Baghdad Today. Quiet. Too Quiet.
An injured man walks out from a hospital after receiving treatment in Baghdad, January 25
by Mohammed Fadhil , PJM Editor and Special Correspondent, Baghdad
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
I'm getting used to it now" -- Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
In Baghdad when it is suddenly quiet around you for any length of time you can expect someone nearby to turn to you and say suspiciously, "Isn't it quiet outside?"
By “quiet” the speaker means that there have been no sounds of explosions or gunfire for a few hours. Those sounds are now part of normal daily life in Baghdad while “quiet” is a state that invites amazement and suspicion. In this city it’s usual to respond to the above question with “Let’s hope it stays like this.”
My Baghdad neighborhood today was “quiet” compared to the last few days; but Baghdad is a big city and a Baghdadi gets to hear about most incidents through TV or radio just like everybody elsewhere in the world. The difference is that for us Baghdad news is local news. For example, today I heard about fighting in Dora where 10 insurgents were arrested; I heard that 8 more were arrested in Latifiyah; I heard that Iraqi forces are now in control in Haifa street. I heard all of that but I saw or heard nothing about these incidents firsthand.
The news also said that many of the 35 suspects who were arrested yesterday in Haifa street are not Iraqis, but more significant than that was the discovery of a large weapons cache in al-Karkh high school, the very school Saddam went to back in the 1950s.
Away from the streets the biggest battle I saw today was aired live on TV — the latest session of the parliament that witnessed loud arguments between some of the MPs, during which the speaker decided to cut media transmission from the hall.
Before it was cut off, PM Maliki spoke to the parliament to explain the goals and strategy of his new plan and to hear their feedback, suggestions and reservations.
Maliki’s speech was sharp and straightforward. He stressed that the Baghdad plan was not directed against one faction over the other. He called it a plan “enforce the law” and said it would use force to apply the law against those who kill Iraqis and displace them from their homes.
Maliki didn’t forget to criticize the media that accuse the plan of being impartial and he asked the local media to support the plan and encourage the citizens to cooperate with the authorities.
Maliki’s most important warning was when he said that no one and no place would be immune to raids. Mosques (Sunni or Shia), homes or political offices will all be subject to searches and raids if they are used to launch attacks or hide militants.
He added that the government will soon begin an operation to arrest anyone who occupied homes belonging to displaced families, and described such occupation an attempt to make displacement a permanent situation.
The parliamentary majority was supportive of Maliki’s approach but of course there were voices that criticized his plans and threw all sorts of accusations in his face. The Sadrists objected the arrest of some of their colleagues. Others complained that the participation of the Multi-National Force is wrong and would undermine the sovereignty of the government.
The biggest argument was when a Sunni cleric MP harshly criticized what he called a policy to target only certain parts of Baghdad (apparently referring to Haifa street and Latifiyah), and said the troops were killing civilians. The MP told Maliki that “We’ve lost trust in you as a head of the state….” An uproar began with many shouting from their seats. The cleric continued his verbal attack and the speaker tried to silence him by telling him he exceeded his time limit. He wouldn’t stop. The speaker then shut off the cleric’s microphone.
Maliki returned fire saying, “You in particular will regain your trust in this government when we send your file to a court of law. You talk about Latifiyah when you know, and everybody knows, that terrorists are right now holding 150 innocent citizens hostages in that city”.
This direct threat was met by applause from the members of the UIA.
The speaker (al-Mashhadani) didn’t like this response from Maliki and turned to the lawmakers and said “You applaud this? The Prime Minister is openly accusing one of your colleagues of being a terrorist and you applaud! This is unacceptable!”
The session descended into chaos with members in white and black turbans shouting at each other. The speaker lost his patience and screamed back “Enough of this sectarian speech making! You will set the streets on fire! How are we going to succeed if we’re divided like this?”
We don’t know what happened later but it seems the situation escalated beyond that and pushed al-Mashhadani to cut the transmission.
These fights inside the parliament always frighten me because they all too soon roll out of the Parliment and transform themselves into car bombs and tortured bodies.
The weird and ironic finale to the whole argument we witnessed is that — after all the tension we saw on TV — , the state TV news line later reported that the parliament approved the Baghdad plan unanimously.
Now it is quiet again. Too quiet.
Wow. Poor Iraq. And the poor Iraqi people. The potential for the greatest gift Iraq will ever receive in their lifetimes falls into their hands and all these fools can think about is killing their fellow citizens. Brings to mind a quote from a bad movie: “this is a g*dd*mn greek tragedy.”
This is politics and govermnment at its best. The fight is in the halls of government, not in the streets.
Nothing wrong with this at all. Lots of good news in that report.
Sounds like freedom on the march to me. The idea is that they have their fights in buildings and keep ‘em verbal. Those who won’t do that — kill ‘em all.
Did they have enough votes to approve the plan out right? I have to wonder what kind of deals were stuck after the transmission was cut, if they were short the votes.
“You applaud this? The Prime Minister is openly accusing one of your colleagues of being a terrorist and you applaud! This is unacceptable!”
No, what’s unacceptable is his support for terrorism. Pointing out that he’s a terrorist supporter is not merely “acceptable”, it’s “good”.
One hopes that eventually the Arabs and Muslims of the world take an honest look at the cancer their culture and religion has become, and then decide to turn their backs on them. Instead we get them continuing to lash out at each other, and more unsatisfactorily, lashing out and blaming us for their failures.
If they choose, or are forced to confront the reality — that is, face the complete failure of their culture and religion, it would be a good outcome for them and for us.
Otherwise we will stop attempting to help them, and be froced into a war of complete annihilate against them just in order to survive their menace. Sadly, this is the trajectory the Islamic/Arabic world is on today.
We still pretend that Islam and Arab culture (which are inextricably linked) are salvageable. We should state clearly and without embarrassment that Arab culture and the religion of Islam amount to sewage which should be flushed for the betterment of all. The sooner we face this, the less bloodshed there will be, and the greater humanity’s chance for success.
So what must happen to convince Arabs and Muslims to wash away the heinousness of their failed belief systems and broken culture of hatred and backwardness? If this uncomfortable discussion doesn’t begin soon, we will leave ourselves with few options — all of them so horrendous that I worry we won’t have the stomach to do them. If this is the path we’re on, then the doom of the planet is at hand within mere decades.
Mr. Doodslag,
Even if your claims were entirely correct — which they are not, though they have some kernel of truth in them; even if they were original and needed saying — which they are not, since they rehash Richard Fernandez’s “Three Conjectures”; even then, perhaps the courtsey due to a host might have stopped your tongue.
Whom do you hope to persuade with this display?
Can anyone get confirmation of what passed and the details???
Sammler,
Since you admit there are kernels of Truth in Mr. Doodslag’s words, but that they are somewhat over the top, whom do you hope to stifle with your comment? Is a man’s right to say what he believes to be True always subservient to the rule of “don’t piss it off?” Must we always hold our tongues because we might offend some group of people who desperately need to review their own hateful discourse?
If Muslims can continually chant Death to whomever they currently are irritated at, and then justify murder of those same parties, why is Mr. Doodslag’s belief not accorded the same deference? When Muslims stop blaming every atrocity worldwide on Jews, bombing Jews and Americans any chance they get, burning Danish cartoonists in effigy, beheading infidels for being non-Muslim, and begin attempting to get along as equals instead of superiors with the other religions and peoples of the world, THEN they will have earned the right to be offended at such speech. Until then, consider his words a warning with significant backing. Reform… or else.
Subsunk
Interesting reporting, thank you.
One English correction:
Maliki didn’t forget to criticize the media that accuse the plan of being impartial
I’m pretty sure that you mean ‘partial’, not ‘impartial’. Impartial means ‘without bias’, partial means ‘biased’.
Keep up the good work.
