WP: To the Dismay of Local Sunnis, Shiites Arrive to Police Ramadi

[Pirate Smile]

To the Dismay of Local Sunnis, Shiites Arrive to Police Ramadi

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 7, 2005; Page A13

RAMADI, Iraq -- At a checkpoint on the north bridge spanning the Euphrates River into this volatile Sunni Muslim city, an Iraqi platoon frisked a row of men and rummaged through their cars and trucks for explosives. The men scowled silently, making the soldiers uneasy.

"Of course they don't like us," said one of the soldiers, Anwar Abas, whose unit is overwhelmingly Shiite Muslim. "They don't like people from the south, so when we search them, they make faces at us." Abas and his fellow soldiers were recruited from tribes in the cities of Najaf and Diwaniyah, both more than 100 miles to the south.

Watching nearby, an out-of-work Ramadi policeman chafed at the sight of outside Iraqi forces. "Ramadi people need to be at the checkpoint," he said. "We need to control the city, not have someone from the south come do it."

-snip-
Yet by pitting Iraqis from different religious sects, ethnic groups and tribes against each other, the strategy also aggravates the underlying fault lines of Iraqi society, heightening the prospect of civil strife, U.S. military analysts said.


An Iraqi soldier frisks drivers after their vehicles had been stopped at a checkpoint on a bridge leading to Ramadi, a volatile city in the Sunni Triangle, west of Baghdad. Ramadi residents have protested the checkpoints. (By Ann Scott Tyson -- The Washington Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/06/AR2005050601315.html

[Erika]

1. And we are there because?

This insanity just keeps on coming.

[Miss Chybil]

2. Who is it who finds the worst possible solution to an Iraqi problem

then uses it? Who? Is there someone sitting around the Pentagon saying, "Let's see, it's pretty bad in Iraq right now. What can we do to make it worse?"

[neuvocat]

3. Now there's some gasoline for a house fire, huh?

[ananda]

4. ananda's astute political prediction

Travel to, from, and through Ramadi will be severely restricted by suicide and roadside bombs, an increase of troops and armored vehicles, and fewer sideline excursions by wayfarers and vacationers seeking that special home away from home. Thus, people in Ramadi will find themselves trying to live on religion and dust, finding it a test of their unshakeable faith in Allah and their belief that the ousting of Saddam was a "good thing." They will also remain forever thankful that democracy has come to Iraq so they could vote in the election that has made all of their trials and tribulations possible because, as we all know and Bush has told us, God wants freedom and democracy for everyone, including our darkskinned friends, the Iraqis.

ananda

[LynnTheDem]

5. SOMEbody sure wants a full-blown war.

And guess who's gonna be the sandwich filling?