From today’s Boston Globe article on the return of the citizenry to Fallujah:
…troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned…
…One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoons…
…previous attempts to win trust from Iraqis suspicious of US intentions had telegraphed weakness by asking, ” ‘What are your needs? What are your emotional needs?’ All this Oprah [stuff],” he said. “They want to figure out who the dominant tribe is and say, ‘I’m with you.’ We need to be the benevolent, dominant tribe.
Then we build a wall around the ghetto, and color-code the badges for easy identification. When the food shortages occur (and they will occur, along with disease), we make sure that rations and medicine are distributed according to importance: “Coalition” soldiers first, Iraqi soldiers next, Fallujan collaborators next, and whatever is left over goes to the riff-raff.
But, at least they’ll have the opportunity to vote.
