonder if theyll
try this in Baghdad. The goal of crushing the resistance and creating
stability by destroying Fallujah has gone so well that resistance fighters
here roamed freely about Haifa street today hunting for Iraqis collaborating
with US forces.
They executed a
man they suspected as being a collaborator in Tahrir Square, and then
they moved on to Mathaf Sqare, just 3 blocks from the Green Zone
where the interim government and US embassy are located.
Visit
Our Dahr Jamail Archive