BAGHDAD, April 28, 2007
West Baghdad Walls Cause Murders To Plunge
Barriers Dividing Warring Neighborhoods Cause Homicides To Drop From 275 Per Week To 10
-
Play CBS Video Video Walls For Security In Baghdad West Baghdad has now become a safer place. U.S. troops have found an effective way of keeping murder rates down, they build walls. Mark Strassmann has details.
-
(CBS)
-
Photo Essay Iraq In Pictures A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
-
Interactive Iraq: 4 Years Later The conflict wears on as the nation struggles to rebuild.
-
Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
Col. J.B. Burton has the job of protecting 1 million people there.
His soldiers put down miles of concrete barriers along highways and community entrances to block carloads of al Qaeda thugs from attacking neighborhoods here called "mulhallas."
"Well they were just getting off the highway, and then exiting the highway back into these mulhallas, where they can prosecute their campaign of terror," Col. Burton said.
If good fences can make good neighbors, then in Baghdad, good walls can help make safer neighborhoods. Across West Baghdad, since these walls were put in place last November, the homicide rate has dropped from 275 a week to just ten a week.
It sounds like progress. Good news. Something everyone could agree on.
But not in Baghdad, which is more and more becoming walled off like a medieval city.
In an area called Adamiyah, a new wall will separate warring neighborhoods, one Sunni Muslim, the other Shia. The area is so dangerous that U.S. troops can build the wall only at night. The wall is 12 feet high, three miles long.
Not all residents are pleased with the addition.
“It never will keep us safe,” says Quammer Al-Jabbi, an Adamiyah resident.
Al-Jabbi worries she'll be trapped in her Adamiyah neighborhood — with all the terrorists already dug in there.
"When I go inside my home, I never think that I will go out."
In West Baghdad, where the walls are lower, and people feel safer, most accept the disruption.
One resident says through a translator, “Thank you. Thank you for God.”
"All of this stuff is meant to be temporary in nature, until the security situation is to a level that is acceptable to the people of Iraq," says Col. Burton.
But security is nowhere near acceptable. So walls here are everywhere and the city is more divided than ever.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
More From CBS Evening News
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
... - 6
- next
See all 102 CommentsI can only agree. If not for the vast oil reserves they'd be like Africa and Mexico. There was something about that in Revelation, lakes under the sand...
Anyhow, with my limited knowledge of our righteous place in the Directors plans,
I still vote;
Bring our troops home now!!! Lord hep US please.
And give our leaders reasons to follow Your truths.
Mark Strassmann (author), I would say that your credibility has 'plunged', with this shameless piece of yellow journalism, but it is not clear whether or not you ever had any.
Re: "Al-Qaida is in Iraq. General Petraeus said that yesterday. They have all the evidence."
Would they mind sharing a shred of it with the rest of us, because otherwise, this looks like more unsubstantiated hype, aimed at masking his coward's war crimes and defeat!
I have little doubt that 'al-CIA'da' is in Iraq, but 'sl-Qaeda-in-Iraq'? Nonsense.
April 26,2007
'Can you imagine in the middle of World War II the Congress mandating the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Europe and the Pacific, oblivious to the facts on the ground or the absolute necessity to win? Can you even imagine in the middle of the Cold War if Congress had required the withdrawal of troops from the same parts of the world,thinking that if we withdrew our troops, the Communists would do the same and peace would prevail?
If earlier Congresses had done what it appears this Congress is trying to do, freedom would have died in Europe, it would have died where it was in Asia, and who knows what would have happened in the future in America.
There are those who say this isn't a world war; it is a civil war; it is over there, and we can't do anything about it. This is a tough time, there is no question. Every one of us grieves when we see the killing of innocent people, Iraqis or Americans. But make no mistake about it, this is a world war. Al-Qaida is in Iraq. General Petraeus said that yesterday. They have all the evidence. They know what al-Qaida is doing there. They are attacking Americans. They are attacking Iraqis. They are trying to take over Iraq so they will have the capability to spread their terrorism throughout the world.'
Well...should we build it? LOL
Posted by OldThought
Where are you getting the 60% figure from? That is higher than Palestinian territories and the neighboring nations in the middle east which have one of the highest levels living below poverty.We do need to take care of our own, no argument with your premise.
Posted by Jebby_One
Read Intrepid it is about WWII and prior to WWII. Rooselvelt wanted in the war prior to the bombing at Pearl Harbor.The Berlin Wall united or the people of Germany finally set aside their differences? You mention Cambodia but fail to mention Darfur. Who is looking after the 200,000 that have been killed or the millions that have fled? Neither the Democrats or Republicans or anyone else.
Posted by Jebby_One
The current proposed legislation that is headed for Bush desk is not the end to the Iraq war. It is political grandstanding on part of the new congress.If the congress truly wanted to leave Iraq they would have the necessary votes and would halt funding with no strings attached. As the bill itself does not have the necessary votes and has conditions upon the funding it will be vetoed and the congress will eventually give the President what he wants. Have you seen increase support for the bill in congress from its original concept?
----------------------
The Berlin Wall united Germany by keeping East-West European political systems from killing one another before cooler heads prevailed.
The problem is that Democrats don't seem to mind mass killings. They sat back and did nothing while Europe was exterminating its Jewish population; they sat back and did nothing while 2 MILLION Cambodians were being slaughtered ...
You seem like the type who would be happy to have a right wing religious dictatorship here in our country.
Posted by ronin10
anyone ever tell you how lame you are?
consider it done
if somethings ignorant, i am going to call it ignorant no matter where its from, if it came from your mouth, so be it
Posted by rharrin1
Well, I know you nutjobs sit there posting that walls dont work on a report that states unemphatically that they do.
that must be the moron in that hole your looking at, cause simple words like you use just dont mean anything when they have no meaning
Posted by ronin10
What, is the supposed to be an insult? Mockery?
Or just the same ole iggerunt stuff you tow in off the street...
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
... - 6
- next
See all 102 Comments