It took only six days and only 10,000 U.S. and 2,000 Iraqi troops to conquer Fallujah. Now the hard part begins. Securing the city and, when the bombs stop falling, rebuilding it; bringing back most of its 300,000 residents and creating a peaceful, viable community may take many more troops at no one knows what cost over no one knows how many months or years.

Just spreading the word about the reconstruction of Fallujah will be a daunting task. Most of its residents fled and took refuge in other towns and cities, often with friends or relatives. The plan is to bring them back one neighborhood at a time as the buildings are reconstructed, starting at the north end and gradually working southward. At the same time, the tangled remnants of the electrical distribution system must be restored, as well as the largely destroyed water and sewerage systems.

Security will be a constant concern. Some insurgents remained in the city through the battle, pretending to have stayed behind to guard their property but actually sniping at the invading troops. Those who fled will try to mingle with the returning residents. As countermeasures, police will screen the returnees, identifying them by DNA testing and retina examination. Each head of family will have to wear a badge showing the family’s name and address. Free bus service is to be set up to take the place of private automobiles, which will be banned completely to prevent renewed production of car bombs, a standard weapon of the insurgents.

A recent Boston Globe report on the preparations quoted Marine Lt. Col. Dave Bellon as describing the necessary attitude in supervising the repopulating of the city. He said: “You have to say, ‘These are the rules,’ and you are firm and fair. That radiates stability.” He said previous efforts to win the trust of suspicious Iraqis failed through the use of “Oprah stuff” like asking “What are your emotional needs?” The officer said Iraqis want to know which is the dominant tribe and side with it, and “We need to be the dominant tribe.” He went on, “They’re never going to like us.” Instead, he said, the goal must be mutual respect.

The plan for Fallujah recalls a scheme devised in the 1960s to pacify the countryside in the Vietnam war. The problem was that the Vietcong guerrilla fighters drew support and cover from civilian sympathizers. U.S. forces ordered a system of “strategic hamlets” – new settlements in which residents would be registered and fingerprinted and checked in and out through a main gate through a surrounding stockade and moat fitted with poison-tipped punji stakes. But this struggle for the hearts and minds of the people ended as a dismal failure because of the resentment it inspired among people who had been uprooted and subjected to such close control.

Let’s hope that the Fallujah planners can benefit from past mistakes and somehow inspire respect rather than resentment and continued insurgency.