About those gated "ghettoes" in Baghdad
By Charles Bird Posted in War — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The addition of concrete barriers to the Adhimiya district of Baghdad stirred some controversy last week, capped by a negative comment from Prime Minister al Maliki, who likened them to the security fences in Israel. But David Kilcullen, an advisor for MNF-Iraq and stationed in Baghdad, has a different story:
Read on . . .
Two other gated communities have already been established (in Ameriya and Ghazaliya districts) with no public protest, indeed with great support from the population. I was out on the ground in Ghazaliya a few weeks ago, and several locals thanked me for the security the gated community had brought to their district. Other patrols and interactions with the population tell the same story. And people from Shi’a districts that have been "gated" or provided with protective barriers have expressed the same appreciation to me in meetings over the past week.
Why the protest, then, in the case of Adhimiya? Principally because, if the gated community succeeds, AQI’s ability to strike at Shi’a communities, and thus its ability to provoke sectarian violence, will be dramatically curtailed as it loses its base in East Baghdad. Hence AQI appears to have initiated the local protests, organized using cellphone text messages and mass-produced paper flyers in the district. This is classic AQI info ops – stirring up the population through a combination of manipulation, intimidation and fear of other groups. The level of coordination and media manipulation applied in this case is also a hallmark of AQI info ops.
Incidentally, this was probably also the motivation behind the attack on the Sarafiya bridge (Iron Bridge) two weeks ago, around the time the gated community project started. This bridge is the only access from West Baghdad into Adhimiya, and thus bombing it may have been an attempt by AQI to remain un-molested in their base of operations.
The claims raised by the protesters were all false or exaggerated. The security controls are not permanent, and can be readily removed when the situation improves. They do not create a ghetto, since security forces will live inside the area alongside the population, and access (though controlled through authorized points) remains free-flowing. Thus this project does not represent oppression of the population, but rather protects them from insurgent intimidation.
Of course, there is a political downside, one that we are well aware of. But, on balance, given the extremely serious current situation, we believe this approach is valid – as a temporary, emergency measure. Just like a tourniquet, this is a necessary technique but it has side-effects that have to be taken into account, and it can only be temporary. The gated community helps break the cycle of sectarian violence. Once it is stopped, other things become possible. And short-term political and media opposition, whipped up by coordinated AQI information ops, may be the price we have to pay in order to "stabilize the patient."
Omar had a similar observation about the agents who most likely sparked the protest. Fortunately, General Petraeus mentioned in last Thursday's press conference that MNF-Iraq had come to a "meeting of the minds" with al Maliki on the matter. So it looks like, for the time being, the concrete barriers will stay until the situation becomes more stabilized.