As part of a revamped plan to control the capital the US is embarking upon a course of action that will have a lasting impact on Iraq as well as the whole region: the fissures that the US is trying to create are bound to turn into abyss of unfathomable depth and obscurity to tear two communities apart on Shia- Sunni lines that Devil had ventured ever since the early days of Islam but never succeeded.

This time, however, if the ‘Great Satan’, as Iranians call it, is allowed to go ahead with its new security plans to erect walls within Baghdad to divided the city on religious lines, then all plans to raise a nation called Ummah that is modern in outlook, futuristic in planning, tolerant and pragmatic in its dealings with other nations, just in conduct and a natural leader of nations in veracity, truthfulness, peace and stability are bound to fail. Repercussions of what the US is presently doing in Iraq are global rather than regional.

The plan is so diabolical, divisive and inhuman in nature that Noori Malki, Iraqi Prime Minister has come in the open and opposed it in the strongest terms. Castigating the plan while on a state visit to Egypt last Monday he said, “I oppose the building of the wall … There are other methods to protect
neighborhoods.” Further in an obvious reference to Israeli wall that snakes through Palestinian areas dividing and segregating families and communities inhumanly he said, ‘this wall reminds us of other walls.’ He must have also referred to the wall that divided the German city of Berlin during the Cold War.”

This wall, known among US troops as the “Great Wall of Adhamiyah,’’ is twelve feet high and will be five kilometres long when completed and will have military checkpoints at entrances completely dividing the two communities into separate nations.

Its construction is being opposed fiercely by both Shia and Sunnis communities especially the residents of Adhamiyah. Dawood al-Azami, the acting head of the Adhamiyah council, has said “A few days ago, we met with the US army unit in charge of Adhamiyah and it asked us as a local council to sign a document to build a wall to reduce killing and attacks against Iraqi and US forces. “I told the soldiers that I would not sign it unless I could talk to residents first. We told residents at Friday prayers, but our local council hasn’t signed onto the project yet, and construction is already under way.” It, however, does not stop here. There are 10 other localities in Baghdad whose segregation is on card.

General Petraeus, the so called genius at counterinsurgency has executed the plan of community segregation without checking with the Iraqi government or the local people living there whether they would approve the construction of the wall or not.

This is the curse of occupation that people are made to feel they have no say even in affairs that are the most vital to them.

Iraq is one small chip in the long haul the fanatic in the judo-Christian lobbies in the West, headed by the so called present day neocons in and around the White House, have planned for the Muslim World. After the fall of Baghdad on May 1, 2003, in front of a huge “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln Mr. Bush said, ‘’The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and still goes on,’’ albeit he had already destroyed Afghanistan in the name of peace and security to rid the world of ‘Islamic terrorism’.

Truth lies somewhere else. Conversely what Mr. Bush has achieved is not cost effective and sets to naught all gains he has claimed to date regarding his ‘War on Terror’. Rather, in perspective, he has endangered the world piece itself irreparably by perusing ill-conceived, hawkish and jingoistic policies across the globe to solve the problem that needed thoughtful, perceptive and refreshing approach. The terror had not struck the world for the first time in September 2001 when the Twin Towers were downed by the terrorists, however, it happened for the fist time since the dawn of Islam in 1400 years at the hands of neocons and their cronies in international media in the West that the whole lot of a faith was demonised.

Mr. Bush and his acolytes got it all wrong: they misunderstood Iraq, its culture and its history. The nation had been subdued earlier many times but its will could never be broken. Their humanity, dignity, self-respect and cultural divinity had always remained intact and the nation always bounced back from the worst of the times. This time, however, the nation has been struck at the very roots of its identity. The division of Iraq on Shia, Sunnis and Kurds lines is equivalent to disregarding and disrespecting the very history, civilisation and identity of Iraq. It has really worked for Iraq’s detractors and played havoc with Iraq at all levels.

The cost, in men and material, of Bush’s adventure in Iraq is tremendous, mind-boggling and unprecedented. It defies all logic. Just in the last three monthsabout 360 Iraqi policemen trying to help US commanders to maintain law and order have died. The civilian deaths go beyond the figure of 5510. No one needs to be reminded that last October the medical journal Lancet estimated that more than 600,000 Iraqis had died since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

Now the US commanders in Iraq are segregating different communities from each other to bring security and stability to the unfortunate nation. Instead of curbing terrorists and murderers, an acute minority among them, they are targeting the whole community to emphasize upon the negligible differences of opinion on issues of faith.

The security could have been provided, otherwise, simply by increased presence of security forces within Baghdad. Presently there are only 25 joint security stations in Baghdad that are managed both by Iraqi security forces and coalition forces. This number can be increased by 100 percent. This is high time Baghdad’ s security command and control should be brought under the leadership of Iraqi army that should manage all operations within Baghdad. The coalition forces should remain in the background and provide support to Iraqi army whenever it is needed.

There is yet another critical area that needs absolute involvement of Iraq army and police: management of intelligence. The coalition forces must drastically reduce their operational activities and give the leverage to Iraqi intelligence with local elements.

They can better cope with the situation and penetrate the groups perpetrating, abetting and supporting violence in Iraq. An outsider can never do such jobs well. Even though foreign intelligence agencies have support and help from some local elements, but that support can never be fully relied upon as often it is biased and partial to one community or the other. Significantly foreign intelligence agencies have failed to fully discover the locations of caches and bombs even after the laps of three years. Hence the cycle of violence continues unabated. Further, all intelligence-driven
operations to detain potential terrorists must be headed and conducted by Iraqi forces so that revulsion to the presence of foreign forces is not augmented.

There are other measures such as issuance of weapons to some people for personal security, proper management of curfew time to make it liveable and people friendly, checks on all entry points to the city should be managed aggressively but at the same time smartly so that people are not harassed unnecessarily. Here again Iraqi army's role becomes vital. Entrance to markets and other places of gatherings should be controlled using temporary barriers and other obstacles to prevent would-be attackers enter such places freely.

To provide protection and security no community should be singled out on the basis of its creed or ethnicity. All Iraqis need security and stability to live peacefully. The US must understand that no wall can separate communities in Iraq: they inter marry and are greatly tolerable to each other’s religious sensitivities. The division of Iraq on Shia-Sunni and Kurd lines has backfired and has rather united all parties in their opposition to the US and its coalition partners to forestall this sinister plan of segregation. The writer is a noted columnist and analyst presently teaching at a foreign university  

Information

This wall, known among US troops as the “Great Wall of Adhamiyah,’’ is twelve feet high and will be five kilometres long when completed and will have  military checkpoints at entrances completely dividing the two communities into separate nations.

First Appeared in Pakistan Observer on 5th May, 2007