WSJ seeks balance on Iraq: "It was a cool spring night, and beguilingly tranquil."

[ProSense]

BAGHDAD DISPATCH

Iraq in the Balance

In Washington, panic. In Baghdad, cautious optimism.

BY FOUAD AJAMI
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

BAGHDAD--For 35 years the sun did not shine here," said a man on the grounds of the great Shia shrine of al-Kadhimiyyah, on the outskirts of Baghdad. I had come to the shrine at night, in the company of the Shia politician Ahmed Chalabi.

We had driven in an armed convoy, and our presence had drawn a crowd. The place was bathed with light, framed by multiple minarets--a huge rectangular structure, its beauty and dereliction side by side. The tile work was exquisite, there were deep Persian carpets everywhere, the gifts of benefactors, rulers and merchants, drawn from the world of Shi'ism.

It was a cool spring night, and beguilingly tranquil. (There were the echoes of a firefight across the river, from the Sunni neighborhood of al-Adhamiyyah, but it was background noise and oddly easy to ignore.) A keeper of the shrine had been showing us the place, and he was proud of its doors made of teak from Burma--a kind of wood, he said, that resisted rain, wind and sun. It was to that description that the quiet man on the edge of this gathering had offered the thought that the sun had not risen during the long night of Baathist despotism.

A traveler who moves between Baghdad and Washington is struck by the gloomy despair in Washington and the cautious sense of optimism in Baghdad. Baghdad has not been prettified; its streets remain a sore to the eye, its government still hunkered down in the Green Zone, and violence is never far. But the sense of deliverance, and the hopes invested in this new security plan, are palpable. I crisscrossed the city--always with armed protection--making my way to Sunni and Shia politicians and clerics alike. The Sunni and Shia versions of political things--of reality itself--remain at odds. But there can be discerned, through the acrimony, the emergence of a fragile consensus.

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Excerpt from above:

(There were the echoes of a firefight across the river, from the Sunni neighborhood of al-Adhamiyyah, but it was background noise and oddly easy to ignore.)

McCain op-ed:

Today the market still faces occasional sniper attacks, but it is safer than it used to be. One innovation of the new strategy is closing markets to vehicles, thereby precluding car bombs that kill so many and garner so much media attention. Petraeus understandably wanted us to see this development.

Progress for lunatics: WSJ reports that a group of Iraqis have the ability to ignore gun battles, and McCain states that occasional sniper attacks are a sign Iraq is becoming more safe.

Reality:

Red Cross: Iraqi Situation Getting Worse

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS
Associated Press Writer
Published April 11, 2007, 12:54 PM CDT

GENEVA -- Millions of Iraqis are in a "disastrous" situation that is getting worse, with mothers appealing for someone to pick up the bodies on the street so their children will be spared the horror of looking at them on their way to school, the international Red Cross said Wednesday.

Thousands of bodies lie unclaimed in mortuaries, with family members either unaware that they are there or too afraid to recover them, according to Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the neutral agency's director of operations.

Medical professionals also have been fleeing the country after cases where their colleagues were killed or abducted, the group said in a 13-page report. "Hospitals and other key services are desperately short of staff," Kraehenbuehl said. "According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health, more than half the doctors are said to have already left the country."

The report, "Civilians without Protection: The Ever-Worsening Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq," was produced over the past two to three weeks, a spokesman said -- well after the stepped-up American-led military operations in the capital began Feb. 14.

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Female bomber kills 19 at Iraqi police station

A rare suicide attack by a woman targets job recruits. Scores of civilians are slain nationwide.

By Alexandra Zavis, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD — The eager young applicants gathered early Tuesday outside a police station northeast of Baghdad to find out who had clinched a coveted job on the force. But they were not the only ones who knew this was the day the selection would be made.

Shortly after 8:30 a.m., a woman shrouded in black appeared among the more than 200 men milling outside the concrete blast walls of the station in Muqdadiya. Before anyone could question her, she detonated the explosives hidden under her gown, killing as many as 19 people and injuring 33, police and witnesses said.

As the smoke and dust settled, a horrific scene was revealed: writhing bodies, severed limbs and charred, bloodied survivors screaming on the ground.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the mostly Sunni Muslim town, a rare case of a bombing carried out by a woman. But it came at a time of growing friction within the embattled minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

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U.S. Troops killed Apr. 4 - 9: 32

U.S. Troops killed Apr. 1 - 11: 47



McCain says he misspoke in upbeat Baghdad comments


Enough of the insanity!

[babylonsister]

1. Does McCain and the WSJ really think we're that moronic?

I guess if we were to go by what we see on teevee, maybe. Sad.

[renie408]

3. Not us. They are not selling this crap to us. They are sellling it to the base. n/t

[Kagemusha]

4. The man's tour guide was Ahmed Chalabi. So yes, they really do think that.

They take us to be complete suckers.

Is it ok if I take them to be complete suckers, by choice?

[renie408]

2. "Beguilingly Tranquil"? OK, I am going to throw up now. n/t

[Canuckistanian]

5. Ah, yes, cool, tranquil spring nights

The birds chirping. A gentle breeze blowing. Echoes of firefights across the river.

Ah, that takes me back....

[cliss]

6. Yeah, bodies stacked up

are REAL quiet.

= = = = = = = =

You know, that photo + statement of John McProstitute really deserves a thread of its own. People have been really angered & incensed over his outrageous remarks.
Thankx for posting. OF course he's going to retract his statement, the Fool.

[ProSense]

7. Iraq policy 'spawned new terror'

Iraq policy 'spawned new terror'

The British and US policy towards Iraq has "spawned new terror in the region", a think tank report has said.

The countries had tried to "keep the lid on" problems by military force and had failed to address the root causes, the Oxford Research Group warned.

It said Iran, Syria and North Korea had become "emboldened", while the Taleban was on the rise in Afghanistan.

The UK government said the past decade of foreign policy had been effective and action in Iraq was "justified".

<...>

Its latest report said these issues were still the greatest threats, but added that the ongoing war on terror and the war in Iraq were increasing the risk of future terrorist attacks on the scale of 9/11.

<...>

Lead study author Chris Abbott said: "There is a clear and present danger - an increasingly marginalised majority living in an environmentally constrained world, where military force is more likely to be used to control the consequences of these dangerous divisions.

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