The Baghdad Update

About a week ago, one of Col Abbas' guards, Akram, gave me an unsolicited update on the situation in Baghdad. As I was walking in the checkpoint that leads to my compound, Akram was there. He was just back from his leave. After welcoming him back, he said, in his broken English: "Sir, Baghdad so good, so good." Then, while making a motion with his hands like he was washing them clean, he said "Militia, gone, Osama gone, Al Qaeda gone. Police checkpoint, so good". He then pantomimed being searched and indicated the checkpoints were doing there job. Admittedly a sample of one from a 19 year old kid. But a data point none the less.

I've just this evening returned from the IZ (International Zone, often referred to as the Green Zone by the popular press, as opposed the Red Zone, which is outside the wire). I've had the chance to become friends with the owners of one of the largest contractors in Iraq. This company has almost 5000 employees now. The owners are all Iraqis who've lived in America or England at some point. These guys definitely have their finger on the pulse of things as they have multiple projects all over the greater Baghdad area. I asked them how things were in Baghdad. I got a similar answer. Things are much better. The daily body count has definitely dropped. Iraqi and Coalition forces are running operations every night. The rats appear to have abandoned the ship, at least for now.

Admittedly, this information is second hand. I'm not on the streets of Baghdad, so I haven't seen this with my own eyes. And yes, there was a big bomb at book market area today so things aren't exactly peachy.

The long term solution is, of course, political. The prime minister must exercise leadership and enforce the laws of the land fairly and evenly. Thus far he hasn't done that. He must demand that the militias disarm and at the same time ensure his police force and judicial system are obeying the rule of law. That's not happening yet either. The police force is still rampant with militia. The military is better, but is plagued by corruption. It's endemic and part of the culture. There is no sense of moral outrage when a Division or Brigade Commander steals clothing, food or equipment from his soldiers to sell and keep the money. Senior leaders in the Ministry of Defense have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars. It is very difficult to explain the cultural, tribal and societal influences that are at play here. You can't even begin to understand them unless you've been here. It's so completely out of context from anything we know in America.

Having said that, it appears the Prime Minister is moving in the direction of playing with a more even hand. He's announced a shakeup of his cabinet, a much needed adjustment. Here's an example of why: Muqtada al Sadr's political party have a number of seats in Parliament. That entitles them to some Ministry seats. So now the Sadrist run the Min. of Health. And it is hopelessly dysfunctional. Naturally, they put all their own people in key positions, not because of competence, but because of who they are. They also have used the hospitals has places to kill their opponents. They clearly haven't embraced the Hippocratic Oath!! Time will tell if Maliki (the PM) will do the right thing. He's getting a tremendous amount of pressure from the US and we do still have some leverage with him.


Enough idle rambling for now. More soon.