Fallujah: The Safest City in Iraq

Which is sort of like saying San Quentin is the safest prison in California. Link:

American forces claim that Fallujah is now "the safest city in Iraq" - an assertion that's impossible to verify, though it's clear that the once-terrifying insurgency has been seriously crippled, mounting only small, scattered attacks in the city.
[...]
"We can't do business here," said Ali Muhammed Hussein, as he waited with his elderly father to receive a compensation check. "It's the safest city in Iraq because it's a prison."

That's not a metaphor. 

Juan Cole has more on the current state of the city, and why it might indeed be the safest in Iraq (hint: everyone left or is dead):

Readers often write in for an update on Fallujah. I am sorry to say that there is no Fallujah to update. The city appears to be in ruins and perhaps uninhabitable in the near future. Of 300,000 residents, only about 9,000 seem to have returned, and apparently some of those are living in tents above the ruins of their homes. The rest of the Fallujans are scattered in refugee camps of hastily erected tents at several sites, including one near Habbaniyyah, or are staying with relatives in other cities, including Baghdad.

The scale of this human tragedy-- the dispossession and displacement of 300,000 persons-- is hard to imagine. Unlike the victims of the tsunami who were left homeless, moreover, the Fallujans have witnessed no outpouring of world sympathy. While there were undeniably bad characters in the city, most residents had done nothing wrong and did not deserve to be made object lessons--which was the point Rumsfeld was making with this assault.
[...]
However much a cliche it might be to say it, the US military really did destroy Fallujah to save it.

SENS. TWEEDLE DEE & TWEEDLE DUM
Among Other Nicknames for Our Greatest Embarrassments

That's not a metaphor. read on