Baghdad's Agony
The top American commander in Iraq says the new security plan 'will take months, not days, not weeks'
Baghdad—As one of the season's first sandstorms began to turn the skies of Baghdad brown last Wednesday, a car bomb went off during the lunch hour. Three more bombs followed in the next six hours, in all killing more than 150 Iraqis and wounding some 200 others on one of the bloodiest days in the four years since the United States invaded to topple Saddam Hussein. Most of that grisly toll occurred in a parking area for the large Sadriya market—a location that was newly vulnerable after residents turned away recent steps to prevent just such an attack.
This wasn't the first time bombers struck the busy, largely Shiite enclave. The market itself had been devastated (and some 137 people killed) early this year by a suicide truck bomber. In a show of support, the new commander of the U.S.-led coalition forces, Gen. David Petraeus, made a point of visiting the market and mingling with shoppers soon after his arrival in February. As part of the new Baghdad security plan—which Petraeus helped design and is in charge of implementing—large concrete barriers were brought in to restrict access to the parking area after a military "red team" determined that area too was vulnerable. But on April 15, three days before the deadly attack, Iraqi officials ordered the 12-foot "Texas barriers" pulled away after local residents complained about the obstruction.
In a lengthy interview with U.S. News a day after the bombings, Petraeus grimly lamented the loss of life and said that restrictive measures such as the concrete walls are a necessary part of security provisions. "The public has to put up with the inconvenience," he said. His calls for Iraqis to persevere were echoed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who arrived later in the day and visited the western Anbar province, where months of tribal negotiations and new tactics have brought a glimmer of hope. Once the Wild West hotbed of the Sunni unrest, insurgent violence in Anbar has dropped as Sunni tribes have formed a local council and sent recruits to join the regular police and new ad-hoc militias called "emergency response units."
Withholding judgment. This week, Petraeus is scheduled to make his first comprehensive report to Congress on the implementation of the so-called surge strategy. He will face a Congress deeply divided over Iraq, with Democratic leaders doubtful about the prospects for success and headed for a showdown with President Bush over setting a troop withdrawal deadline. Using a formulation he is likely to employ in testifying to Congress, Petraeus said it is too soon to make any judgment about how many troops will be needed and for how long. "It will be another two months before all the troops are on the ground," he said. "We only have 60 percent of the troops in place. There has been some progress, but it will take months, not days, not weeks." And, he added, "at the end of the day it will require Iraqi political steps to foster reconciliation among Iraqis."
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