Some Background

Fallujah 101, link via Cursor, is a nice little primer about the city we're destroying. Too bad that the neocons seem to have left any understanding of regional history off their reading lists before rushing headlong into Operation Go Fallujah Ourselves. They might have learned a few things.

For instance: Wahabbist Islam, a particularly conservative form of the religion (extensively practiced in Saudi Arabia), is based on principles and practices that started in the city. Fallujah was also an important center of resistance to the British occupation in the early 20th century.

Something tells me that Fallujah has a distrust of outsiders that makes the American south seem cosmopolitan in comparison. And, given that local heroes would be but a couple of generations removed--we're talking grandparents or great-grandparents here--our occupation of the city will be awfully tenuous.