Two views of Fallujah--the irony in the second is...well, so typical....

[Gloria]

These stories are in the new World Media Watch at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

The second story is by the AFP...lot's more "hopeful" but....the cleric who,as described by the US State Dept. rep, was key in paving the way for more contact with the Americans...well, he was gunned down. So sadly typical....


1//The Sunday Times, UK--TERROR REBORN IN FALLUJA RUINS (In November 2004 I was the last western reporter to leave Falluja before the US Army launched Operation Phantom Fury, an air and land assault aimed at eliminating insurgents from a city that had become a bastion of resistance to coalition rule. Last weekend I was the first to return independently and it was impossible not to be shocked by the devastation. Huge areas of what were once homes have been flattened. On countless street corners, mountains of rubbish spew plumes of black smoke into the air. … . By sheer force of arms, the Americans occupied Falluja and put a temporary stop to resistance in the city. As the rest of the world soon discovered, the insurgency continued elsewhere. Yet what I found in Falluja last week was even more dispiriting. It is not only that promises to reconstruct the city and restore normality have manifestly been broken. The bitter truth is that the actions of US and Iraqi forces have reignited the insurgency. Anger, hate and mistrust of America are deeper than ever. Mistakes by American soldiers and Iraqi National Guards — drawn mainly from the country’s Shi’ite majority — have alienated residents and encouraged support for insurgents.)



2//The Jordan Times, Jordan--FALLUJAH TURNS INTO UNLIKELY MODEL FOR CIVIL-MILITARY TIES (A little more than a year ago, Fallujah was, in the words of a US diplomat, a “Green Zone for terrorists” until US Marines invaded in one of the fiercest battles since the fall of Saddam Hussein. A year later, Fallujah is slowly rebuilding and could well be a model of civil-military relations for the restive cities further west, especially Ramadi. Driving through Fallujah's war-ravaged streets, it is hard to realise this is a city on the mend. Entire street blocs are rubble-strewn wastelands and few buildings are spared the scars of machinegun fire. Yet civic leaders report that life is returning to markets in the “city of mosques” and people walk the streets without the furtive fear found in strife-torn Ramadi. “Fallujah is getting back on its feet and people are going out and participating in the political process,” said Mayor Dari Abdel Hadi on Thursday, the election day. … . John Kael Weston, the US State Department representative in Fallujah, attributes the change to a decision by the city's religious and civil leadership to engage in the political process. A key figure in this switch was Sheikh Hamza Issawi, who over the summer paved the way for increased contacts between the US military and civic leaders. “He enabled a mood in the city for political engagement to happen,” said the US diplomat, who has spent nearly two years in Anbar. Issawi was gunned down on November 28.)