US Still Killing In Fallujah... When is Enough , Enough?

[leftchick]

Relatives gather around the covered body of 19-year-old Amjad Shehab after he was killed by U.S. fire in the city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, March 24, 2005. Shehab's family said their son was killed when a U.S. military convoy opened fire at him while he was driving his car on a highway early Thursday in Falluja. REUTERS/Mohanned Faisal


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Fallujah: From insurgent stronghold to `safest city in Iraq'


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2270&e=9&u=/krwashbureau/20050321/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_usiraq_fallujah_wa_1



A group of Iraqi men shoveling dirt and sand in a vacant lot said much about the effort. "They're making big piles into little piles," joked one Marine, as he guided a group of journalists on a tour of the city this week.


The Marines could do the job in a couple of hours with a front-end loader but prefer to pay military-age men to get it done with the tools they have - giving the men an alternative to working with the insurgents and a chance for Iraqis to lead the reconstruction effort.


"If we did everything, we could do this faster," said Master Sgt. Leon Brown, of the Army's 445th Battalion, a reservist from Milpitas, Calif. "But how are the Iraqi people going to feel confident about their country or their government?"


American forces claim that Fallujah is now "the safest city in Iraq" - an assertion that's impossible to verify, though it's clear that the once-terrifying insurgency has been seriously crippled, mounting only small, scattered attacks in the city.