Americans/Iraqi police search Iraqi blogger's apt. - cell phone stolen

[beachmom]

I haven't been doing any posts from Iraqi bloggers, because the best of them had left Iraq (smart chaps, I would say). However, the Kid needed to take some exams at his university, so he returned to Baghdad. Of particular interest was this story:

http://ejectiraqikkk.blogspot.com/2006/09/iraq-is-dead-snapshot-of-week-in-hell.html

TUESDAY: I wake up, go to the kitchen, and before you know it, just when I leave the kitchen, the house is filled with born-and-bred Star-spangled Americans, along with four usual dirty policemen, they spend a confused two minutes at the living room, while two or three search the nearby rooms, a policeman tries to touch my guitar, while another US soldier finds out a book about CIA and gets unreasonably excited. They find out that Gpa was military ambassador at the US in the 50s and go nuts. when asked for weapons, Gpa whips out his 1950s revolver, they shrug and write no guns; we've already hid all the other weapons somewhere nice.

5 minutes after they leave, I dress in prepartaion for going to college, to find out that my mobile was stolen!

Apparently, one of the police commanders stole it while I wasn't looking - my phone looks very fancy (a Siemens X, called in Iraq the Scissors cuz of its extra keyboard and the way it folds) but is actually dirt cheap, anyway, I tried calling it but to no avail.

Tried going to college but after a very sweaty 15 minutes of walking I am sent back home by a nervous national guard who stops me halfway through the street.
Damn.

WEDENSDAY: I call my phone, a man with a very crude southern accent picks up after several rings and tell me not to call again or he will 'tear my ass'. Later that day, during a series of prank-calls in which we lost it a little, a neighbor calls up my number and tells the nice policeman that we have known all about him and his unit number and we will not rest until we fry onions on his bare naked bottom. I mimicked sounds of a US soldier in the back, the guy was as silent and nice as little girl on her first day of primary school.

Anyway, it was still not worth the trouble of tracking him down, although Adhamiya residents in general enjoy any clash with the Police commanders, so I called the mobile company and had the SIM card deactivated.

Electricity has been absent for 10 days.

So these are the Iraqi police who are going to stand up when we stand down, eh? From this post I have learned two things:

1. Iraqi police are indeed the assholes I have heard about for months -- corrupt and mean with no moral core.

2. What the heck were the Americans doing allowing them to steal? And if they know that the Iraqi police are pulling this shit, that has GOT to be hurting their morale and probably turning them cynical.

Also, the Iraqi policeman is, no doubt, Shi'ite because the South is largely Shi'ite. I'm pretty sure of that. For the record, the Kid is Sunni, but he HATES ethnic labeling and division, so I won't dwell on that.


My other favorite blogger, Zeyad, is in NYC now, so I am looking forward to his report which hasn't happened yet. Jeff Jarvis of buzzmachine.com has met him, but neither have done a post with any details.

Anyway, on this day of commemoriation of 9/11, let us not forget about the Iraqis and American soldiers dying EVERY DAY in Iraq. The carnage we experienced for one day continues in Iraq . . .

[wisteria]

1. Did I miss something in the retelling? Why were the Americans and

the Iraq police searching the boys home to begin with. Are house inspections this routine now?

[beachmom]

2. Yes, they are sweeping entire neighborhoods

If you go to the link, he explains that the Americans come in and go to every single house for a full sweep to make sure there are no weapons, presumably, and then put a flag on their house to show it's been searched. But it sounds like if people are getting items stolen from the police, it's not exactly a "winning heart and minds" moment.

This is part of a big security operation in Baghdad -- still called Operation Forward, I believe. They are trying to put down the sectarian violence by cleaning out neighborhoods. I still think it's a "wack a mole" effort that leads to OTHER parts of Iraq blowing up. I have read some reports that certain neighborhoods have indeed been secured and are quiet now. That sounds like good news except for the fact that this has happened before, only for us to find that when the Americans leave, the violence returns.

[TayTay]

3. Exactly so Beachmom

This may be why Al-Anbar province is falling apart. We do not have the troops to secure every part of Iraq. This is never going to happen. The Whack-a-mole analogy is all too apt.

[beachmom]

4. Everyone excuse my rant, but I've got to say it

I am really fed up with everyone in the MSM and the entire blogosphere - right and left, with how they all decided that Iraq is no longer "news" enough to report on regularly and with the gravity and importance that it deserves. Our troops are still there in danger, but the following things have happened:

The MSM would rather cover Jon Bennet Ramsay, celebrity news, Katie Couric's debut on CBS, and other useless news while our troops are dying. I read somewhere that coverage of the Iraq War is down 60%!!

The right wing blogosphere is completely demoralized by the war in Iraq, so they've decided that calling Democrats traitors is more fun. When the news is bad, which mostly is true, they stop linking to Iraqi bloggers.

(They probably can only link to Iraq the Model, for which one of the authors went to a Cato Institute seminar in Egypt, and came home saying he would rather live in violent strewn Iraq where he can say what he wants than Egypt which has government controls but some semblance of peace. Um -- sounds like he got a BIG gulp of Kool Aid at the seminar -- why is he complacent enough to settle for freedom of speech & violence OR no freedom and stability. Why isn't he bashing his government every day demanding that they rein in the Shi'ite militias! His brother-in-law was brutally murdered a few months ago, so I am completely puzzled by his acceptance of the violence. Oh -- and he NEVER wants the Americans to leave. - okay mini rant over)

That brings me to a critique of the liberal blogosphere. Since they have decided the war is over, and our troops need to get out of there, they are no longer interested in daily events, unless they can throw up a headline of statastics that makes Bush look bad (which is fair, of course, but it's HARDLY the whole story).

Our troops are there now, and nobody gives a shit what they're doing. It's just "keep them there" or "they need to leave". No interest in what they are doing, and that just makes me angry. They deserve our attention! We may disagree with the policies of our government and the missions our troops are sent on, but damnit it all we shouldn't remain in the dark about it. Iraqis certainly do not get that luxury.

(Wisteria -- I'm not picking on you -- this is about the lack of reporting. Your question was a good one)

[beachmom]

5. Since I've decided to make this a dumping ground for any Iraq news

From the WP, showing bad news and proving Kerry's words right, once again:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001204_pf.html

Situation Called Dire in West Iraq
Anbar Is Lost Politically, Marine Analyst Says

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 11, 2006; A01



The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country's western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there, said several military officers and intelligence officials familiar with its contents.

The officials described Col. Pete Devlin's classified assessment of the dire state of Anbar as the first time that a senior U.S. military officer has filed so negative a report from Iraq.

One Army officer summarized it as arguing that in Anbar province, "We haven't been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically -- and that's where wars are won and lost."

Read the entire, extremely depressing report. No wonder neocons are dreaming of garrisoning our troops in Kurdistan (Kauthammer even) -- they KNOW the war is lost.