Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Miami Herald
April 1, 2007
The top U.S. commander in Iraq toured Dora Market in Baghdad, which has emerged from place of violence to a relatively safe gathering place.
By Leila Fadel, McClatchy News Service
BAGHDAD -- Dora Market in southeast Baghdad is a sign of both how well the Baghdad security plan has succeeded in calming some of the capital's violence and how far it still has to go.
''I came down here the day after I took command,'' Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, said Saturday as he stood between a stand selling slippers and a street vendor selling colorful women's gowns. ``This place was shut up, like a war zone.''
In December, only three vendors were operating in the market, which had been repeatedly targeted by bombers. On Saturday, 141 vendors were selling goods, and blast walls blocked the market's main street at either end, walling it off from car bombs, and giving the small crowd of shoppers some sense of security.
Still, it was hardly the way it used to be when 650 merchants operated in Dora. The shoppers were few, and despite the blast walls, everyone remained wary of bombers on foot whose explosive vests can be every bit as devastating as a car bomb. One such bomber hit a protected marketplace in Shaab in northern Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 60.
Sunni Muslim insurgents and gunmen from al Qaeda in Iraq, who've pushed much of the Shiite population into small pockets, are still operating from abandoned houses in the neighborhood, said Lt. Col Stephen Michael, who commands 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, of the 1st Infantry Division. Last week, an American soldier was killed.
Everywhere Petraeus went on Saturday, shopkeepers asked when they would have such services as electricity.
'Market dying'
One vendor watched Petraeus and his guard detail of about 20 heavily armed men move through the market. He lazily fanned flies from the minced meat he was selling.
''The market is dying,'' he said. ``The market is dying.''
Dora is a strategic area for the U.S. military to secure in southeast Baghdad. It lies between the capital and its volatile Sunni suburbs where al Qaeda dominates. During a failed effort last summer, securing Dora also was among the Americans' first missions.
Signs of American actions in recent weeks are clearly visible, as is evidence of previous intense combat. Dozens of buildings have been spray-painted with Xs and circles to show they'd been searched and cleared by U.S. forces. Many buildings bear the pockmarks and missing windows of recent fighting.
In the center of the market the words ''The Swamp'' are scrawled in green and black marker. It marks the new home of a company of men from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry, who now sleep, eat and live among the shoes, fruit and clothing stalls that have come back to the market.
In a briefing for Petraeus, Col. Rick Gibbs, the 4th Brigade's commander, and Michael, whose troops cleared the market, said murders in the district have dropped, as have bombings. Contracts are being signed with local tribal sheiks for garbage pickup -- something that clearly isn't taking place regularly now along the trash-strewn streets. Forty public works projects worth $10 million are under way or soon will be.
Petraeus seemed impressed by the change. He picked up a tube of toothpaste, looked for Iraqi tea to buy, and sat down with Lt. Col Aqeed Najim Abdel Waqed, the Iraqi army commander in the area, for a tiny cup of sweet tea.
No victory
But in a later conversation after lunch at a nearby military base Petraeus wasn't yet ready to declare victory. He acknowledged he didn't yet know what precisely victory would look like.
''What's the shape of a sustainable outcome?'' Petraeus wondered. ``One of the big determinations I've got to make to Congress is can it happen?''
The war is not about killing the enemy, he said. It's about providing jobs, gaining people's trust, learning who can be brought into the political fold and who is irreconcilable, about mending sectarian wounds and providing services.
''The fabric of Baghdad was torn because of sectarian violence,'' he said.
In any case, Petraeus said, it's unlikely that violence will disappear. Iraqis will have to grow accustomed to it.
''You're trying to learn how to live with a level of violence,'' Petraeus said. ``It's not sustainable if people don't feel secure.''
April 1, 2007
The top U.S. commander in Iraq toured Dora Market in Baghdad, which has emerged from place of violence to a relatively safe gathering place.
By Leila Fadel, McClatchy News Service
BAGHDAD -- Dora Market in southeast Baghdad is a sign of both how well the Baghdad security plan has succeeded in calming some of the capital's violence and how far it still has to go.
''I came down here the day after I took command,'' Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, said Saturday as he stood between a stand selling slippers and a street vendor selling colorful women's gowns. ``This place was shut up, like a war zone.''
In December, only three vendors were operating in the market, which had been repeatedly targeted by bombers. On Saturday, 141 vendors were selling goods, and blast walls blocked the market's main street at either end, walling it off from car bombs, and giving the small crowd of shoppers some sense of security.
Still, it was hardly the way it used to be when 650 merchants operated in Dora. The shoppers were few, and despite the blast walls, everyone remained wary of bombers on foot whose explosive vests can be every bit as devastating as a car bomb. One such bomber hit a protected marketplace in Shaab in northern Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 60.
Sunni Muslim insurgents and gunmen from al Qaeda in Iraq, who've pushed much of the Shiite population into small pockets, are still operating from abandoned houses in the neighborhood, said Lt. Col Stephen Michael, who commands 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, of the 1st Infantry Division. Last week, an American soldier was killed.
Everywhere Petraeus went on Saturday, shopkeepers asked when they would have such services as electricity.
'Market dying'
One vendor watched Petraeus and his guard detail of about 20 heavily armed men move through the market. He lazily fanned flies from the minced meat he was selling.
''The market is dying,'' he said. ``The market is dying.''
Dora is a strategic area for the U.S. military to secure in southeast Baghdad. It lies between the capital and its volatile Sunni suburbs where al Qaeda dominates. During a failed effort last summer, securing Dora also was among the Americans' first missions.
Signs of American actions in recent weeks are clearly visible, as is evidence of previous intense combat. Dozens of buildings have been spray-painted with Xs and circles to show they'd been searched and cleared by U.S. forces. Many buildings bear the pockmarks and missing windows of recent fighting.
In the center of the market the words ''The Swamp'' are scrawled in green and black marker. It marks the new home of a company of men from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry, who now sleep, eat and live among the shoes, fruit and clothing stalls that have come back to the market.
In a briefing for Petraeus, Col. Rick Gibbs, the 4th Brigade's commander, and Michael, whose troops cleared the market, said murders in the district have dropped, as have bombings. Contracts are being signed with local tribal sheiks for garbage pickup -- something that clearly isn't taking place regularly now along the trash-strewn streets. Forty public works projects worth $10 million are under way or soon will be.
Petraeus seemed impressed by the change. He picked up a tube of toothpaste, looked for Iraqi tea to buy, and sat down with Lt. Col Aqeed Najim Abdel Waqed, the Iraqi army commander in the area, for a tiny cup of sweet tea.
No victory
But in a later conversation after lunch at a nearby military base Petraeus wasn't yet ready to declare victory. He acknowledged he didn't yet know what precisely victory would look like.
''What's the shape of a sustainable outcome?'' Petraeus wondered. ``One of the big determinations I've got to make to Congress is can it happen?''
The war is not about killing the enemy, he said. It's about providing jobs, gaining people's trust, learning who can be brought into the political fold and who is irreconcilable, about mending sectarian wounds and providing services.
''The fabric of Baghdad was torn because of sectarian violence,'' he said.
In any case, Petraeus said, it's unlikely that violence will disappear. Iraqis will have to grow accustomed to it.
''You're trying to learn how to live with a level of violence,'' Petraeus said. ``It's not sustainable if people don't feel secure.''