In Fallujah, a city that has hosted some of the worst of the fighting and anti-American sentiment, it looks like the military is trying some different tactics in hopes of reducing the violence against our troops and begin working toward the ability to cooperate in the rebuilding of Iraq. One of the bigger things they're trying is paying attention to the fact that for many Iraqis, retaliation upon American troops is a way for them to reclaim their honour after the loss or wounding of family members. Now, the idea of killing to satisfy a person's honour may sound outmoded to us in the West, but whether we like it or not, it is a part of their culture, and we'd be foolish to ignore it.

Their culture, however, apparently offers another way for honour to be redeemed - the payment of "blood money". Some may think is appalling to even consider giving people money for having killed or injured their families. Some may think it sounds a lot like what we do everyday in personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits. What matters, though, is if being willing to satisfy the honour of a family who has lost someone to the actions of the US Armed Forces without further bloodshed is a reasonable solution.

The way the military in the Fallujah area has handled it has been to offer offer formal apologies to the local tribal leaders and payment of $1,500 for each non-combatant killed and $500 for each non-combatant injured. I think it's important to stress that these payments are only for the death or injury of non-combatants and not for anyone who had taken up arms against our soldiers. That, I think, is very reasonable.

It's just one of the new tactics the military has tried in Fallujah.

Officers have ordered soldiers to knock on doors before conducting most residential searches. They have also permitted the mayor to field a 75-member armed militia and doled out nearly $2 million on municipal improvements instead of waiting for private American contractors to arrive.

In the most significant concession, the commanders have pulled soldiers out of every fixed location in the city, including the police station and city hall, leaving a police force run by Iraqis to man checkpoints and guard key installations.

As of now, it remains to be seen if measures like this are any kind of a permanent solution or just a "quick fix", but they do seem to be having an effect.

In the turquoise-domed Abdelaziz Samarrai mosque, prayer leader Mekki Hussein Kubeisi used to rail against the presence of U.S. troops in this city. On Friday, he urged hundreds of men in ankle-length tunics to "be patient" and not to tolerate people who resort to violence.

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