Baghdad walls.

[madfloridian]

People there are having to live with walls separating them from others. It would be disturbing to me. Walls bother me, especially high ones. Seems there are too many of them anymore.

I know they are for safety, but what we are doing in building those walls is changing the lives of the people there. When we invaded their country, had their leader jailed and allowed his public hanging, when we killed his sons and put their bodies on display on our TV.....we did enough damage then.

Now we are building walls.

Subtopia: Border to border, wall to wall, fence to fence



A picture of the wall being built around the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah in Baghdad. Photo via France 24.

Obvious frontiers like Jerusalem and Baghdad seem like the heads of this massive snake; the critical geopolitical pressure cookers from where the rest of the political climates across the globe are regulated and controlled. With recent stories focusing on Baghdad and the American military’s rogue plan to build a massive three-mile long wall around the Sunni enclave of Adhamiyah, this is as good a time as any to relay some other stories I’ve come across with regards to the seemingly endless construction of a global border.

..."So, you’ve no doubt heard by now about the controversial plan American military strategists hatched to build a massive concrete wall around the neighborhood of Adhamiyah in Baghdad. This, the Americans said, was part of a larger effort to secure the area and prevent terrorist movements within the neighborhood. It was of course billed as a protective measure for the Sunnis, even referring to it as a “center piece” for a larger objective of turning different neighborhoods through out Baghdad into “gated communities” that would by some stroke of miracle stem the uncontrollable sectarian violence.

Only thing is: neither the local Sunnis or Shiites are down with it. Even less surprising, the American government didn’t really consult with anyone prior, not even the Iraqi PM who announced his own total disapproval of the wall and ordered its construction to be halted. Did the American government really think that anyone in the Arab community would embrace the idea of extending a wall through out their ancient city – I mean, given the tantamount associations most Arabs have with the Israeli wall that has literally carved the Palestinian people out of Jerusalem and into peri-urban prison-like reservations?

Image: From 'Gated Communities' For the War-Ravaged' in the Washington Post. Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie (Getty Images).

In 2007 Scott Ritter wrote and article called Mr. Bush, Tear Down These Walls!

Walls, ideological or physical, on the ground or in space, do not, as Reagan noted, facilitate the cause of liberty and freedom. They restrict it. By walling in the Iraqi citizens of Baghdad, by walling out the immigrants who seek solace within our borders and by partitioning off Europe from Iran and Russia, the Bush administration has become that which America once renounced. All freedom-loving Americans who embrace the cause of liberty and justice for all must rally around the ideals put forward by Reagan when standing next to the Berlin Wall, and declare to the usurper currently sitting in the White House: We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Bush administration can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. Mr. Bush, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the United States and the world, if you seek liberalization, then tear down these walls!

AP Photo / David Guttenfelder
U.S. troops patrol as an Iraqi worker rests on top of a security wall protecting the Palestine Hotel in central Baghdad in 2003. The U.S. recently started constructing a security barrier around a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad.

The Iraqi government doesn't want the wall built, but we did not even ask.

Maliki Wants US to Stop Building Baghdad Barrier



Reuters: REUTERS
Schoolboys in Baghdad walking next to the controversial new wall in the Adhamiya District.

"Gated communities"

The US military plans to wall off a total of 10 violent neighborhoods in Baghdad into "gated communities," according to the theWashington Post. The paper added that troops armed with biometric scanning devices might compile a census of residents in each community by recording their fingerprints and eye patterns -- and may even issue ID badges.

In the article from 2007, Maliki says the wall building will stop. I don't know if it has or not.

This article from 2008 shows the wall building has apparently continued.

Baghdad's walls keep peace but feel like prison

updated 3:05 p.m. ET, Fri., June. 27, 2008
BAGHDAD - Baghdad hasn't been this quiet in years. But the respite from bloodshed comes at a high price.

Up to 20 feet high in some sections.

Rows after rows of barrier walls divide the city into smaller and smaller areas that protect people from bombings, sniper fire and kidnappings. They also lead to gridlock, rising prices for food and homes, and complaints about living in what feels like a prison.

Baghdad's walls are everywhere, turning a riverside capital of leafy neighborhoods and palm-lined boulevards where Shiites and Sunnis once mingled into a city of shadows separating the two Muslim sects.

This picture of a woman walking by barriers of concrete caught my attention.



