U.S. officials signaled Monday that they might reconsider putting a three-mile concrete barrier around a Sunni Arab neighborhood in Baghdad after Iraq's struggling prime minister came under pressure from Sunnis and ordered the project halted.Totally...
With the latest snag in U.S.-Iraqi security cooperation, insurgents delivered a fresh example of the style of attacks that the military said the wall was designed to deter — seven bombings that killed at least 48 people across Iraq.
Plans for the separation barrier to protect the Azamiyah neighborhood were in doubt after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized the idea of creating "gated communities" to separate Baghdad's sectarian neighborhoods.
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Azamiyah's Sunni residents have been the target of frequent mortar attacks by Shiite militants, but hundreds of people in the district took to the streets to protest against the wall that they said would make their neighborhood "a big prison."
The new American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, defended the barrier plan Monday, saying it was an effort to protect the Sunni community from surrounding Shiite areas, not to segregate it.
Holding his first news conference since taking his post, Crocker said security measures were implemented in coordination with the Iraqi government. "Obviously, we will respect the wishes of the government and the prime minister," he said, although he did not say construction would halt.
[ cf U.S. rethinks walling off Sunni district ( Emphasis Mine ) ]
Like, uh, hold it. You Mean mere Iraqi Civilians can stop the Glorious and Victorious Military Work of Our Valiant Fighting Forces, thus stabbing them in the back like mere Rambo Types????
I mean, do we REALLY want Iraq to fall into the hands of Iraqi CIVILIANS????
I mean what next? What if they decide, like their neighbors, that they too need to have Nuclear, Biological And Chemical Weapons to protect their National Sovereignty...
Oh what ever will we do to keep them in their places if they are not willing to support creating their Own Cages.