Tried to think of a gutsy title that could bring into Reagan's famous words, but another early day and mind not working... without regard somehow not sure that this is what was intended when we occupied Iraq.. building walls to control violence does not sound like a democracy to me. The only thing surprising here is that Haliburton does not have the contract.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines
BAGHDAD -- A U.S. military brigade is constructing a three-mile-long concrete wall to cut off one of the capital's most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq's most populous and violent city.
U.S. commanders in northern Baghdad say the 12-foot-high barrier will make it more difficult for suicide bombers, death squads and militia fighters from sectarian factions to attack one another and slip back to their home turf. Construction began last week and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
Although Baghdad is replete with blast walls, checkpoints and other temporary barriers, including a massive wall around the Green Zone, the wall being constructed in Adhamiya would be the first to essentially divide a neighborhood by sect.
A largely Sunni district, Adhamiya is one of Baghdad's flashpoints, avoided by not only Shiites, but Sunni outsiders. The area is almost completely surrounded by Shiite-dominated districts.
The ambitious project is a sign of how far the U.S. military will go to end the non-stop bloodshed in Iraq. But U.S. officials said the barrier is not a central tactic of the ongoing U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown announced Feb. 13.
"We defer to commanders on the ground, but dividing up the entire city with barriers is not part of the plan," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said Thursday.
04-20-2007, 04:22 AM
US top build walls in Bagdad...
Linear Mode
