The Fallouja Plight Persists

The question was direct. So too was the answer.

“Where’s your biggest threat area?” asked Marine Maj. Phillip Zeman.

“Anywhere, everywhere, sir,” answered Cpl. Phil Shy as their Humvee sped through what was left of Fallouja’s commercial district Friday.

Two months after Marines wrested control of the Sunni Triangle city from insurgents in a weeklong battle, some of the war-weary units involved in the fight are close to going home. But the U.S. job here is far from over.

This restive city will remain an American responsibility until Iraqi security forces are strong enough to take over the tasks of patrolling the rubble-strewn streets and keeping insurgents from reasserting themselves.

No one is predicting that day will come soon.

In the meantime, the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment of the 1st Marine Division -- the 3-1 -- is preparing to head home to Camp Pendleton after seven months in Iraq, months that cost the 1,200-member unit 33 lives and 400 wounded.

They are being relieved by Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment, or 3-4, from Twentynine Palms. Many are coming for their second tour in Fallouja under what enlisted Marines call the “seven and seven” program: seven months in Iraq, seven months at home, then back to Iraq.

The U.S. assault on Fallouja in November came after American officials declared the failure of an attempt to have Iraqi security forces control the city after a springtime U.S. offensive. In many ways, the Americans are at the same point they were then: hoping the Iraqis are ready to take on the role.

“The biggest challenge is making it work with the Iraqi security forces,” said Capt. Timothy Jent, commander of the 3-1’s Kilo Company.

Although the Iraqi security forces have had some successes, their overall record is spotty. Desertions are common and Iraqi soldiers in Fallouja can be seen sitting languidly at their posts or gathering in groups and chatting.

At neighborhood outposts, they congregate often with little apparent regard for whether a hostile force might be in the area.

“If the Iraqis can’t stand up for themselves and maintain stability and security, we can never leave,” said Lt. Col. Willy Buhl, the 3-1’s commander.

The Marines are guarding five entry points to the city to screen returning residents, but some insurgents are believed to have sneaked back in.

U.S. troops who patrol the streets say they have seen small but disquieting signs, including groups of young men darting from house to house as the nightly curfew is imposed. This week an arms cache was found in a building that had earlier been declared clean.

“They’re coming back, no question,” said Cpl. James Flattery, 22, of Knoxville, Iowa.

Thousands of Falloujans are returning every day, and the city, in which almost no building was left untouched by the U.S. assault, is struggling to return to life.

On Friday, children on bicycles played amid ruins. Women with bundles balanced on their heads walked to their homes. A sprinkling of fruit-and-vegetable stands were open. Long lines had formed outside two gasoline stations.

The day before, Marines began making $200 payments to Iraqi men with families. Several thousand men received two crisp $100 bills that could be converted to Iraqi currency at banks in the nearby cities of Ramadi and Baghdad. The goal is to get money to an estimated 33,000 households.

Marines concede that some of the money may end up in the hands of insurgents. But the payment plan was quickly cobbled together to forestall local unrest when the interim Iraqi government’s own plan to give emergency payments was slow to materialize.

On Friday, Buhl, of the 3-1, took the 3-4’s leaders -- Lt. Col. Andrew Kennedy, the commander, and Maj. Zeman, his executive officer -- on a tour of the sector that has been his responsibility and soon will be theirs.

The departing Marines’ advice: to not be fooled by Fallouja, that insurgent snipers could be anywhere and that every car was a potential suicide vehicle loaded with explosives.

“Don’t take anything for granted. Don’t trust anybody,” said Lance Cpl. Jonathon Volz, 20, of Houston. “This is going to be a long, drawn-out thing.”

For the Marines from the 3-4, who were part of the April offensive, a return to Iraq was expected even before they left last year.

“This is my second home,” said Cpl. Zane Parkin, 29, of Huntington Beach.

Buhl remains optimistic for Fallouja, although he concedes the short term may be rocky. The key, he said, lies in the forest of satellite TV antennas bringing news from the outside world.

“Globalization will occur here,” he said as Kennedy received a briefing from company commanders.

“The communications revolution is here, and it will even bring modernity to this part of the world.”

The Marines of the 3-1, headed to Camp Pendleton, are already anticipating their own return.

At the battalion headquarters, officers posted answers to commonly asked questions about the trip home: what day, how much gear can be packed, etc. A wag scribbled in his own question: When do the planes leave to bring us back to Iraq?

And at a company near the heart of Fallouja, a Marine assigned some days ago to dig a trench for a latrine added a sign: “Coming Soon, a New Trench, September 2005” -- which would be seven months after the battalion’s expected arrival in California.