Lack of basic services threaten Fallujah gains

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Lack of basic services threaten Fallujah gains
By Charles Levinson - USA Today
Posted : Thursday Jan 24, 2008 11:33:07 EST

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Hamed Ahmed, an influential tribal sheik, lives by the flowing waters of the Euphrates River — but when he turns on his faucets, nothing comes out. As recently as a year ago, such concerns might have seemed secondary in Fallujah, a stronghold of the Iraqi insurgency. Now, violence is so low that Marines here haven’t fired a shot in combat in three months.

But quality-of-life issues such as running water and jobs pose a challenge to keeping the peace that’s no less daunting.

“The government in Baghdad always said they couldn’t help because Fallujah was too dangerous and too filled with terrorists,” said Ahmed, 52. “Now Fallujah is more secure than Baghdad — and still there is no help.”

Ahmed accuses the Shiite-dominated central government of turning its back on Fallujah, a primarily Sunni city, by failing to provide basic services.

If the lack of services continues, Ahmed’s Abu Alwan tribe and others could reconsider their decision last year to turn on al-Qaida and throw their support behind the U.S. military.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/01/gns_fallujah_080124/