22 months ago: An Iraqi woman walks past concrete blocks that were placed by US military at an area in the outskirts of Baghdad's impoverished district of Sadr City, 24 April 2007. US officials struggled yesterday to defuse Iraqi anger over the construction of a concrete wall around a Sunni district in Baghdad, saying the project was designed to be temporary. US officials however said yesterday that Iraq's security forces favor the project, which is part of the new US-led strategy to restore security to Baghdad with a surge in American troops. Many other districts already had or would have some form of barrier, said Brigadier General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi forces engaged with US troops in enforcing the Baghdad security plan

It has a desolate look to it.

The people of Iraq deserved better than being invaded and occupied by our country. The ones who led us there on lies should not sleep well at night.

[leftstreet]

1. "gated communities"

Yeah, right.

[madfloridian]

3. I could not believe they referred to them like that.

Totally amazing.

[anonymous171]

2. Partition then leave.

Better them hating eachother than us. We never should have even been there in the first place.

[madfloridian]

4. Just one indignity after another that we have done to them.

Sad.

[Mithreal]

5. K&R nt

[madfloridian]

8. Thanks.

I would feel so closed in living like that.

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Didn't the Nazis do something like that in Berlin?

.
<<<<<<<<< wishful thinking
.

didn't Prescott Bush finance the Nazis up to 1951

that's AFTER the war in case ya didn't notice

USA hasn't operated any gas chambers that I'm aware of,

but their munitions are purposely contaminated with Depleted Uranium

which has a half life of millions of years

so the Bushes, in their two attacks on Iraq, have committed genocide that will happen forever -

Hitler would be proud and shamed

The Bush Family is doing what Hitler tried, and succeeding

The BFEE is poisoning a whole country - and maybe beyond . . .

for info on Depleted Uranium

go here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium

[madfloridian]

7. Berlin Wall built later than Hitler's time. More about it

http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/why-the-berlinwall-was-built.htm

"Until 1961 East German citizen were allowed to travel to West Berlin.
Travelling to West Germany became difficult after closing the border between East and West Germany in 1952.
The Wall was erected in 1961 because more than 2.6 million East Germans escaped to West Berlin or West Germany from 1949 to 1961 (total population of East Germany was about 17 million!).

The life in the West was much better than in the East after 1948. West Germany including West Berlin had got financial help through the Marshallplan from the USA. In East Germany a communist system was established and many people had to suffer under repressions of the Communist party.

In May 1952 the open border (Zonengrenze) between East and West Germany was closed by the East German government.
In the years after 1952 it became more difficult and dangerous to escape to the West over this border.
However, the sectorial borders between East and West Berlin were not closed. Many East German citizen went to East Berlin and from there to West Berlin. Once arrived in West Berlin they stayed there or were fled out to West Germany.

East Germany lost too many skilled workers in these years.
Another big problem were the two currencies in Germany and especially in Berlin. West German DM had been exchanged into East German DM at a rate of 1:4 (1 DM West = 4 DM Ost) in West Berlin.
People with West German DM could get goods very cheaply in the Eastern part of Berlin.

The East German government saw no other way to prevent from escaping to the West via Berlin than closing the border between East and West Berlin on August 13, 1961."

[conturnedpro09]

13. Ummm, no.

That was after WWII.

[leftchick]

9. It is the Israeli model

so naturally we will do the same to the countries we occupy.

[Mithreal]

10. Divide the people and conquer. nt

[Mithreal]

11. It is the American model. How long have the elites depended

upon divide and conquer?

There will be no healing of this country until America is out. We should have to take these walls with us when we leave.

Is our President going to continue this policy?

[truedelphi]

12. So many barriers erected for the people there.

We destroy their date trees and olive trees, saying that the greenery allows the subversives to attack our troops. But the greenery also gave them food and sahde.

Now they will have to eat at McDOnalds. <shudder> And of course, our political leaders might well believe it is more civilized to have a happy meal than some grapes, dates and olives.

One executive law they must now live with is only Genetically modified seeds are available these days to their farmers. Ah, American Democracy, spreading malnutrition everywhere.

[deaniac21]

14. The middle east has had walled cities since the beginning of history.

[Malikshah]

15. In comparison to other civilizations, however, there were traditionally fewer cities/towns

with walls in this region.

In the medieval period-- only a few cities had walls-- Jerusalem, Antioch, Damascus-- many others did not. The method of warfare (taking place outside of the city) was much more civilized and less destructive.

These walls are a testament to a completely different mentality being foisted upon the populace--out of fear and "necessity"

More's the pity.

[madfloridian]

16. Many more pictures at this link...Baghdad's walls

http://subtopia.blogspot.com/2009/01/baghdads-post-blast-wall-bibliothque.html