.Checkpoint Rage
BAGHDAD– “People of Baghdad, you are the reason for all the blasts this week. You are our enemy, you are the militias.”
The man shouting was an Iraqi soldier, and the targets of his anger were me and the hundreds of other drivers who were stuck at his checkpoint in a huge traffic jam in east Baghdad today.
He was angry because some of his fellow Iraqi soldiers were killed in two explosions on the first day of the Id al-Fitr feast last week in Zafaraniya and New Baghdad, where I live. There was no doubt who he was blaming.
“You are the reason our friends have been killed. You must be punished,” he shouted at everyone around him, screaming as he moved between the cars.
It was not a one-off. The six other soldiers at the checkpoint were yelling the same sentences, and I had heard similar things at two other checkpoints that morning. It was not just words, I saw soldiers beating one young man with their fists, boots and the butts of their Kalashnikovs.
The explosions caused the Iraqi security forces to tighten security a lot, after orders from the new officers who took over when the Prime Minister dismissed the commanders in the areas hit by the bombs.
The soldiers were only letting through 10 cars at a time, and searching them all slowly. This caused the huge traffic build-up.
With just one solder on the search operation in each traffic check point, the traffic was not moving more than one rotation of the tires every five minutes. It is not surprising now to waste three hours traveling from one neighborhood to another inside Baghdad.
Everybody is now scared of losing their jobs, especially the commanders. But such behavior to innocent people will only make them angry.
Baghdad Bureau
The man shouting was an Iraqi soldier, and the targets of his anger were me and the hundreds of other drivers who were stuck at his checkpoint in a huge traffic jam in east Baghdad today.
He was angry because some of his fellow Iraqi soldiers were killed in two explosions on the first day of the Id al-Fitr feast last week in Zafaraniya and New Baghdad, where I live. There was no doubt who he was blaming.
“You are the reason our friends have been killed. You must be punished,” he shouted at everyone around him, screaming as he moved between the cars.
It was not a one-off. The six other soldiers at the checkpoint were yelling the same sentences, and I had heard similar things at two other checkpoints that morning. It was not just words, I saw soldiers beating one young man with their fists, boots and the butts of their Kalashnikovs.
The explosions caused the Iraqi security forces to tighten security a lot, after orders from the new officers who took over when the Prime Minister dismissed the commanders in the areas hit by the bombs.
The soldiers were only letting through 10 cars at a time, and searching them all slowly. This caused the huge traffic build-up.
With just one solder on the search operation in each traffic check point, the traffic was not moving more than one rotation of the tires every five minutes. It is not surprising now to waste three hours traveling from one neighborhood to another inside Baghdad.
Everybody is now scared of losing their jobs, especially the commanders. But such behavior to innocent people will only make them angry.
Baghdad Bureau
posted by madtom at 6:58 PM
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