Wednesday, March 23, 2005
"Highways in and out of Baghdad are suicidal"
So much for the happy cheery reports coming out of Iraq. Trust the non-american media to put a splash of cold reality onto the situation. Remember 18 months to get control of one street, Haifa street that runs directly into the green zone.
Jax
Two years after being shocked and awed into "freedom", freedom on the ground is a meaningless concept for large swathes of the Iraqi population. Sunnis and Shi'ites alike tell Asia Times Online of a brutalization of every-day life.
Highways in and out of Baghdad are suicidal: the Americans can't control any of them. Anyone is a potential kidnapping target, either for the Sunni guerrilla or criminal gangs. Officials at the Oil and Electricity Ministries tell of at least one attack a day. Oil pipelines are attacked and distribution interrupted virtually every week. There's a prison camp syndrome: almost 10,000 Iraqis incarcerated at any one time, in three large jails, including the infamous Abu Ghraib. There's also an Abu Ghraib syndrome: all-round denunciation of torture, electroshocks and beatings. The Americans and the Iraqi police proceed with the same "round up the usual suspects" tactic: but even if the "suspects" are not part of the resistance, their families are always well taken care of, so they inevitably join the resistance actively when they leave jail.
The Sunni guerrillas register an average of scores of attacks a day, all over the country. Roadside and car bombs are still exploding in leveled Fallujah. The Baghdad regional police commander was assassinated on Saturday. The resistance has infiltrated virtually all government and police networks. American counterinsurgency methods are going nowhere, because as the Sunni guerrillas keep killing masses of Iraqi security forces, these forces are retaliating in kind - abuses detailed, among others, by Human Rights Watch. The majority of the Sunni population, complaining about official brutality, has withdrawn support for the American-trained Iraqi security forces. So the culture of brutalization has merged with the emergence of sectarianism.
In contrast, life inside the Green Zone bubble is totally virtual. There's no government yet - the elections were on January 30 - so the Sunni guerrillas keep up the pressure, while popular disillusionment with the political process is on the rise. Prime-minister-in-waiting Ibrahim Jaafari of the Da'wa Party recently said he would favor direct elections for prime minister and parliament - not the American-imposed indirect method: it was not good enough to placate popular impatience.
The Kurds for their part block any move toward a new government as long as they don't get written assurances establishing their control over Kirkuk - their Jerusalem. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), is basically worried about reimplementing de-Ba'athification: the SCIRI in the next few days and weeks will virtually take over the Interior Ministry. (Link)
Jax
Two years after being shocked and awed into "freedom", freedom on the ground is a meaningless concept for large swathes of the Iraqi population. Sunnis and Shi'ites alike tell Asia Times Online of a brutalization of every-day life.
Highways in and out of Baghdad are suicidal: the Americans can't control any of them. Anyone is a potential kidnapping target, either for the Sunni guerrilla or criminal gangs. Officials at the Oil and Electricity Ministries tell of at least one attack a day. Oil pipelines are attacked and distribution interrupted virtually every week. There's a prison camp syndrome: almost 10,000 Iraqis incarcerated at any one time, in three large jails, including the infamous Abu Ghraib. There's also an Abu Ghraib syndrome: all-round denunciation of torture, electroshocks and beatings. The Americans and the Iraqi police proceed with the same "round up the usual suspects" tactic: but even if the "suspects" are not part of the resistance, their families are always well taken care of, so they inevitably join the resistance actively when they leave jail.
The Sunni guerrillas register an average of scores of attacks a day, all over the country. Roadside and car bombs are still exploding in leveled Fallujah. The Baghdad regional police commander was assassinated on Saturday. The resistance has infiltrated virtually all government and police networks. American counterinsurgency methods are going nowhere, because as the Sunni guerrillas keep killing masses of Iraqi security forces, these forces are retaliating in kind - abuses detailed, among others, by Human Rights Watch. The majority of the Sunni population, complaining about official brutality, has withdrawn support for the American-trained Iraqi security forces. So the culture of brutalization has merged with the emergence of sectarianism.
In contrast, life inside the Green Zone bubble is totally virtual. There's no government yet - the elections were on January 30 - so the Sunni guerrillas keep up the pressure, while popular disillusionment with the political process is on the rise. Prime-minister-in-waiting Ibrahim Jaafari of the Da'wa Party recently said he would favor direct elections for prime minister and parliament - not the American-imposed indirect method: it was not good enough to placate popular impatience.
The Kurds for their part block any move toward a new government as long as they don't get written assurances establishing their control over Kirkuk - their Jerusalem. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), is basically worried about reimplementing de-Ba'athification: the SCIRI in the next few days and weeks will virtually take over the Interior Ministry. (Link)
