New U.S. Solution To Baghdad’S Troubles: A Three Mile Wall

Can a three-mile concrete wall separating Sunni from Shi’ite calm the inevitable sectarian strife in Baghdad? New U.S. Solution To Baghdad’s Troubles: A Three-Mile WallBy Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 24th, 2007The U.S. military is constructing a three-mile concrete wall in the heart of Baghdad, with the intention of separating warring Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.The wall, a testament to the inevitable sectarian divide in Baghdad, is a cornerstone of George W. Bush’s final push to control the Iraqi capital. Work on the wall began on April 10th under cover of darkness; it should be completed by the end of the month.The Baghdad wall has evoked comparisons to the barricades dividing Israelis and Palestinians along the length of the West Bank, or the Berlin Wall which separated the German capital during the Cold War.Captain Scott McLearn, who is based at Camp Victory–the U.S. base on the edge of Baghdad–told the London Guardian that Shi’ites “are coming in and hitting Sunnis, and Sunnis are retaliating across the street.”The wall may be an act of desperation by the Bush Administration. Its construction comes as Baghdad’s security situation continues to deteriorate despite the recent US troop “surge”. This week a bombing at the city’s Sadriya market killed 140 people–the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since the 2003 invasion.The Baghdad wall, which will be 12ft high, is being constructed by U.S. paratroopers. They left Camp Taji, about 20 miles north of the capital, on the first night in a dozen trucks carrying scores of massive concrete barriers, each weighing 14,000 pounds.Protected by tanks, the paratroopers use cranes to winch the barriers into place. Building  continues only by night.Word of the wall’s construction came as the Democratic U.S. Senate leader, Harry Reid, provoked a new war of words with the White House when he claimed the defense secretary, Robert Gates, and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, know that “this war is lost”. Gates, on a visit to Baghdad yesterday, said: “On the war is lost, I respectfully disagree.”In truth, both are mistaken. Iraq is “fruitless nation-building”, pure and simple. An actual war needs actual evidence as its basis; no evidence, no war.Since the U.S.-led invasion, “ethnic cleansing” has increasingly divided Baghdad on sectarian grounds. The two principal parties are now separated only by the Tigris, which runs through the center of the city; Sunnis are consolidating on the west side and Shi’ites on the east.The wall is fencing in the biggest remaining Sunni enclave on the east bank, at Azamiyah. Referred to by American troops as the “Great Wall of Azamiyah”, it is surrounded on three sides by Shi’ite neighborhoods and has been the location of some of the city’s most terrible violence.Major-General William Caldwell, the usual U.S. spokesman in Baghdad, told reporters last Wednesday he was unaware of any efforts to build a wall.”Our goal is to unify Baghdad, not subdivide it into separate [enclaves],” he said.But Caldwell has a problem: an official U.S. military press release from Camp Victory provided several details on the construction.”The area the wall will protect is the largest predominately Sunni neighborhood in east Baghdad,” the release stated.”The wall is one of the centerpieces of a new strategy by coalition and Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian violence,” it added.If successful, the strategy will create a number of “gated communities”, in which American and Iraqi troops control entry and exits. The aim is to make it harder for insurgents–in particular suicide bombers–to carry out their attacks.Residents of Azamiyah are unconvinced, however.”I don’t think this wall will solve the city’s serious security problems. It will only increase the separation between our people, which has been made so much worse by the war,” Ahmed Abdul-Sattar, a government worker, told the London Guardian.In Azamiyah, hundreds of protestors gathered on Monday, shouting slogans and carrying banners declaring that the concrete wall would make them prisoners of their own neighborhood and easier targets for terrorists. According to the Associated Press, no violence was reported.Plans to build these “gated communities” fell into doubt after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said during a visit to Sunni-led Arab countries that he did not wish the 12-foot-high wall in Azamiyah to be perceived as dividing the capital’s sects.The U.S. ambassador said Monday the administration would “respect the wishes” of the Iraqi government.  But confusion persisted about whether the wall would be built in some form. The top Iraqi military spokesman said Monday that the prime minister was only responding to ‘exaggerated reports’ about the barrier.”We will continue to construct the security barriers in the Azamiyah neighborhood. This is a technical issue,” said Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi.”Setting up barriers is one thing and building barriers is another. These are movable barriers that can be removed,” he added.