How safe is Iraq?
Violence surges but coalition, interim government vow to battle on.
A series of recent reports in US and British media about the security situation in Iraq has painted a picture of a country overwhelmed by a surge of violence. Despite the worsening security situation, however,
United Press International reports that the US and its allies "issued a policy statement,
vowing not to bow to terror."And in another good sign for the interim government in Iraq,
Voice of America reports that NATO has agreed to start training the Iraqi security forces.
Yet, the news from Iraq seems grim. On Wednesday,
The Christian Science Monitor reported that the military forces of the radical Islamic cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr's
effectively control Sadr City, the huge slum on Baghdad's northeastern edge that is home to 2.5 million people.
Sadr's Madhi army also retains control of large portions of Najaf (despite suffering hundreds of losses in battles with US forces), forced a US-backed government council in the southern city of Amara to resign, and "rearmed in anticipation of further confrontation with the US." His supporters say they want to become the Hezbollah of Iraq – a military and social organization.
By running a wildly popular anti-vice campaign in cooperation with local police, Sadr's men - and not the US-installed interim government – have taken up the mantle of chief guarantors of public order in Sadr City. Mahdi Army members have killed alleged drug dealers and kidnappers, and handed more over to the police. Local cops confirm their cooperation. 'They're doing a lot of our work for us,' says one.
Earlier in the week, Robert Fisk, columnist for the
Independent paper in Iraq, described
living in Iraq in these times as both dangerous and "weird."
I drive down to Najaf. Highway 8 is one of the worst in Iraq. Westerners are murdered there. It is littered with burnt-out police vehicles and American trucks. Every police post for 70 miles has been abandoned ... The American-appointed 'government' controls only parts of Baghdad – and even there its ministers and civil servants are car-bombed and assassinated. Baquba, Samara, Kut, Mahmoudiya, Hilla, Fallujah, Ramadi, all are outside government authority. Iyad Allawi, the 'Prime Minister', is little more than mayor of Baghdad.
Agence France-Presse reported Wednesday that an
explosion at an oil facility west of Kirkuk damaged the main pipeline to Turkey, "bringing exports to a halt." And
Zaman Daily News of Turkey says that after the murder of a truck driver by insurgents, other Turkish drivers
have decided to pull out of Iraq. A report on an Indian news website,
IndoLink, alleges that some Indian truck drivers are being "
held in virtual bondage ... being forced to work and not allowed to leave" because so many truckers from other countries have left.
The Boston Globe reported in July that the "relatively high rate of
US military casualties has dimmed hope that the handover of power to the Iraqi government would help stabilize the country and reduce pressure on US soldiers."
The Daily Star of Lebanon reports that this hope of reducing pressure on US troops took another hit Wednesday when Iraqi's interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer, said a Saudi proposal to send Muslim troops to Iraq to replace US troops was "
not acceptable."
Knight Ridder recently reported on how many of those American troops are now openly questioning their mission in Iraq, and "the leaders who sent them there."
'I'm tired of every time we go out the gate, someone tries to kill me,' said Staff Sgt. Sheldon Rivers. Asked whether most Americans have an idea of how bad the security situation is in Ramadi, Sgt. Maj. John Jones said recently that he was annoyed every time he heard analysis about Iraq from politicians and journalists on TV. 'When people come over here, where do they stay? In the Green Zone. I call it the Safe Zone,' he said, referring to the secure area in Baghdad where the government is housed. 'They miss the full picture.' Even journalists who believe that the situation in Iraq is still promising have written that the US media have greatly underestimated just how damaging the insurgency has been to the coalition's efforts to rebuild Iraq. Ken Dilanian of the
Philadelphia Inquirer wrote in April that the media was "underplaying the good things happening in Iraq, and were missing the potential for a turnaround."
In a column this week, after his second visit to Iraq, he says that he still believes the media underplays good things in Iraq but that "the situation had deteriorated so dramatically that a lot of those good things
have become irrelevant.
In March, as I was writing, the $18.4 billion reconstruction effort was just getting off the ground. I had sat in on a briefing in which a senior US official confidently predicted that, by June, thanks to American rebuilding efforts, Iraq would have electricity 18 hours a day throughout the country ... I just couldn't conceive, given how severely the lack of electricity undermines everything they are trying to achieve, that the Americans would publicly set a goal and then fail to meet it. But that's just what they did. It's now August, and that goal still hasn't been reached. Throughout much of the country, the power goes off for half the day or more. That has meant another summer of babies sweltering in 120-degree apartments, of factories that can't run, of despair turning to hatred. But Karl Zinsmeister of
National Review Online writes Wednesday that Americans need to be wary of this kind of reporting. He says one reason that electricity is in short supply is that Iraq is
enjoying a consumer boom – Iraqis are buying a lot of appliances that need electricity. "Electricity demand," he writes, "is thus rising even faster than the steady increases in generation." He also says US media have missed other stories.
As someone who has recently spent three months on combat patrols with coalition soldiers, I'll be the first to acknowledge that the US is facing a hard guerrilla fight in Iraq. It is, however, not a mass revolt, or a broad popular insurgency. If you're a regular NRO reader, that's not news to you. But for many Americans, that is news. They shouldn't feel bad. The fault lies with reflexively alarmist and often incomplete reporting.
Reuters reports that the US government, which
has worked hard to keep its coalition in Iraq together through rough times, hopes that Wednesday's joint statement about refusing to bow to terror will help make a difference.
'We understand that conceding to terrorists will only endanger all members of the multinational force, as well as other countries who are contributing to Iraqi reconstruction and humanitarian assistance,' the statement said. And finally, the State Department is reviewing the way the $18.4 billion set aside by Congress to rebuild Iraq
is being spent. The department may shuffle some funds away from big contracts in an effort to jump-start job creation in Iraq, which is seen as one way to fight terrorism.
In addition,
Reuters reported recently that the US Defense Department is looking at giving commanders in the field
access to more money for "hearts and minds" community projects that "show immediate results and get people off the streets and into jobs."
Also...
•
US contractors who die working in Iraq are often overlooked (
The Washington Post)
•
Iran-Iraq: "Frien-enemies" (
Al Hayat)
•
Jordan to impose "code of practice" on preachers (
Islam-Online)
•
Letter to Christopher Hitchens: Gung-ho view distorts reality (
The Australian)
•
'More spies needed on the ground' (
BBC)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Tom Regan
.
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