McClatchy blog: Inside Iraq

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August 31, 2009

Snake and ladders

Iraqi streets are full with all kinds of convoys, American and Iraqi, that wander here and there all the day and night.

The problem of these convoys is blocking roads.

Sometimes we are obliged to wait for more than half an hour in intersections waiting for the convoy to arrive to and then pass. People are forced to wait and wait in order to allow 'the masters' pass.

We have 275 parliament members, more than 30 ministers, three members of presidency council, three members of parliament presidency panel, the deputies of prime minister and ministers in addition to tens of parties' leaderships and prominent figures. Those people are accompanied by tens of vehicles and tens of soldiers who are armed to the teeth. Can you imagine life with all these convoys?

Our streets with all these convoys look like the game of snake and ladders, the citizens are the players of this game who depend on luck to find the open roads because there is no rule for that. Driving in Baghdad just depends on luck.

The withdrawal of American troops from the cities solved part of the problem. Yesterday Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki recommended prohibiting most of the officials from closing roads; I hope they will listen to him. I was happy; I thought it is about time that we will stop playing that game but that happiness didn’t last long because the decision of the PM had exceptions; for himself, Mr. President and the speaker of the parliament. I think Mr. Maliki doesn’t want to deprive Iraqis from playing the game that they have been playing the last six years. Thanks to you Mr. Maliki.

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August 30, 2009

Just a Question

I know the democratic experience in Iraq is a new born one. I can accept the failure as long as it is not deliberate because every new experience has its own defects. I also know that democracy means to criticize freely. Criticism should be realistic and constructive in order to improve the experience.

Since the last bloody explosions in August the 19th, many Iraqi politicians came up on different TVs. Most of them are lawmakers or former ministers. All of them blamed the government for the collapse in the security situation and until that point everything is normal.

The abnormal thing is the following "I demand the government" which is the sentence that most of them said.

If the law maker demands the government and the general secretary of a political party which participates in the government demands the government although they are members of the government, then the question is (WHOM ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT WHEN THEY SAY THE GOVERNMENT?

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August 25, 2009

Stop Accusing. Do Something

For more than six years, we live in hell

For more than six years, we live and watch the daily death of innocent Iraqis.

For more than six years, the flowing rivers of the Iraqis' blood and no one did real efforts to stop these rivers.

For more than six years, the officials talk about the improvement of the security situations and arresting criminals and killers but we did not see them in courts!

For more than six years, some governmental officials and parliament members accuse Iran and others accuse Syria and Saudi while others live in Europe enjoying their time and getting thousands of dollars for nothing.

For six years, we saw nothing on the ground but words. But words

Dear officials, There is a proverb says (Do Not Tell Me. Show Me) Have you heard about this proverb?

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August 24, 2009

Thoughts of Wednesday won't go away

My thoughts keep going back to the explosions on Wednesday.

Two great big trucks carrying several bright red barrels filled with C4 reaching a very sensitive location without being detected. How?

My car is searched at least once every day.

Did the culprits do it for money? For political aims?

Or do they just enjoy killing innocent Iraqis?

Security is more than just setting up a checkpoint at the intersection, or an army patrol passing once a day.

Security is more than employing more and more young men who are not even trained properly and have no idea what they're doing.

Our security is fragile because it's built upon the wrong principles. It is built upon an accord between the political blocs. Once they fall out with each other – Boom!

And tens of families lose a loved one – or more. And many lose their homes

Our security is fragile because the very people who are in power think of it as a tool to be used to forward their own interests. If they are happy – we have peace. If they are vexed – Boom!

And a young mother picks up her dead baby and speaks to her parent, "Look mom – He's smiling at me!"

How long will Iraqis be the victims of political ambitions in this way?

Where are the demonstrations?

Why are they silent in this era of freedom of speech?

I believe Iraqis are just too weary.

Perhaps they have come to believe that it is all to no avail. That there is no peaceful outcome to this struggle, no hope for a better life.

So they will just try to get along, as they learned to do over decades of hardship. Feed their young as best as they could. Manage their affairs from day to day without having the energy to think about tomorrow or fancy words like "freedom" and "democracy".

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The Loss Is Very Big

Every single Iraqi who love this country agree that the explosions of last Wednesday were a real catastrophe. According to the official numbers, about 100 people died and more than 600 others were wounded. The building of two main ministries were damaged severely. Iraqis will remember the explosions every time they pass through the streets where they happened. Thousands of them will ask questions although they realize that they will never get answers.

Reconstructing the damaged buildings is not a difficult mission because all we need is time but the main problem is rebuilding the trust of Iraqis with their security forces.

