The scenes of destruction that have played out in Falluja since last week proved one thing — that the Americans are great at taking things apart. What comes after the battlefield victory has always been the real problem for them during their 19 months in Iraq. By early Saturday, Marines and soldiers had swept through most of the city, leaving behind shelled buildings, bullet-riddled cars and rotting corpses. The commanders say their goals now in Falluja are to install a viable Iraqi government and security force, rebuild the city to win back the confidence of the residents and persuade the Sunni Arabs to lay down their arms and take part in a legitimate political process. Difficult as all of that seems, it is the last aim — persuading the Sunnis to act as a loyal minority in a democracy — that may be the most improbable goal of the retaking of Falluja by storm. US officials say that if it can be done, Falluja, which has assumed mythic status across the Arab world for its resistance, could then serve as a model for the rest of Iraq, and Iraq as a model for the rest of West Asia. US commanders say they had no illusions that the offensive would let them capture militant Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. What they do not acknowledge is that seizing Falluja does not bring them any closer to solving the occupation’s most intractable problem — how to get Sunni Arabs to overcome their feelings of disenfranchisement and accept the role of a minority in a democratic Iraq. The US commanders hold up their recent actions in the Shiite areas of Karbala, Najaf and Sadr City as models of how overwhelming force drove rebels into legitimate politics. Falluja will be no different, they say. But Moqtada Al-Sadr, the cleric who led the Shiite insurgency, has nothing to lose by taking part in elections. He can expect his hugely popular organisation to win many seats in the National Assembly and become part of the Shiite power establishment. There is no such hope for the Sunnis, which is why the leading group of Sunni clerics, the Muslim Scholars Association, last week called for a boycott of the elections. The group says it represents 3,000 mosques across Iraq and has been anti-US since. Still, some secular Sunnis, like former exile Adnan Pachachi, have been more welcoming of the US presence and say they intend to take part in the elections. • Gunmen killed a Turkish driver in Baiji on Sunday as US forces, backed by tanks, moved into the centre of the Sunni city after clashing with rebels, witnesses said • An Iraqi Red Crescent aid convoy could not enter Falluja on Sunday due to the fighting • Insurgents overran a police station in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and US troops along with Iraqi security forces, were battling to retake it from them —NYT
