Iraqis Find Security Wall is Becoming Real Barrier--Alistair Lyon

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Photo: Iraqi Shiite men take part in a protest against the building of a wall in Adhamiyah neighborhood by U.S military on April 25, 2007 in the Sadr city Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq. Wathiq Khuzaie/AFP/Getty [Wall going up anyway. So much for "democracy" - dancewater]

FROM IRAQ TODAY WEBSITE

"A US military project to wall off a Sunni Arab enclave in Baghdad evokes images of Israel's West Bank barrier for many Iraqis who believe the plan will widen sectarian rifts tearing their capital asunder.Alistair Lyon Friday, April 27, 2007A US military project to wall off a Sunni Arab enclave in Baghdad evokes images of Israel's West Bank barrier for many Iraqis who believe the plan will widen sectarian rifts tearing their capital asunder.

"Physically sealing Adhamiya and other troubled areas may have a fleeting impact on the level of bloodshed, analysts said. But it will further fray the social fabric of a city that has ripped very roughly into a Shiite east and Sunni west.

"'All of this is trying to find solutions to violence short of what is actually required, which is to find a political compromise between all the groups," said Joost Hiltermann, a senior International Crisis Group analyst in Amman.

"'I know the Americans are trying to suppress violence in order to bring people to the table, but I see no real effort to bring people to the table."

"US soldiers began erecting the five-kilometer barrier of 3.5-meter-high concrete blocks around Adhamiya, hemmed in on three sides by Shiite districts, April 10. Their plan is to create at least five "gated communities" in Baghdad.

"Local protests and a political outcry prompted Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Sunday to order the scheme halted, but US officials have defended it and its fate is unclear.

From Lenin's Tomb--who has a trenchant comment on the wall:

"As Simon Assaf rightly points out, the wall is being built around a stronghold of anti-occupation resistance in a fashion similar to the carving up of Fallujah after it was destroyed by two successive American attacks. It has nothing to do with protecting the people that America wishes to crush. There have already been protests about this in Adhamiya, but Sadr has called for a mass protest against this "sectarian, racist and unjust wall that seeks to divide" Iraqis, a hugely positive step. Unity over this crucial battle could ironically have the effect of substantially undermining the sectarian political dynamics supported by the US and its client-regime."