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U.S. to cut off Baghdad neighborhood with barrier »
Posted by: Alexia 2 years, 8 months agoA U.S. military brigade is constructing a three-mile-long concrete wall to cut off one of the capital's most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq's most populous and violent city.
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Alexia
Documentary filmmaker, interactive mediaist, with a background in theatre and writing. Avid non-fiction reader.
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Comments: 170
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Aidenag
April 20, 2007, 4:06 a.m.Cause yeah, it worked out so well for the East Germans and Israeli's that it should work just as well here too...
Boggles the mind how quickly people forget history.. Weve gone from "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!", to "Hey lets build one of our own, and one in Iraq", in less than 20 years...
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Arbuckle
April 20, 2007, 10:49 a.m.I agree with a physical barrier to protect both sides. Suicide bombings have been on the decline in Israel. The barrier works and it will save lives. So before you guys start attacking the war for politcal reasons, you should consider the lives it will save.
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dandt1612
April 20, 2007, 10:49 a.m.I thought the idea was to bring everyone together so they could live in harmony not seperate everyone or parts of the city. Well with this latest move I'm quite sure that things are not going as well as we are being told on the TV by the WH and Bush gang. Somethings wrong with this picture. (hits TV)
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jovial
April 20, 2007, 10:59 a.m.Mr. Bush, tear down this wall.
"Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state. Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar." --Ronald Reagan
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Charlson
April 20, 2007, 11:03 a.m.Nothing has worked in stopping the violence in Baghdad and Iraq, and I doubt this wall will work either. Another measure, like the surge, to buy some time in our occupation of Iraq.
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fishoutofwater
April 20, 2007, 11:05 a.m.This will be good practice for the fence we build along the Mexican border.
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EsaEngr
April 20, 2007, 11:13 a.m.From the article: "concrete wall to cut off one of the capital's most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it"
And "make it more difficult for suicide bombers to strike and for death squads and militia fighters from sectarian factions to attack one another and then slip back to their home turf."
After hearing so many complain about the large # of Iraqi citizen deaths and injuries, I had hoped that the posts here would support this effort to keep a mostly peaceful area safe and peaceful. But alas, it appears that the only manner in which that will ever happen is for us to do the WRONG thing, admit defeat to al-quida and terrorism in general, and leave Iraq.
The solution must begin with the average joe in Iraq and turn in those that are responsible for the violence.
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camilleyun
April 20, 2007, 11:18 a.m.Let me guess...
They are going to send illegals to do the job most Iraqi's won't.....
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OnlyTheTruth
April 20, 2007, 11:40 a.m.Strategic Hamlets. Operation Phoenix.
How many people remember them? These were two of the "strategies" attenpted in VietNam to "pacify" the country.
They failed too.
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walden3
April 20, 2007, 12:04 p.m.freedom marches on. spreading democracy and freedom around the world.
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lycase
April 20, 2007, 12:07 p.m.this has gone to the point where america can no longer be blamed. we have put in billions of dollars an manpower and hav drove our country to the brink of bankruptcy over this war yet the iraqi people stil will not cooperate. should we hav gone in there? yes they broke UN sanctions. did we hav a great strategy no but the support was there at the time by both dems and republicans so we jumped the gun. if the iraqi people wont help then measures like this are nessecarry to save our own @sses over there. this is to protect the soldiers as much as protect the citizens. i dont want to hear about iraqis complainin about wat we are doin because they said they wanted sadam out of power and now the wont help out wit the clean up. you want something u hav to work for and the iraqi people arent doin that rite now.
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JohnQPublicComment has been removed: User banned.
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espse
April 20, 2007, 1:25 p.m.Who the heck is running things? Do these people have any common sense or any reasoning skills or foresight?
Uggghhhh, let me ponder..... ahhhh... no.
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MajJohn
April 20, 2007, 3:34 p.m.A wall on our Southern border might not be such a bad idea. We are literally being invaded and something must be done to bring our population via illegals growth under control. Actually terrorist bombing has decreased in Israel with the wall. Rockets were being fired over their Northern border from safe havens in Southern Lebanon.
Well, we know who's running things, but as my Dad said, "A blind pig gets a poke once in awhile".
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innocent-bystander
April 20, 2007, 12:35 p.m.US attorneys wronged and no one is sued? US loses war and Saddam fails to pull down Statue of Liberty? Complainers have both angles covered and the US blamed either way. Saddam commits genocide. US does nothing or everything and US is the problem. Beggars and babies cry. Crying is a job. No sympathy means no reward. Dems cry for pork, Iran a nuclear snuggler and Baathists brass knuckles. I digress; East Germany was trying to stop the exit of Communists. Do Some walls are for protection. US stops a genocide of Kurds, topples a tyrant and now ruinings a civil war.
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Richardwv
April 20, 2007, 12:48 p.m.Walls are neither good nor evil, they are a form of physical security and very few indeed don't use some form in their daily life. The intent behind building a wall makes it either good or evil. Whether this wall will help enough is of course questionable. No physical security is perfect or locks would prevent all theft. Is it worth doing? I for one don't know the neighboorhood or its residents so how would I know. However as long as we are in the middle of this, trying something is better than sitting back and watching the strong kill the weak and innocent by the hundreds day by day.
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jovial
April 20, 2007, 12:57 p.m.The Iraq war was never sold to the American people as humanitarian mission. These excuses were used only later on. The original reason was to stop "Weapons of Mass Destruction". Now the apologizers of this nation and the people that fail to open their eyes and see what is really happening successfully (in their own minds), changed the reason to "toppling Saddam for genocide, protecting the Kurds, etc.". Pork has no party. So don't even try to place blame. The easy way to avoid blame in these situations is to stand up for the wrongs that have been committed and attempt to undo them. Staying the course with the excuse that might is right is what we have. No democracy can flourish under such a mass occupation.
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HannibalBarca
April 20, 2007, 1:01 p.m.I think I am going to invest in cement companies:with all the talk of a wall between US-Mexico maybe even betweenUS-Can.and now more in Iraq I should do well.Sounds more to me we are going into the feudal age again.What will we name Shrub;the Earl of Texas or his buddy the Duke of Halliburton, kinda catchy
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quackpot
April 20, 2007, 1:30 p.m.Sounds like a main function of the wall will be a place to hang al-Quaida recruiting posters.
"Shiite and Sunni Arabs living in the shadow of the barrier were united in their contempt for the imposing new structure."
I can see how somebody in the Army might have thought of this insanity, but for it to have gone from stupid idea to actually being build is beyond comprehension. Is the U.S. Army actively trying to alinenate Iraqis?
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Wallyworld33
April 20, 2007, 1:34 p.m.It is sad reading these comments. People that have
good judgements and intelligence. But lack perception
because of hate towards U.S./Bush/Isreal/Big Business.
You can't preceive evil becuase you are too busy making
everything YOU hate evil.
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espse
April 20, 2007, 1:37 p.m.Here's some ideas: Lets cut taxes for the rich, and use the poor to fight a war. Then accuse the libs of being unpatriotic when they want to stop the war. Then pack the court with right wing religous activists who will overturn any law that conflicts with their personal beliefs. Then use gun violence to justify more gun violence. Let stick some small town 18 year old boys in the middle of an arab civil war. Then when they get killed, lets insist that more 18 year old american boys be sent to protect the arabs, who we care so deeply about.
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Wallyworld33
April 20, 2007, 1:51 p.m.First the top 5% pay well over 50% of the taxes, many
of the "poor" just live off the others. Second the "poor"
are not fighting the war. The pay in the military may
be small, but many come from middle class to upper middle
class. Learn maybe some true statistics, instead of
quoting the line of the day. No one says Libs are "unpatriotic" they just say the can't see the reality
of evil and what it can do. The courts don't have religous
activist overturning anything other than made up rights
that never existed, and dictates from other judges. That should have never been law. No one is justifying gun
violence with gun violence. They are STOPPING gun violence
with force, which is the only reality way of doing. And
if you can't see the implications of the middle east, then
you may never see reality.
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walden3
April 20, 2007, 2:04 p.m.walling people up is not gonna win us any hearts or minds. how would we feel if a foreign country did it to us?
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