Issue 275

The true intention of the US occupation of Iraq, has been exposed once more with the construction of a so-called security wall “around Sunni districts that are surrounded by Shia areas.”

The move is being presented to the world as protecting the Sunni’s from the Shiite, and preventing the Iraqi born “insurgents” from attacking the US occupation and their fellow band of squatters.

John Campbell, the US deputy commanding general in Baghdad has claimed: “the intent is not to divide the city along sectarian lines. The intent is to provide a more secured neighborhood for people who live in selected neighborhoods".

The US plan to establish a 5-kilometer-long, 3.7-meter-high concrete wall, which according to Pepe Escobar of the Asia Times is “being erected in haste by the 407th Brigade support battalion of the famed 82nd Airborne Division, currently based in sprawling Camp Taji, north of Baghdad.”

Escobar claims “It's being built, Dubai-style, by semi-slave labor - underpaid Iraqi crews, although the engineers and the cranes are all-American.” It can only be described as “the first installment of The Baghdad gulag (Asia Times Online, April 14), apartheid in Mesopotamia, or Balkanization with Arabic subtitles.”

The construction of the wall in Adhamiya has been met with resistance by people who actually live in the country, with the Association of Muslim Scholars reporting of demonstrations by local residents. Surveys which have been conducted in the area have also revealed that over 90% of Adhamiya residents are against the wall, with opposition also coming from the areas provincial council.

Those who seem to think that the rivers Tigress and Euphrates are flowing with gold at the end of a dubious rainbow, are the USA, who according to the Washington Post have made "modest progress" inside of Iraq but have “also been met with setbacks.”

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said in an interview that "We have certainly pulled neighborhoods back from the brink," and refers to the wall which separates communities off from each other as “the concrete caterpillar"." Iraq is going to have to learn – as did, say, Northern Ireland – to live with some degree of sensational attacks.” Petraeus said on the 22/4/07.

The Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) reported on the 23/4/07, that “Experts and the local population believe the building of the barriers, rather than decreasing violence, will increase the division of the country according to sect, and as such delay any peace process.”

According to one spokesperson for the Islamic Army: "They want to divide the country by sects and also they have this idea that by isolating districts it will make it easier to catch Muslim fighters. The government is deeply wrong because it will just make us stronger."

A similar claim has also been made by the Ba’ath Party, who said in a statement, “The fundamental objective for building the wall is to divide Baghdad along sectarian lines” but go on to further claim that “Succeeding to build a wall in Al Adhamya will encourage the Occupation to build other walls in the liberated areas of Baghdad, such as al Fadhl, Al Amyria, Al Dawra, the University neighborhood, Haifa street and others“.

This frustrated kick of the US occupation has come only weeks after a suicide bomber blew up three members of the Iraqi government in the so-called fortified Green Zone and a failed “surge” which was meant to help the US installed “Iraqi government” establish greater security in the fight against the Iraqi resistance.

The Asia Times have reported that over “Sixty percent of all Iraqis think the US controls everything in Iraq ”. Quite clearly then, all “good intentions” from the occupiers are paving the road to hell, as recent polls also indicate the majority of Iraqis are against the occupation, which includes the majority of the countries Sunni residents and those in the areas ear-marked by the US as “selected neighborhoods”.

Hussein Al-alak is member of The Iraq Solidarity Campaign ( UK), member of the BRussells Tribunal Advisory Committee.

Source: Global Research

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