| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Iraq | |
| Cementing the Divide | |
| 2007-04-22 | |
| I wish I hadn't found this - at Arab News, but offer it as an insight into the Arab mind. The Americans are reported to be puzzled as to why Sunnis in their highly exposed enclave of Adhamiyah in Shiite-dominated east Baghdad should be protesting so angrily about US troops building a five-mile concrete “protective” wall around their community. The Americans’ confusion and their evident determination to press ahead with the project despite local opposition is yet more depressing evidence of how little they understand the country that George Bush invaded four years ago. The US military believes that the heavily guarded enclave will not only protect the inhabitants of Adhamiyah from Shiite militia death squads but will also stop Sunni insurgents from using the district as a staging post for bomb attacks against Shiite targets. In Washington there are already suggestions that Sunni opposition to the wall is motivated by concern at the loss of a haven for terror attacks. There is also mystification why the people of Adhamiyah are not grateful for the 12-foot high concrete wall that is being thrown up around them. What's the death rate in the Green Zone, by the way? Both assumptions ignore the fundamental fact that the people of Adhamiyah regard themselves first and foremost as Baghdadis, not as Sunnis. For emotional as well as commercial reasons they feel outraged that — without the slightest consultation — they are being cut off from their fellow citizens. Their part of town is effectively being turned into a ghetto in and out of which their own movements, and those of their friends and relatives from other parts of town, will be controlled by heavily fortified security posts. Creating such a concrete enclave is, in addition, the antithesis of everything the Bush administration claims to be trying to achieve in Iraq. This very week, Washington was pressing the Maliki government to speed up the process of national reconciliation. How then does the US military imagine Sunni residents of Adhamiyah will have any sort of relationship with their Shiite neighbors even a block away on the other side of the wall? How will Sunnis and Shiites now mix in the cafes, barber shops and stores that until now they have shared as fellow Baghdadis and Iraqis ? Maybe democracy has allowed them to think of themselves a Shia and Sunni for the first time, and now they want to be separated? Did Arab News do a poll?
Truck bomb the wall or truck bomb the markets? Sounds like the wall was a decoy. There is a further distasteful element to this latest US ineptness. The five-mile-long concrete wall is remarkably similar to the 430-mile concrete and wire structure being built by the Israelis to keep the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. At 12 feet, they are both the same height. There's the rub! The Baghdad wall is a desperate move by an arrogantly ignorant occupying power which cannot even see that the main significance of the wall will be as a stark reminder of its own multiple failures. | |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #3 WHile JUan was calling for pullout, KRISTOL > triewd to make the point that iff HARRY REID trule believed "THE WAR IS LOST" in Iraq, then WHY DID REID SUPPORT THE NEW US DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL WHICH EXTENDS FUNDING FOR US EFFORTS IN IRAQ FOR ANOTHER 15 MONTHS?, as opposed to 3-6 months. KRISTOL > US soldiers will notice, and may argue why US pols like Reid still want them = US Milfors to be in Iraq for 15 more months iff the war is lost now. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-04-22 23:44 |
| #2 Iff I understood JUAN WILLIAMS correctly this AM, Juan told his FOX panel openly that he is iin favor [now?] of a US "PULLOUT" from Iraq which I interpreted to mean a TOTAL US PULLOUT, espec given the new car bombings + IED incidents over this past weekend. I interprete Juan's comments to be contrary to his previous on-TV support to end active US-led ground = combat operations in Iraq, as did Colmes. THE DEMS MAY LIKE TO TALK ABOUT PULLOUT + WITHDRAWAL, BUT THEY = MANY OF THEM MUST REALIZE THAT DUBYA IS ENTRENCHING US-DEMOCAPITALIST INFLUENCE ALL AROUND RADICAL IRAN + MUSLIM WORLD - using "PULLOUT", etc as a talking point for 2008 is gonna hurt them. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-04-22 23:36 |
| #1 The five-mile-long concrete wall is remarkably similar to the 430-mile concrete and wire structure being built by the Israelis to keep the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. At 12 feet, they are both the same height. I was wondering when somone would finally make the dreaded Zionist connection. Just like Israel's security barrier, the wall would also provide choke points so that traffic in both directions could be screened. Something that neither side wants, both for the same reason. Our military needs to tell them to piss off while we do whatever is needed to improve security for our troops and stabilize the situation in Baghdad. The wall can always be torn down later. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-22 19:43 |