While coming to work, I was talking to the taxi driver who had to wait for his turn near a checkpoint. He said that checkpoints did nothing but creating traffic jams. During our discussion, a small truck stopped near our car, he said laughing "I am afraid this is a truck bomb." Although he was telling a joke but I could feel his fears."

The taxi driver is only one of thousands of Iraqis who lost confidence in the Iraqi security forces. The confidence that is really difficult to re build in days or months. The loss of confidence will need longer time than just buildings.

Posted at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Marks on Houses in Jami'a Neighbourhood.

Reporting for a story took me to Jami'a neighbourhood in west Baghdad this morning.

Jami'a was – and most probably still is to a certain extent a stronghold of al Qaida.

It became a ghost town during the height of sectarian violence. No cars moved down the main thoroughfare, no movement to be seen at all except empty plastic bags flying in the wind. No pedestrians ventured out on its dust-covered pavements.

Life has very slowly and hesitantly come back to Jami'a. Apprehensive, people only pass through there if they must.

As we drove through side streets that have witnessed terrible battles, something caught my attention. Houses were marked either with a check, or with an X. From previous experience I knew that this was the kind of thing that al Qaida did to "sort out" the residents: A Sunni house here – a Shiite house there.

I wanted to hear what people living in the neighbourhood thought about these marks, and why on earth they were still there. So I asked a man in the neighborhood.

"Al Qaida put some of those marks there. The check marked a Shiite house, and the X marked a Sunni house. And no one could paint over the mark or remove them for fear of their lives," he said.

The marks took a new meaning when the Iraqi army moved in with help from the Sahwa, tribal leaders who joined the government to fight al Qaida. It's not clear why the army is using the marks.

"During regular search operations by the Iraqi army, servicemen started putting similar marks on the walls and gates of houses. Checks and Xs everywhere. We don't know, maybe it's a plan to confuse al Qaida. But whatever the reason, it's very scary to have such a mark on your wall, and we're afraid to remove them. I just hope that al Qaida will not act on them. They (al Qaida) are still around, you know."

My eyes went round. I thanked him very quietly, got into the car and we drove off.

But I kept thinking about those people; having to live in constant fear. I feel that the government is not doing all it can do to control the Sunni areas. It is as if the security in neighbourhoods like Jami'a, Ghazaliyah, Abu Ghraib and many more is of lesser importance. The government seems to be turning the other cheek. I mean I know – as do many Iraqis, that there is still Qaida activity in parts of Baghdad and in Diyala, and in Mosul and elsewhere – Why has the effort to stop them and weed them out gone cold?

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August 23, 2009

After the Destruction of Basra

    It is an Iraqi proverb “After the destruction of Basra”. Historians says it came after a revolt in Basra in the 9th century but the state didn’t control Basra only after it was looted and destroyed and as the Caliph ordered celebrations in Baghdad people said “A victory but after the destruction of Basra” or “it is too late”.
    The proverb is widely used in the Arab world.
Four days after the bombings and Iraqi authorities do not allow big trucks to enter Baghdad.
Why?!
    The bombings on Wednesday were by trucks. Therefore; no trucks are allowed to enter Baghdad. This procedure will affect the prices of goods especially it is Ramadan.
    They didn’t decide to search trucks, no they banned them.
    As I drove beside tens of trucks that were stopped on the highway and looking to poor drivers fasting and sitting on the asphalt I think the words “after the destruction of Basra” cannot fit but “instead of fixing it they ruined it” may fit more.

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August 20, 2009

Always One Step Behind

    One day after bombings killed about 100 people in Baghdad, the Iraqi armed forces manned checkpoints very well, at least on main roads. The devices that should detect explosives are being used now. Streets look empty, but cars form long lines at checkpoints.
    The entry checkpoints to Baghdad from Al Anbar banned all long vehicles from entering to the city this morning. Iraqi army soldiers stopped hundreds of trucks on the highway that connect Baghdad to two Arab countries; Syria and Jordan from entering to the capital.
“No trucks for today” an Iraqi army soldiers told the drivers who gathered to understand.
    No cars can enter Baghdad or to cross a bridge inside Baghdad without being checked by the soldiers. But it is too late.
    The insurgency in Iraq has proved to be flexible and capable to change its tactics but the Iraqi forces are not. The main security plan that the Iraqi forces depend on is fixed checkpoints. American officers always complained that their Iraqi partners don’t like to get out on foot patrols, favoring those checkpoints instead.
    Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki met his security ministers and other military commanders to review their security plan to face the attacks. It is a good sign to realize there is something wrong.
    Again this is one step behind those who mastered the last bombings.
    Several people I talked to in Fallujah and Baghdad are full of doubt. They wonder how a truck loaded with more than one ton of explosives could escape more than 200 checkpoints throughout Baghdad?!
If you are driving your car in Baghdad there will be one way to escape checkpoints without being searched properly, I mean after the explosive detectors point to your car, and that way is to show them a badge. A badge of an officer will be the perfect way.
The fact that there were officers of the presidential guards involved in a bank theft and killing eight guards at the end of last month made people suspect anything.
    The detention of officers to investigate yesterday’s attacks came as a proof to that theory.
    Former officers of the army and police think the security plan is poor and cannot bring security because it depends merely on checkpoints and blast walls. Under Saddam there were no more than few checkpoints on the main roads that enter Baghdad, yet security for citizens was better. Add to that depending on checkpoints to impose security is not a solution because car bombs might explode and cause casualties among the civilians who are waiting in checkpoints.
    In other words, if car bombs are on street it doesn’t matter where it will explode because, whatever they hit, they are still a security breech.
I hope the government and all its friends will make their best this time trying not to be one step behind.

