BAGHDAD - Followers of anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr denounced the American military's construction of a concrete wall through their Sadr City stronghold in Baghdad, the scene of renewed clashes Friday between his militiamen and U.S. and Iraqi troops.
The wall — a concrete barrier of varying height up to about 12 feet — is being built along a main street dividing the southern portion of Sadr City from the northern, where al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters are concentrated.
American commanders hope that construction of the Sadr City wall, which began Tuesday, will effectively cut off insurgents' ability to move freely into the rest of Baghdad and hamper their ability to fire rockets and mortars at the Green Zone, the central Baghdad district where government offices and the U.S. Embassy are located.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080418/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraqDoes anyone see something wrong with this picture?
This just strikes me as imperceptibly stupid even if seemingly necessary. erecting a 12 foot wall across a city, in a country that is already falling into sectarianism and partisan violence is not the answer. It may seem good to cut off their rocket fire, by all means please do something but i hope these 12 foot walls are not the long term idea of enforcing freedom, democracy and liberal freedom for all Iraqis. There may be temporary necessity, but in light of congress' recent suggestion to break up the country into three parts, it is abominable to think that this wall might be a small symbol of things to come.
I believe in many things, and a minimalization of violence is the most important, but even so we need to think of smarter alternatives to 12 foot walls. Next thing we know, America is the best wall building country in the world, a wall on the Mexican border, a wall in Iraq, here a wall, there a wall.
That's just not a satisfactory answer to real issues. People live in this city, people work in this city, i can see a future with border patrols, security checkpoints and long term foreign involvement, a divided city that could become two separate states. This is just a royal mess, and i do not think that this is a smart move. A 12 year old could plan better military involvement than this, it just strikes me as a waste of energy.
No offense to our troops there, none intended at all. I support them, and unfortunately there is a conflict of interests. I personally think that at this point our stay is necessary until the country is established and stable, although i wish this was an international endeavor rather than just a primarily United States effort.
This just struck me as the potential for our generation's Berlin wall, but instead of coming down, it is being put up.
It strikes me as odd that our generation is tired of war but apathetic towards revulsion or revolt. I suppose the spirit of the younger concerned generations was beat out by the war in Vietnam, and the after effects of national ignorance to civil protest. Perhaps we feel like we have lost our voice, or our way, but this should not be the case. I feel like sometimes we allow ourselves to be too easily defeated. What happened to the days when music had a message?
In recent memory, the Dixie Chicks tried that, and sometimes there are political messages in our music, but everything seems jaded, and irrelevant sometimes. Compared to the 60's and 70's, today's music is not nearly as active. However, sometimes it still seems ridiculous to me, that our politicians engage in popularity contests for fame, and our entertainers are our politicians.
I mean, something is definitely wrong here. We are moving more and more as Americans towards a military state, the patriot act, among others, allows certain levels of unquestioned authority to be retained by the Presidential office. The Death of Habeas Corpus is inaugurated by the death of the idea of people as people. Consumers are numbers, voices exercising freedom of speech are anti-american, and our political system is the flawless God of the nation's identity. The greatest sin in America, is our belief in our own innocence as a political power.
I don't want to be too political though, this is not a rant ofr the sake of accomplishing nothing, just a place to voice concerns.
