Can Fallujah be rebuilt?
In this Iraqi town, US faces challenges in creating jobs and attracting investment. By Scott Peterson FALLUJAH, IRAQ – Dump trucks ply the roads, hauling away debris from wrecked homes. Backhoes churn the earth, laying new service lines. And mountains of bricks and buckets of paint are slowly turning war-ravaged Fallujah into a functional city again. For US forces in Iraq, few challenges are as daunting – or perhaps as important – as the attempt to transform this bitter Sunni city into a model for counter-insurgency success. But while Fallujah has become the modern example of the Vietnam-era dictum of having to “destroy a village to save it” – virtually all of its 50,000 structures were damaged in last November’s offensive – today it is Iraq’s largest construction site. And it’s not just repairing the physical damage. US Marines are taking a far more radical approach by trying to rebuild the economy, attract investment, and create jobs. “The one lesson we’ve learned is that we can’t do
