BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 18, 2006
Too Late For Baghdad?
A Glimpse Of Life, Death, Hope And Despair In Iraq's Capital
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Play CBS Video Video Civilian Casualties In Iraq Only On The Web: More than 600 civilians working for private contractors have died in Iraq. Ray Stannard, a civilian driver who nearly lost his life in Baghdad, tells his story.
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Video 2 U.S. Soldiers Die In Attack A suicide bomber attacked a U.S. military position near Baghdad, killing two soldiers and wounding 25 others. Susan Roberts has more details.
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Video More Blood In Baghdad While the deadly assaults spiral out of control in Iraq, the country's deputy prime minister is in Washington to focus on the future of the war torn nation. Susan Roberts reports.
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An Iraqi boy reacts in front of a burning vehicle, in Baghdad, Sept. 18, 2006. A roadside bomb targeting a convoy of foreign private security guards exploded late Sunday, damaging one of their vehicles and injuring two occupants, police said. (AP)
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An Iraqi man mourns next to the body of his realtive, who was killed in a drive-by shooting, in Baghdad, Sept. 18, 2006. (AP)
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Iraqi policemen inspect the site of a car bomb explosion, in front of the government passport office, in Baghdad, Sept. 14, 2006. (AP)
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An Iraqi man injured in a car bomb explosion gets treated in a hospital, in Baghdad, Sept. 14, 2006. (AP)
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An Iraqi man comforts his relative, injured in a car bomb explosion, at a hospital in Baghdad, Sept. 14, 2006. (AP)
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Interactive Attacks Map Details on the insurgency and terrorism that has continued to take lives since the fall of Saddam.
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Who's Who Iraq Insurgency More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
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Interactive Iraq: 4 Years Later The conflict wears on as the nation struggles to rebuild.
And there it is. Nothing. Some talk about security being better in the neighborhoods where U.S. forces are present in great numbers — followed by an admission that violence is worse in areas where they are not present. Doesn't that cancel out the good? Make it meaningless? It's the same pattern seen over and over in Iraq for more than three years now — when U.S. forces move in, violence goes down — when they move out, it goes back to what it was, sometimes the same, but often worse. "Are there enough troops to secure the whole capital? Why can't you do that, general? Do you need more troops?" No answer. Lots of words, no answers. Who can touch that issue and still hold on to their military career?
"We’re making great progress." More words and numbers. "We have moved more than 100,000 cubic yards of trash from the streets and neighborhoods". 100,000 cubic yards of trash — who measured that? The transcript notes every word the generals have said. There's a line about what they hope to achieve in six neighborhoods in Baghdad that have been secured under the month-long security crackdown, and there, at the top of the list:
"To improve electricity potential to 3,000 homes."
Electricity potential. Potential. Repeat the words. That's what's on offer? Electricity potential. To 3,000 Iraqi homes, in a city of 6 million.
Most of the Iraqi capital enjoyed 24-hour power under Saddam Hussein — that's what Baghdad’s residents expect. Today, they're lucky to get four hours per day. And there are a million reasons U.S. officials can give you for that — most of them legitimate: infrastructure decay, sabotage, poor systems — it goes on. But you can't win hearts and minds with reasons. You just can’t.
And it's hard to understand the impact of living constantly without power when you live on a base or inside the international zone which has 24-hour electricity from generators that never run out of fuel. You might be able to understand it intellectually, but how can you feel the rage?
More numbers:
There are other numbers, not paraded at news conferences. These you will find in audits of the Special Inspector General appointed by the U.S. government to monitor the rebuilding of Iraq:
"That means a lot of sick Iraqis who need help are not getting it." The words echo around the media room inside the U.S. Embassy where the interview is under way. Are there two different Iraqs? Two different countries? Of course not.
But how will you get up every day and risk your life to secure a street, or battle your guts out to protect a convoy or hear the news that another soldier has been killed by a roadside bomb or small arms fire or a suicide bomber? How will you face that ugly reality day after day if you don't have faith that you are doing the right thing? Or that things are moving in the right direction? Or that all those sacrifices mean what they are supposed to mean?
