Iraq: The Government Rules Only in the Capital

[G_j]

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/election/2004/0722capital.htm

The Government Rules Only in the Capital
By Robert Fisk
Independent
July 22, 2004

For mile after mile south of Baghdad yesterday, the story was the same: empty police posts, abandoned Iraqi army and police checkpoints and a litter of burnt-out American fuel tankers and rocket-smashed police vehicles down the main highway to Hillah and Najaf. It was Afghanistan Mk2.

Iraqi government officials and Western diplomats tell journalists to avoid driving out of Baghdad; now I understand why. It is dangerous. But my own fearful journey far down Highway 8 - scene of the murder of at least 15 Westerners - proved that the US-appointed Iraqi government controls little of the land south of the capital. Only in the Sunni Muslim town of Mahmoudiya - where a car bomb exploded outside an Iraqi military recruiting centre last week - did I see Iraqi policemen.

They were in a convoy of 11 battered white pick-ups, pointing Kalashnikovs at the crowds around them, driving on to the wrong side of the road when they became tangled in a traffic jam, screaming at motorists to clear their path at rifle point. This was not a frightened American column - this was Iraq's own new blue-uniformed police force, rifles also directed at the windows of homes and shops and at the crowd of Iraqis which surged around them. In Iskanderia, I saw two gunmen near the road. I don't know why they bothered to stand there. The police had already left their post a few metres away.

Yes, it is a shameful reflection on our invasion of Iraq - let us solemnly remember "weapons of mass destruction" - but it is, above all, a tragedy for the Iraqis. They endured the repulsive Saddam. They endured our shameful UN sanctions. They endured our invasion. And now they must endure the anarchy we call freedom. In Baghdad, of course, it was the usual story yesterday; a suicide bomber killing 15 Iraqis and wounding another 62 when he blew up his fuel tanker bomb next to a police station (pictured above), and an Iraqi defence ministry official murdered outside his home. And true to the Alice-in-Wonderland world of the new Iraqi government, 43 new Iraqi ambassadors were appointed around the world. But who did they represent? Iraq? Or just Baghdad?

..more..

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Ditto for Afghanistan.

[G_j]

2. good point n/t

[TrustingDog]

3. exactly exactly, deju vu all over again.

good cripes.
I am getting so SICK of all this, even being as jaded as I am. It's a new fresh hell pile of crap every time newly.

[DulceDecorum]

5. No fair

How come the Feds get to rule more than Washington DC?

[Solly Mack]

4. When my husband was preparing to leave Al-diwaniya, his Iraqi

friend, the actual city (read:tribal/family) leader, told my husband that (after they left) "No one else will be accepted"

and the attacks on Al-diwaniya began just days after his company pulled out.

[G_j]

7. scary

can't turn back the clock..

as I heard some journalist comment: 'demons have been unleashed that can't be put back in the bottle.'

[Rowdyboy]

6. But we've won the war, right?

They welcomed us with flowers and song...

[liveoaktx]

8. Here's the audio

Fisk

[G_j]

9. cool thanks! n/t

[G_j]

10. a kick for "stabilized" Iraq

:bounce: