Richard WarnickWinning Hearts and Minds in Iraq - Not!
The propagandistic name of Operation Iraqi Freedom must seem like a cruel joke to people trying to live in Iraq amid the chaos of the occupation and resistance. From Reuters:
Um Aziz is an elderly woman whose three daughters and a son were killed when the roof of her house collapsed because of the force of an explosion nearby. She cursed U.S. forces.
“I don’t want any reparations from the government. I want my revenge from God,” she said outside her ruined home, wearing bandages from her own injuries and a broken leg.
“Let the Americans listen: If they kill all the men, we will fight them. We: the women and the children. And if they take our weapons we will fight them with stones and knives.”
Here’s what is going on while the news media pay very little attention. Mahdi Army militiamen have fired about 700 107mm rockets and mortar shells at the Green Zone in the last month. US infantry units have been trying to occupy the parts of Baghdad within range of the Green Zone, including Sadr City, a slum of three million people and the stronghold of the Sadrist Movement. In the process, our forces have killed at least 400 civilians and wounded 1,720, according to Voices of Iraq. Whenever the Mahdi Army fires rockets or mortars, the Americans respond with attack helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles armed with Hellfire missiles.
In an attempt to seal off parts of Sadr City, we are blockading the residents in their neighborhoods and building a high wall around them. Food supplies are running out, following the destruction of the Al Jamila market, the main wholesale food market. Today, a group of 50 members of the Iraqi Parliament demonstrated against the blockade and military operations in the city (see update below).
After all the talk about counter-insurgency tactics, the US has reverted to an anti-insurgent focus on killing enemy fighters. With counter-insurgency, the goal is to create conditions under which the population no longer supports insurgents. The blockade of Sadr City has the opposite effect.
Both the US and UK have been conducting air strikes and using artillery in ongoing fighting in Basra, where Iraqi security forces are attempting to gain and maintain control of the city. Even less news is coming out of Basra, because reporters have been killed and kidnapped there.
Here is the question that the news media ought to be asking: Have we begun a new phase in Iraq, when the Mahdi Army and other Shia militias again enter the fight against US occupation as they did in 2004? They are stronger now, better equipped and trained than four years ago. Moqtada al-Sadr has already called for all-out war until liberation. More from The Real News (video and transcript).
Remember that the vast majority of Shiites opposed the Saddam Hussein regime. They were the very people who were supposed to welcome Americans as liberators. Now they are telling us we are welcome to liberate Iraq by withdrawing our forces.
UPDATE: Members of the Iraqi Parliament are demanding an investigation of the violations of human rights in Sadr City. The protest included representatives from every party except for the Supreme Council, and the Dawa Party, which are the main Shiite parties supporting the Maliki administration.
UPDATE: Spencer Ackerman comments:
Add this up. A cross-sectarian current is backing the leader of an illegal militia against actions taken by the prime minister of Iraq. Why would they do this? Because Sadr is clearly more powerful than Maliki, and — in, at the very least, perception — only growing in strength. Quick, get Fred Kagan to write that Maliki is cleaning Sadr’s clock!
Additional updates after the jump…
UPDATE: U.S. and Maliki Green Zone forces in Baghdad have been targeted with 251 improvised bombs this month — nearly double the monthly average — as fighting in and around Sadr City intensified.
UPDATE: Next to an end to the violence and the occupation of their country by foreigners, what do Iraqis want most? A reliable supply of electricity. For the sixth year in a row, they won’t get it, says USA Today.
Last July and August, massive blackouts stretched across parts of Baghdad. This summer could be worse because drought has cut in half power generated by hydroelectric plants. Add war, attacks on transmission lines, antiquated equipment, overdue maintenance and local corruption or bureaucracy and reliable electricity remains out of reach for most Iraqis.