You won't. So you keep believing.
There are new faces at Baghdad airport when you arrive. The cleaners have all been replaced. They now come from Sadr City, appointed by the Mehdi Army militia. Transportation is another ministry under Sadr's control.
The eyes are everywhere. Don't forget — the eyes are everywhere now. Watch what you say, who you say it to, where. This feels familiar.
One night I work all the way through and when morning comes, the sun rises blood red and orange over the city. By 8 a.m. three bombs have exploded across the river from our office and there is black smoke rising in the air, belching its putrid fumes upwards for all to see and know and be reminded that there is hatred here and it can come for you at anytime. By noon there had been four more explosions.
You wait to be next. That's what's changed. It's not like waiting for the next attack because even then you think it will be someone else. Now you wait for it to be you.
There's talk about the north. That is another country now. The Kurdish cities are flourishing and relatively safe. The Kurds, persecuted under Saddam, have never had it so good. The Kurds are preparing to break away. That's what many Iraqis believe. The long-awaited Kurdish homeland is in their sights, and it is just a matter of time. It's hard to know for sure if that's true, or if you should believe the national unity speeches of Iraq's Kurdish president. Time will tell.
Civil war will reveal all.
The Ministry of Interior is going to build a trench encircling Baghdad. That’s the latest comment coming from the Shiite-dominated ministry. A trench encircling Baghdad. "And fill it with oil and set it alight?" someone asks. Laughter. Who doesn't remember what Saddam Hussein’s forces did to Baghdad during "shock and awe." when the city was shrouded in black smoke day and night as they burned oil to mask targets on the ground from U.S. bombers?
A trench around Baghdad. If that's true, then it echoes the words of a senior American officer who said quietly, privately, away from the cameras, that he believes the Shiites in the Iraqi government are taking over the city, hoping to cleanse the streets and neighborhoods of the Sunni population.
President Bush at the White House strongly denies a civil war is already under way. He is not the only one saying that. But no one can agree on an exact definition of civil war. Sometimes it seems as if everyone is talking about the same thing, except it means something different depending on where you sit. And how close to the flames you happen to be living.
It’s hard not to feel this city is already lost.
I recall a voice, strong and smart. American. Someone sitting very close to the flames. "We are in the battle for Baghdad."
It’s time to start preparing.
By Lara Logan
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
There are scores of people being killed and maimed there every day because--and only because--America chose to invade these nations. It doesn't matter anymore whether one believes that Bush and Cheney were right or wrong on either front--or whether they botched them both. It still does matter whether we get the most important coverage of crucial events every evening, and as much of it as we can, from the networks' venerable and once virile flagship broadcasts.
Poor Ed Murrow. Albeit for very different reasons, every time Lara or Katie appears on screen these days, he must go on some serious subterranean maneuvers.
The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
What happens if we leave? The bloodbath continues, possibly for years, and American forces may be required to return in order to oppose the rise of a Taliban-like regime.
President Bush speaks of victory, when there can be no victory for us. We are now just trying to figure out what the loss looks like.
I'd rather real journalism -- like what Logan engages in -- was the norm instead of a rehashed Good Morning America.....
Over the last six years, this Texas miscreant and GOP co-conspirators already have blackened the party's claims to any sense of integrity. Even Bush now is forced to admit he sees no connection between Iraq and 911-- and 911 is the only basis for the AUMF, the original basis Bush claimed to justify doing whatever he pleased.
While the original Pandora's box also contained hope, despite all the evils released, even that hope is denied by imbecilic US policies which have (1) no future except more chaos and a widening civil war and (2) further destablize Iraq, making partition of the country more likely than ever. Bush cannot even keep order in the streets, and never has, visiting a nightmare equal to Saddam on the Iraqi people
JeanKuu17
Who are you to judge whether they are "worthy of freedom"? Are you God in disguse as some racist, uninformed, fool who thinks running off at the mouth to show how ignorant you are, is cool?
- by Syndicate September 18, 2006 3:21 PM EDT
- Perhaps we should let saddam out of jail so he can run his country. It would apear the Iraqi people are not worthy of freedom and had the government they deserved.
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