U.S. walls off Baghdad neighborhood
By THOMAS WAGNER, AP
BAGHDAD - U.S. soldiers are building a three-mile wall to protect a Sunni Arab enclave surrounded by Shiite neighborhoods in a Baghdad area "trapped in a spiral of sectarian violence and retaliation," the military said.
When the wall is finished, the minority Sunni community of Azamiyah, on the eastern side of the Tigris River, will be gated, and traffic control points manned by Iraqi soldiers will be the only entries, the military said.
It said the concrete wall, including barriers as tall as 12 feet, "is one of the centerpieces of a new strategy by coalition and Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian violence" in Baghdad.
As work continued Friday, the day of worship in mostly Muslim Iraq, several Sunnis living in Azamiyah welcomed the effort to improve their security, but said the wall was another sign of the deep hostility between Sunnis and Shiites.
"It is good from one hand to curb violence and have control of terrorists. But it's bad on the other hand to be separated from others. We should live in one area like brothers, not be separated from one another," said Bashar Abdul Latif, a 45-year-old teacher.
"I don't think this wall will solve the city's serious security problems," said Ahmed Abdul-Sattar, 35, a government worker. "It will only increase the separation between our people, which has been made so much worse by the war."
The first Administration to see the need to wall the United States off from our neighbors to the north and south, all the while pushing forward with a plan to build a huge superhighway straight from our Mexican border into the heart of the Midwest, is building a wall in Baghdad. Divide and conquer. Make darn sure that the Iraqi people have no shred of a chance to form a cohesive nation.
Funny, they didn't need any walls before we got there...
*read the whole article here
**crossposted at The Gypsy's Caravan
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We've borrowed a page from the Israeli handbook, "How to get along with your neighbors."
Posted by: mirth | April 20, 2007 at 01:57 PM
The man is wall crazy. Well come to think of it - he is just plain ol' crazy, in a dangerous kind of way.
Posted by: PeacechickMary | April 20, 2007 at 06:23 PM
Bush has no idea on how to manage anything. The man probably needs daily instructions on how to properly brush his teeth!
Posted by: The Fat Lady Sings | April 20, 2007 at 06:50 PM
It gets more horrifying by the day. He's making me hate him. I hate it when I harbor hate, but I can't help it anymore. My heart just breaks for all the pawns in his sick game.
Posted by: blondesense liz | April 20, 2007 at 07:17 PM
Looks like they've taken a cue from Israel and their security wall. The surge is working!
Posted by: Comandante Agi | April 20, 2007 at 11:24 PM
I was thinking Berlin, my own self.
Posted by: Diva Jood | April 21, 2007 at 07:23 PM