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August 19, 2009

The Terrorists Wants it more

    Three days before Ramdan, about 500 Iraqis were killed and injured in Baghdad today. The casualties are the biggest since February 2008 and instead of shopping and preparing for Ramadan hundreds today will take their beloved to grave or to hospital. Instead of receiving the holy month of Muslims by forgiveness the killers decided to receive it with blood.
    How much more difficult can life be for the people when they have to face an enemy that enjoys killing innocents on one side, and on the other, have a government that never makes enough effort to help or to admit its failure.
    I dare any Iraqi minister to resign; I dare the minister of interior, the minister of defense, the commander of Baghdad operations and the prime minister. If not you, Mr. Minister, then any one of the spokesmen who are not doing their jobs properly.
    Baghdad’s streets started to get empty. The devastation that these bombings left behind reminded me of how it was two years ago. And to make it worse, some satellite TV channels that belong to Iraqi political parties found their chances to promote sectarianism to win the upcoming parliamentary elections.
    One thing was not the same: there were no American troops on the ground but helicopters that flew on hi levels.
    Al Qaeda and other groups will do their best to make the American troops stay in Iraq and not to concentrate on Afghanistan, or at least to keep the American military fighting on more than one front. That’s why the reason behind anything happening here can relate to American military.
    But the list of reasons can be long. Some will benefit from the deteriorating security situation to win elections by raising fear among the people among sects and ethnicities. These bombings also show the persistence of these criminals to undermine any effort to pacify Iraq.
    The Iraqi government problem is not capabilities or anything else. I believe their problem is that their will to win is weaker than the determination of the terrorists. It’s a matter of loyalty.
    Today’s bombings are not the actions of a weak and scattered organization. It is not the work of someone who is afraid. It is the work of someone who is in control and free to move in Baghdad, these words came from Al Baghdadiyah satellite channel, which had to broadcast news from its Cairo office because of damage in their Baghdad studio due to a bombing in eastern Baghdad.
    Here in Baghdad fear can be seen in faces and can be heard in voices it is not the fear from the explosions; it is the fear of going back to the years before 2008.
    We know al Qaeda is returning because the military and police officers have told us so. That doesn’t make it easier to see the victims and the destruction of these bombings. It makes your heart ache. Seeing Baghdad, the city that we love more than anything, bleeding for all these years make us wonder will be there someone care enough to be with the people and leave their post, will be there someone in the government will be fired or resign for not accomplishing his duties properly?!

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August 11, 2009

You Will Be Always Alive

To the Soul of the Brave Iraqi National Police Member Ali Al-kathimi

Although I don't know you but I wish to address you brave man. You who saved the souls of tens of innocent people while you were doing your duty. The guys in the street where the car bomb detonated told me about your bravery. They told me how did you shouted as loud as you could "don't stay here please, we got information about a car bomb. Please don't stay close to save your lives" and when no one answered, they also told that you started asking about the owner of the car bomb and how did you forced them all to leave the place.

I know we lost nine people in the explosion in Shurta 4th neighborhood but with your great efforts, the casualties were less worse. We would lose more than 40 innocent people but your courage saved their souls. Unfortunately, we lost you among the casualties. Our loss can not be compenstaed. Our only condolence is your great sacrifice which will keep you alive in the hearts of the people you saved

May Mighty God bless your soul brave Ali and May give patience to your great family who brought up a great man like you

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ABOUT THIS BLOG

"Inside Iraq" is a blog updated by Iraqi journalists working for McClatchy Newspapers. They are based in Baghdad and outlying provinces. These are firsthand accounts of their experiences. Their complete names are withheld for security purposes.

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