Why the hell didn't they call a curfew in Baghdad months ago?

[Swede]

What a gawdawful mess.

[Erika]

1. They call curfews everytime our military take heavy hits

Then lift them until the next time.

[Swede]

2. This time the curfew is indefinite.

Shoulda been done months before today's carnage.

[purduejake]

3. Or we could lock them all up...

and throw away the key. That should keep them out of harm's way, too.

[Erika]

5. Who, all the Iraqis?

It might help save their lives.

[Swede]

6. And then sneak out when their back is turned.

Throw a parade,declare victory. I'm not being facetious,either.

[Erika]

4. So how long should we extend the curfew?

When we should have never been there in the first place?

[Swede]

7. I don't know,these poor people are losing 100 a day.

Time to get out.

[purduejake]

9. Then the terrorists win.

Unfortunately we lost this war the moment we stepped into Baghdad. We may have lost, but we need to cut our losses and learn from our failures instead of deny them.

[Swede]

10. A story on the BBC said the Brits are hunkering down in their bases,

til next summer,then it's "So long,suckers."

[RagingInMiami]

8. Yeah, that's one way of spreading freedom and liberty

[Kagemusha]

11. They eventually lift curfews because

people need to like, go and get FOOD to EAT.

Note that the place hit in Sadr City is a food market. It's been hit before. It's like a watering hole for people.

[nealmhughes]

12. The main reason they lift it rapidly after installing a curfew is, indeed, to allow people

to go out to buy food. With the current state of power generation/grid, it is hard to keep food fresh. People also do work in Iraq, as hard as it is for us to believe sometimes, the life of the cities does go on, and certainly on the farms.
I would imagine that there is a trend for extended families to consolidate their living arrangements beyond the Iraqi norm these days so that families can all be together, watch after the elderly and children and pool resources communally.

What I don't get is why the people are allowed cars if they are in such a state of civil war. Would it not make sense to disallow the autos to go into the market areas? That is where the bombs are planted, after all, in cars around markets.

Evidently, the government cannot enforce jack squat these days. I don't see a curfew or auto ban being doable unless the US troops set up roadblocks every few blocks, all over the city. We don't have the troops to do that. The Iraqis want to pretend that life goes on as normally as possible, and the government can't even make the lights stay on all day.

It is a disgusting mess is what it is. Unsafe to go to work or to school, unsafe to be a policeman, unsafe to be a Sunni or a Shiite...unsafe to be alive. At least one knew where one stood when Saddam was in charge...and there wasn't anywhere the level of casual violence in the larger cities that now exist, with people taking revenge, kidnapping, and "religious law" into their own hands...
It is a quagmire.