Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Philadelphia Inquirer
October 7, 2009
By Chelsea J. Carter, Associated Press
SAMARRA, Iraq -- The U.S. military yesterday handed over the last of its bases outside Samarra, a city billed as a reconciliation success story. Worries linger, though, that wartime remedies like barriers and checkpoints will encourage divisions and undermine hard-won security gains.
Nowhere is the split more apparent than in the half-mile passageway of blast walls leading to Samarra's famed Shiite Askariya shrine, once a flash point for sectarian slaughter. On one side of the walls are struggling Sunni shopkeepers. On the other are their traditional customers, Shiite pilgrims who for decades provided an income for local merchants.
The shrine, ravaged in a February 2006 blast blamed on Sunni insurgents, represents the quandary facing military and civic authorities across Iraq: How much can the lockdown tactics be lifted to restore some sense of normalcy?
At the Samarra shrine, the issue pits security against economic viability. In Baghdad and other cities where some of the 15-foot blast walls have been pulled down, the neighborhoods that sat behind them have been deeply reordered by years of bloodshed between Sunnis who had power under Saddam Hussein and majority Shiites who claimed the upper hand after the invasion.
Few mixed areas remain, and many Sunnis feel pushed aside in the effort to protect Shiite neighborhoods and places of worship. Both U.S. and Iraqi officials say economic growth remains one of the keys to long-term stability, but they also acknowledge that the walls and other security measures remain a significant obstacle.
"It is very hard for us, and we have suffered with this wall," said Abdullah Farr, 23, who runs an appliance store a near Askariya shrine, a major pilgrimage site for Shiites. "The government wants to protect the mosque, but what do they do for us? For our business?"
Many say Samarra has been forever changed by the war - and then by the effort to keep the peace: from the damaged and destroyed buildings to towering concrete walls that block roads, businesses, and homes.
In the business district surrounding the mosque, about 240 mostly Sunni-owned shops are shuttered, blocked off by the blast walls that line a major street to create the walkway for Shiite pilgrims.
In 2004, the city fell under the control of Sunni insurgents, and al-Qaeda in Iraq flags could be seen flying over buildings in the city. Then in February 2006, a huge explosion destroyed the shrine's golden dome and ignited fierce fighting between Sunnis and Shiites, killing tens of thousands across Iraq and pushing the country toward civil war. In June 2007, a bombing brought down the twin minarets on the mosque's compound.
Today, with the steep decline in violence, the Shiite-dominated government has pointed to Samarra and its peaceful streets as an example of what is possible. But U.S. commanders acknowledge those security gains have come at a price. "The concrete walls that are providing some degree of security have a second- and third-degree negative effect," said Lt. Col. Eric Timmerman.
As a result, the U.S. military has advised Iraq on a new security plan for the mosque that would tear down the concrete divide, replacing it with decorative gates, security cameras, and metal detectors. There also are plans now to refurbish closed streets.
The improved security in Samarra allowed U.S. forces to turn over control of Camp Brassfield-Mora. It's another step in President Obama's plan to remove combat forces from Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, leaving up to 50,000 troops in training roles. All U.S. troops are to leave by the end of 2011.
Oday Taha, 36, said he longed for the days when pilgrims from Iraq, Iran, and other countries flooded Samarra. "These walls have destroyed the heart of Samarra," he said. "It has changed something forever."
October 7, 2009
By Chelsea J. Carter, Associated Press
SAMARRA, Iraq -- The U.S. military yesterday handed over the last of its bases outside Samarra, a city billed as a reconciliation success story. Worries linger, though, that wartime remedies like barriers and checkpoints will encourage divisions and undermine hard-won security gains.
Nowhere is the split more apparent than in the half-mile passageway of blast walls leading to Samarra's famed Shiite Askariya shrine, once a flash point for sectarian slaughter. On one side of the walls are struggling Sunni shopkeepers. On the other are their traditional customers, Shiite pilgrims who for decades provided an income for local merchants.
The shrine, ravaged in a February 2006 blast blamed on Sunni insurgents, represents the quandary facing military and civic authorities across Iraq: How much can the lockdown tactics be lifted to restore some sense of normalcy?
At the Samarra shrine, the issue pits security against economic viability. In Baghdad and other cities where some of the 15-foot blast walls have been pulled down, the neighborhoods that sat behind them have been deeply reordered by years of bloodshed between Sunnis who had power under Saddam Hussein and majority Shiites who claimed the upper hand after the invasion.
Few mixed areas remain, and many Sunnis feel pushed aside in the effort to protect Shiite neighborhoods and places of worship. Both U.S. and Iraqi officials say economic growth remains one of the keys to long-term stability, but they also acknowledge that the walls and other security measures remain a significant obstacle.
"It is very hard for us, and we have suffered with this wall," said Abdullah Farr, 23, who runs an appliance store a near Askariya shrine, a major pilgrimage site for Shiites. "The government wants to protect the mosque, but what do they do for us? For our business?"
Many say Samarra has been forever changed by the war - and then by the effort to keep the peace: from the damaged and destroyed buildings to towering concrete walls that block roads, businesses, and homes.
In the business district surrounding the mosque, about 240 mostly Sunni-owned shops are shuttered, blocked off by the blast walls that line a major street to create the walkway for Shiite pilgrims.
In 2004, the city fell under the control of Sunni insurgents, and al-Qaeda in Iraq flags could be seen flying over buildings in the city. Then in February 2006, a huge explosion destroyed the shrine's golden dome and ignited fierce fighting between Sunnis and Shiites, killing tens of thousands across Iraq and pushing the country toward civil war. In June 2007, a bombing brought down the twin minarets on the mosque's compound.
Today, with the steep decline in violence, the Shiite-dominated government has pointed to Samarra and its peaceful streets as an example of what is possible. But U.S. commanders acknowledge those security gains have come at a price. "The concrete walls that are providing some degree of security have a second- and third-degree negative effect," said Lt. Col. Eric Timmerman.
As a result, the U.S. military has advised Iraq on a new security plan for the mosque that would tear down the concrete divide, replacing it with decorative gates, security cameras, and metal detectors. There also are plans now to refurbish closed streets.
The improved security in Samarra allowed U.S. forces to turn over control of Camp Brassfield-Mora. It's another step in President Obama's plan to remove combat forces from Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, leaving up to 50,000 troops in training roles. All U.S. troops are to leave by the end of 2011.
Oday Taha, 36, said he longed for the days when pilgrims from Iraq, Iran, and other countries flooded Samarra. "These walls have destroyed the heart of Samarra," he said. "It has changed something forever."