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April 03, 2007
Security and Insecurity in Baghdad
The NYTimes has a follow-up today on McCain's visit to that Baghdad market. The reporter asked merchants in the market about McCain's visit, and about the security situation there overall.
A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions.Representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, said the Shorja market was "like a normal outdoor market in Indiana."
"What are they talking about?" Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. "The security procedures were abnormal!"
The article goes on to outline different attacks the market has endured this year, and confirms that the violence has been increasing. Then it continues with this:
During their visit on Sunday, the Americans were buttonholed by merchants and customers who wanted to talk about how unsafe they felt and the urgent need for more security in the markets and throughout the city, witnesses said."They asked about our conditions, and we told them the situation was bad," said Aboud Sharif Kadhoury, 63, who peddles prayer rugs at a sidewalk stand....
"This area here is very dangerous," continued Mr. Youssef, who lost his shop in the February attack. "They cannot secure it."
But those conversations were not reflected in the congressmen’s comments at the news conference on Sunday.
Look, it's clear that McCain is trying to convince people of an unreality, and he's doing it for political purposes. He is deeply invested in this war and in the success of the surge, and he wants us to believe that the security situation in Baghdad is getting better. But the situation is not that simple.
Yes, where our Army and Marines go, calm will follow them. But they can't be everywhere, and they can't stay forever. And while they are doing their best to bring some order to this desperate situation, the violence moves elsewhere.
A senior Iraqi military spokesman said a deadly spike in sectarian attacks in provincial cities and towns in recent days was partly a consequence of tighter security in the capital. Last week saw what the government said was the single deadliest attack of the 4-year-old war, a double truck bombing in the northern town of Tal Afar that killed 152 people, according to Iraqi officials...."The terrorists went to the surrounding areas, and these areas are breeding grounds for violence," Brig. Gen. Qassim Musawi said at the news conference with Fox.
This is not a problem that can be resolved by military action, as even Petraeus has stated. His hope is that some measure of calm in the capitol will give the politicians time to work out an agreement that will allow a more permanent peace. But I see little evidence that Iraq's central government has any hope of doing that.
Please don't misunderstand me. I take no joy in the knowledge of this ongoing violence. This war was a stupid, dangerous idea from the start, and this administration has made a total disaster out of that bad idea. I'm unhappy, as we all are, at the massive death and destruction which has been brought about by our country, visited on both the Iraqi people and our own military.
But I'm not willing to surround myself in some dream of security that doesn't exist, or deny the evidence of what's happening in Iraq. I honestly don't see a solution, but I know we have to start by being honest and facing reality there.
Posted by jnfr at April 3, 2007 07:05 AM