Escalating an Anniversary
April 9, 2007
Four years ago today, U.S.-led coalition
forces marched into Baghdad and toppled the statue of Saddam
Hussein, marking the "liberation" of Iraq. "The Americans call the 9th of April the liberation of Baghdad," said
one man who identified himself as Alaa, "but it was just
an invasion, and liberated the city from Saddam for them, not for us." In a harsh condemnation of the U.S.'s mismanagement of
Iraq, former Iraqi government minister Ali Allawi writes, "The corroded and
corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded,
inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order." Symbolic of
the nation's current lack of security, the cities of Baghdad and Najaf have
declared bans on vehicle traffic today in an attempt to stave off any attacks on
the anniversary. Tens of
thousands draped themselves in Iraqi flags and marched through the streets
of two Shiite holy cities Monday in a demonstration against the U.S. presence in
Iraq. Salah al-Obaydi, an organizer of the protest, said, "We're hoping that by
next year's anniversary, we will be an
independent and liberated Iraq with full sovereignty." The Center for
American Progress has a plan to
accomplish that, and do so in a responsible way that serves the security
interests of both the U.S. and the Iraqis.
The escalation strategy has not cut down on the violence, it has just moved it around. The escalation strategy, which officially
began on
Feb. 14 and sent 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, has shown "little
sign" of "accomplishing
its main purpose: to create an island of stability in which Sunni Arabs,
Shiite Arabs and Kurds can try to figure out how to run the country together.
... The rate of American deaths in [Baghdad] over the first seven weeks of the
security plan has nearly doubled from the previous period, though it has stayed
roughly the same over all, decreasing in other parts of the country as troops
have focused on the capital." Because of the escalation, "death
squad killings have been reduced in Baghdad, but car bombings in the city
have continued and violence has surged in the regions just outside the
capital."
Terrorists in Iraq have adopted new tactics in response to
the U.S.'s escalation. Last week, the U.S. military confirmed that an
Army helicopter went down south of Baghdad, marking at least
nine U.S. helicopters that have crashed or been brought down by hostile fire
this year in Iraq. Also, this weekend, "a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq suicide
bomber smashed a truck loaded with TNT and toxic chlorine gas into a police
checkpoint in Ramadi on Friday, killing at least 27 people -- the
ninth such attack since the group's first known use of a chemical weapon in
January." "January and February were particularly bad
months for car bombing deaths; nearly 1,100 were killed in February alone.
That number dropped to 783 in March, still high compared with months earlier in
the war, according to an American military official. But the overall number of
bombings actually increased: there were 108 car bombs that either detonated or
were disarmed in March, a record for the war."
Prominent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr still represents a significant threat to American forces and Iraqi security. Sadr exhorted Iraqi
security forces on Sunday to unite
with his militiamen against the American military. Sadr, who has laid low during
the troop surge, urged his militia members to "stop
fighting and killing because that is what our enemy and your enemy and even
God's enemy hope for." The head of his bloc in the Iraqi parliament, Nassar
Rubaie, insisted that the movement was committed to nonviolent
resistance. "We are now at the stage of political action," Rubaie said.
"Peaceful means is the right way and has proved to be correct." Sadr's own words belie such a reading of his
motivations. Describing the U.S. as the "archenemy,"
Sadr urged Iraq's army and police to remain independent of U.S. forces and to
avoid being "drawn after the occupier, because he
is your stark enemy." "Sadr’s statement did not explicitly call for armed
struggle against the Americans, but it still represented his most
forceful condemnation of the American-led occupation since he went
underground after the start of an intensified Baghdad security crackdown nearly
two months ago."
