Good news for all poor normal Iraqi people. The commander in chief of the armed forces Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the security forces to remove all the UNNECESSARY CHECKPOINTS throughout Baghdad. 

    For me and for all normal people who are not members of security forces, ministers, high rank officials and other VIPs who hold badges allow them to use the military lane, this is a very good news because it will save our time. Most of us spend more than 30 minutes a day or more than that in these useless checkpoints. When I reach any of these checkpoints anywhere in Baghdad or even other provinces, I always find the same situation, few security employees sitting few meters away from the checkpoint and one of them  holds the small useless detecting device passing to the left side of the car and then asking me the same question that his colleagues ask in every checkpoint in Iraq "are you carrying a weapon" and mostly the answer is not important because even with YES, many people go for search which includes checking the car for few seconds.

    I don't know how the authorities are going to specify the importance of the security checkpoints. When I meet with my friends, we almost agree that the security checkpoints do nothing but delaying people and causing traffic jams. Some of my friends who have military experiences believe strongly that 24 hours patrols can do better job than checkpoints. Hameed Jasim, 40 years factory manager served for more than 6 years in the former Iraqi army says "I feel so worried whenever I reach a checkpoint because I always expect a suicide bombing because I know the insurgents target civilians." Hameed believes that patrols can do better because they can watch all the roads not only the areas of the checkpoints. I share Hammed his point of view and so do many people. I know for sure that the security authorities have their own plans and strategies. I wish these plans and strategies can provide the best security situation with the minimum number of checkpoints.