Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ABC
June 19, 2008 World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: Next to Iraq and progress in U.S.-Iraqi negotiations over a long-term security plan for the country. The White House says President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki spoke today with talks going well. As they hash out the future role of U.S. troops in Iraq, there is a potential success story in one city where Iraqi troops are in charge. ABC’s Terry McCarthy visited Basra.
TERRY MCCARTHY: Basra is a city reborn out of fear. Until Iraqi troops forced out extremist militias in March, this was a city of kidnappings, street killings, and intimidation. Now markets are busy, coffee shops open late, and women no longer have to cover themselves in black. When we met English professor Juliana Dawood earlier this year, women were being killed for wearing lipstick. Now she wears bright colors and doesn’t even cover her hair when she goes out.
[To Dawood] So it must feel like life is coming back to Basra.
JULIANA DAWOOD: Yes. It’s coming back very slowly.
MCCARTHY: Beauty salons are open again. Restaurant owners tell us their business is up 75 percent and wedding guests are back on the streets, noisy as ever.
Three months ago these streets were completely controlled by Shiite militias. Now they’re a lot safer to walk around. That’s been achieved by a troop surge, but not like in Baghdad with an American troops surge. Here it’s been an Iraqi troop surge.
General Sabah was in charge of one of the brigades that retook Basra. He has checkpoints everywhere and his men patrol the streets day and night. Security now, he says, is 100 percent. Like U.S. officers further north, he now has to oversee reconstruction because the local government is doing nothing.
People are angry about the lack of services, particularly sewage in street, which they say is making children sick. Basra’s security has improved rapidly, but unless the Iraqi government moves quickly to rebuild, many locals say the militias and the fear will come back.
Terry McCarthy, ABC News, Basra.
June 19, 2008 World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: Next to Iraq and progress in U.S.-Iraqi negotiations over a long-term security plan for the country. The White House says President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki spoke today with talks going well. As they hash out the future role of U.S. troops in Iraq, there is a potential success story in one city where Iraqi troops are in charge. ABC’s Terry McCarthy visited Basra.
TERRY MCCARTHY: Basra is a city reborn out of fear. Until Iraqi troops forced out extremist militias in March, this was a city of kidnappings, street killings, and intimidation. Now markets are busy, coffee shops open late, and women no longer have to cover themselves in black. When we met English professor Juliana Dawood earlier this year, women were being killed for wearing lipstick. Now she wears bright colors and doesn’t even cover her hair when she goes out.
[To Dawood] So it must feel like life is coming back to Basra.
JULIANA DAWOOD: Yes. It’s coming back very slowly.
MCCARTHY: Beauty salons are open again. Restaurant owners tell us their business is up 75 percent and wedding guests are back on the streets, noisy as ever.
Three months ago these streets were completely controlled by Shiite militias. Now they’re a lot safer to walk around. That’s been achieved by a troop surge, but not like in Baghdad with an American troops surge. Here it’s been an Iraqi troop surge.
General Sabah was in charge of one of the brigades that retook Basra. He has checkpoints everywhere and his men patrol the streets day and night. Security now, he says, is 100 percent. Like U.S. officers further north, he now has to oversee reconstruction because the local government is doing nothing.
People are angry about the lack of services, particularly sewage in street, which they say is making children sick. Basra’s security has improved rapidly, but unless the Iraqi government moves quickly to rebuild, many locals say the militias and the fear will come back.
Terry McCarthy, ABC News, Basra.