Baghdad wall sparks confusion and divisions in Iraq (walls continue to be built)

[maddezmom]

By Dean Yates Reuters - Monday, April 23BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A plan by U.S. soldiers to protect a Sunni enclave in Baghdad by building a wall around it descended into total confusion on Monday after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a halt to construction.

Many residents in Adhamiya, a Sunni Arab area surrounded on three sides by Shi'ite communities, had complained bitterly that the concrete barriers of the 5-km (3-mile) wall would isolate them from other communities and sharpen sectarian tensions.

The U.S. military and the Iraqi authorities appear to have been caught off guard by hostility to the two-week-old project. Some residents in Adhamiya have angrily likened it to a barrier Israel is building in the occupied West Bank.

Neither the U.S. ambassador to Iraq nor a senior U.S. military spokesman would say if work would stop.

Iraq's spokesman for the U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad implied work would go on, saying in translated remarks at a news conference that "construction of security barriers across Baghdad will continue without exception

more:http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070423/tpl-uk-iraq-wall-43a8d4f.html

[saltpoint]

1. From a management perspective alone, Bush's occupation of Iraq has

been a bang-up success, hasn't it?

[bemildred]

2. Confusion and divisions in Iraq is not exactly a surprise.

Some people don't think living in a walled compound with guards armed with assault weapons and continuous sureveillance is what "freedom" and "liberty" mean, even though rich Americans like that sort of thing and will pay for it.

[iconoclastic cat]

3. So...the Nazi/Bush comparisons are gross exaggerations, right? nt

[maddezmom]

4. Iraqi military says no plan to halt security barriers across Baghdad

Iraqi military says no plan to halt security barriers across Baghdad
BAGHDAD (CNN) -- An Iraqi military spokesman said Monday that moveable, temporary security barriers are being built and used in hot-spots across Baghdad, but denied any plans to wall off the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya.

On Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that he ordered a stop to the construction of a wall around Adhamiya, a Sunni enclave in northern Baghdad near a large Shiite community. The neighborhood has been plagued with violence.

Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta said al-Maliki was responding to "groundless" media reports that a permanent wall -- 40 feet high (12m) and 3 miles (5 km) long -- was being constructed.

"The prime minister is in agreement with the work of the security forces and the issue of security barriers," Atta said at a news conference in Baghdad. "We will continue to set up these barriers in Adhamiya and other areas."

more:http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/23/monday/index.html

[bemildred]

5. Man, it's like watching the first day of band practice. nt