Iranian regime is panicked
http://thespiritofman.blogspot.com/2007/01/panic.html
So please then discuss the kernels of truth in what I say. Ignore the parts if they haven’t been said properly, but make no mistake: this is the discussion we MUST allow ourselves to have, no matter what the caterwauling Muslims have to say about it…
Our fear that the conclusions we draw will be horrible will be nothing when compared with the reality of destruction we will find if this discussion is not had, and soon.
Islam has failed to uplift humanity. It fails everywhere it rears its ugly head. Arab culture is at the root of Islam, it is inextricably linked with the utter barbarity of Islam’s founder, Muhammad. His actions during his lifetime form the perfect example for Muslims to believe in — for Muslims to emulate.
So where is the discussion about his inhuman crimes? Where is the discussion about his murders? His genocides?
Where is the discussion about his thievery? Where is the discussion about his treachery, his lies, his duplicity. These are things which Muslims celebrate and emulate openly and freely. So why can’t we discuss them openly and freely?
This discussion would explain much about why Muslims hold themselves apart from us — why Muslims will never integrate with the West, or with anyone else… Surely the Buddhists in Thailand are not linked with the lie of Palestine!?! So why are Muslims beheading them in greater numbers?
Surely the hapless people of the Philippines aren’t responsible for the supposed crimes of the Europeans which Muslims often claim as the basis for their anger with the world … so why have Muslims been slaughtering Philippinos for more than a century? Surely fellow Indonesians aren’t responsible for committing crimes against their Muslims brothers sufficient for genocide still be taking place — so why are Muslim Indonesians murdering in the tens of thousands of Christians in outlying islands in Indonesia? Why have the Hindus been reduced to one or two frightened Islands of Bali and Lompoch, when formerly they dominated in Indonesia??
Why do Muslims DEMAND respect from us, and consider themselves so superior in every way to us, so much so that to simply touch us with a common hand-shake would somehow pollute their pure selves, when all the evidence proves to a sane mind that their culture and accomplishments are inferior in almost every way to our own?
Let’s have these discussions. Pretending these things aren’t true helps nobody — it certainly doesn’t help the Muslims to improve their performance, and it truly harms us — we who are the collateral victims of Islamic primitivism and barbarity and backwardness.
Let us have these discussion before it’s too late. Let us have them NOW.
My thinking on this matter convinces me there is no middle way with Islam. This is because Islam insists on this formula. To the Muslim, Islam must fight and strive until it triumphs over all. What happens when a culture which has developed tolerance for nearly everything meets a culture who tolerates nearly nothing??? Is that the face of London today? Paris??? Lebanon? Thailand? The Philippines? Dearborn Detroit?
Islam can and will kill the tolerant society every time, all the lies about Islam’s golden age notwithstanding. Islam parasitically colonizes another culture — Zorastrian Persia — Christian and Jewish Arabia — Christian Spain — and while it eats and digests the remnants of that society, tears through and discards that society’s former accomplishments, it pretends those leftovers and remnants are a result of Islam’s wonderfulness and enlightenment. What a lie. What a complete and cancerous lie.
Islam is the destroyer. Just look at Saudi Arabia, Iran, and nearly every Muslim nation on earth — they practice Islamic genocide unimpeded in most places, having pushed out through Jihad, murder, terrorism, intimidation every other culture and religion — so — if they practice Islam unimpeded in places like Saudi Arabia (Sunni Islam) and Iran (Shia Islam) — which are the two main branches of the religion, and who today possess unlimited wealth — then why are those places such ugly examples of completely retrograde hate based hell holes? Do you think Islam has anything to do with it? Of course it does. It’s absolutely central to the facts on the ground in those nations. To pretend otherwise is INSANE.
People who say Islam has nothing to do with all the corruption, terrorism, totalitarianism, ignorance, and hatred we plainly see in every Muslim nation are either insane dreamers, or complete and abject liars. There is no in-between. There is no middle ground.
I could go on and on about this, but Morton Doodslag has said it much better than I have been saying it for the last three or so years.
Everyone reading this post should not only remember what he has written here but pass it on to others. It needs to be understood.
Because as much as we don’t want it to be true, it is.
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA