Iraqis are taking up their own patrols now...

[magomago]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6333725.stm

For several hours each night Abu Abdullah patrols his street in a mainly Sunni northern district of Baghdad - Kalashnikov rifle at the ready - to protect his home and those of his neighbours.

These days, many people in this violent capital do the same thing.

Abu Abdullah - not his real name because he prefers anonymity in the growing climate of mistrust - is a 33-year-old Sunni. He got married in 2003, the year of the US-led invasion, and he and his wife have a two-and-a-half-year-old child and another of six months.

'No choice'

His family, like many others in Baghdad, crosses the Muslim sectarian divide. One of his parents is Sunni and the other Shia.

"A few months ago I never thought I would be involved in this," Abu Abdullah says of the neighbourhood guard operation. "We do this to protect our homes from the militias and the illegal forces."

For him it comes on top of a nine-hour day job.

"It makes me tired. But I have no choice to save my family and my children," he says.

Abu Abdullah has a brother who is 10 years older. In the dark humour of so many places and societies where conflict seems relentless, his brother points to Abu Abdullah's hair - already greying.

"Many people," says the brother, "think he is older than me."

Shia militia threat

I went to Abu Abdullah's district last August when US and Iraqi forces were engaged in their latest plan to restore security to Baghdad: Operation Together Forward. It was the first day of cordoning and searching the area.

The remains of a car bomb were in the middle of a street as we entered but a local US commander said the house-to-house search was proceeding satisfactorily.

The aim was to rid the most volatile areas of the capital of the perpetrators of violence of all kinds so that people like Abu Abdullah and his family would have a better chance of being able to live something approaching a normal life.

In various parts of the city people said the violence did dip. But the effect did not last.

So now Abu Abdullah and his family, and six million other people across Baghdad, are waiting to see the impact of Operation Together Forward's successor - the new Baghdad security plan announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki last month and made the cornerstone of US President Bush's new Iraq strategy.

Does Abu Abdullah believe it will make a difference? "I don't think so," he told me.

He identifies the main threat in his district as Shia militias.

He talks of an attack in which seven people were killed and he says the area is prone to mortar fire from the militias. But he says they are not the only problem.

His neighbourhood regards the police and army as being in collusion with the militias. "We don't have any trust in them," Abu Abdullah says.

And so in his view the fatal flaw in the much-heralded Baghdad security plan is that these same Iraqi security forces will be in the lead.

The only forces he and his community recognise as "real", he says, are the Americans.

So, once again it seems, the challenge for the US is to build the public's confidence in the Iraqi forces that Washington is relying on to assume increasing responsibility for security in the battered and bloodied capital.

But Abu Abdullah has a message for the Americans and their allies, too. If the Baghdad security plan did not work, I asked him, how did he believe the capital and the country might be pacified?

He said Iraq had to become "free from occupation" and have a "real government of all Iraqis".

It is one man's view - the view of a man who describes Baghdad as "my home and my city".

But he adds: "In this situation I don't like to stay. It is like hell."

Amazing for people to have the will to do that.

I want to point out something that I read a lot: MANY families (again, including myself) have inter married because in Iraq they see themselves as "Muslims" more than anything. They are not like the Saudis who have such a twisted view and push the Sunni/Shi'ite divide.
To be successful we have to BREAK the militias by providing REAL security...because the militias only protect their area, and some prey on others.


And one last point -

He only trusts the Americans so as far as military forces are concerned, but he wants the occupation over. We should think about that carefully, especially if we are to salvage anything...which is getting more and more minute. Then again, it seems thinking is the last thing our current administration is doing.

edit:

and Finally - he also calls for a real government representative of Iraqis. The distate for the central government seems to cross all boundaries...its clear very little love for the government exists, PERIOD.

 

[ProfJohn]

I am sure a lot of the attitude towards the Iraqi government is due to that governments own fault. Such as the way they protected Sadr?s army and all.

I don?t know if there is a way to call for early elections, but that would seem like a good idea. Maybe force the government to do something just in order to hold on to its own power. We all know how hard politicians work when their ass is on the line.

Finally, this story does a good job of pointing out the whole ?we want American gone? ?we only trust Americans? thing that is going in Iraq. They want the occupation over, but then they say we are the only people they trust. What a mess.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

If only Iraq had a couple million more "more secular" types like this guy. Then they could eradicate the militias and work on building a real government and restoring the economy.

 

[palehorse]

I like that guy's attitude, but his presence on the streets, armed, only complicates matters for everyone trying to clean up Baghdad... then again, I can't fault the guy for defending his family.

what a crap situation all around... bah.

 

[magomago]

So what we do now that we all recognize two things:

-We are the only forces that can really be trusted across all Iraqis
-Iraqis want us out


How do we deal with a situation such as this? I guess the best thing would not have let the security situation deteriorate from day one TO this.

But we are right here right now. Given those two facts, how do we work around this? And I'm looking for constructive ideas - and potentially the million dollar question.

To start this off - I'm going to suggest that aside from pulling out, we DO increase troop levels....but we move all the troops to the Border points where people cross (no point in guarding a swath of desert where even a car couldn't get across) and clamping down VERY strictly on who to let in. We get our troops out of the Iraqis life, and we severely cripple Iranian logistical support to "unsavory elements" in Iraq. It would be made loud and clear that ANY suspicious behavior would be deemed as a threat, and that the US troops are given full authority to fire their weaponry to kill in situations that could endanger them. This helps to protect our troops, and we don't have to worry about dead Iraqis due to accidents because they are no longer in the Middle of Baghdad, but rather in the borders of the country.
I would hope that also gives the Iraqis the perception that they are not under occupation, as our role is now to be defensive and to try to minimize external influence in Iraq. I'm sure most Iraqis - even Shi'ites - would thank us for keeping Iranians out of their affairs.

Any other ideas working within the context of the two given restraints? Any criticism of this? It sucks to sit here and b|tch about how much we've screwed the pooch without offering alternative ideas. Besides, who knows where advice on the Internet could land up

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: palehorse74
I like that guy's attitude, but his presence on the streets, armed, only complicates matters for everyone trying to clean up Baghdad... then again, I can't fault the guy for defending his family.

what a crap situation all around... bah.

Yeah I know....he could be mistaken as a militia - it may have been thist ype of activity that led to the formation of militas...

but just like you said~ its the only real option right now when you can't trust anyone else but the force that you DON'T want occupying your country

 

[Moonbeam]

Luckily the Iraqis have lots of guns to protect themselves with. Imagine if nobody over there had any weapons. It would be chaos and mass killing.