.Playing the Blame Game in Iraq
BAGHDAD – Iraqis blame Americans for what went, is going to or could go wrong here.
I was on my way to a press conference at the Green Zone, also known as the International Zone, with my Iraqi colleagues. As we approached the area, traffic was completely stopped.
I could see that an Iraqi Army truck was blocking the way. Chaos quickly descended, as is usually the case in Baghdad traffic snarls.
Drivers started turning back. “It’s closed — go back,” said one taxi driver.
A large and brand new pickup truck with what looked like members of Iraq’s security forces in the back also wanted to get out of the traffic mess. The soldiers wore black uniforms and hid their faces with ski masks, very much like the militias that once controlled many parts of the city. One of these black-clad men got out of the truck and started redirecting traffic, predictably making the chaos worse.
We finally got out of the jam and took an alternative road. We were stuck again in traffic. This time we were squeezed between two pick truck drivers. The drivers appeared to know each other.
They both roll down their windows. They start to speak to each other with us stuck in the middle.
“What’s going on?” shouted the man in the truck on the left.
“The Americans, the dogs that they are, excuse my bad language, brother, but they have cut off the roads,” said the man in the truck on the right.
“Typical!” responded the man on the left.
Traffic started moving again and we got as close as possible to the Green Zone and started to walk because no vehicles were allowed in. No American soldiers in sight anywhere. All the checkpoints in the area are manned by Iraqi forces, both police and army.
At the Green Zone entrance, Iraqi soldiers were on high alert trying to keep an angry crowd beyond a concertina wire they had stretched out on the street. Again not a single American in sight. All roads leading to the two main entrances of the Green Zone had been cut off by Iraqi forces.
It was a demonstration, people protesting plans by the government to evict them from apartment towers in the area that were part of subsidized housing schemes under the former regime of Saddam Hussein.
Baghdad Bureau
I was on my way to a press conference at the Green Zone, also known as the International Zone, with my Iraqi colleagues. As we approached the area, traffic was completely stopped.
I could see that an Iraqi Army truck was blocking the way. Chaos quickly descended, as is usually the case in Baghdad traffic snarls.
Drivers started turning back. “It’s closed — go back,” said one taxi driver.
A large and brand new pickup truck with what looked like members of Iraq’s security forces in the back also wanted to get out of the traffic mess. The soldiers wore black uniforms and hid their faces with ski masks, very much like the militias that once controlled many parts of the city. One of these black-clad men got out of the truck and started redirecting traffic, predictably making the chaos worse.
We finally got out of the jam and took an alternative road. We were stuck again in traffic. This time we were squeezed between two pick truck drivers. The drivers appeared to know each other.
They both roll down their windows. They start to speak to each other with us stuck in the middle.
“What’s going on?” shouted the man in the truck on the left.
“The Americans, the dogs that they are, excuse my bad language, brother, but they have cut off the roads,” said the man in the truck on the right.
“Typical!” responded the man on the left.
Traffic started moving again and we got as close as possible to the Green Zone and started to walk because no vehicles were allowed in. No American soldiers in sight anywhere. All the checkpoints in the area are manned by Iraqi forces, both police and army.
At the Green Zone entrance, Iraqi soldiers were on high alert trying to keep an angry crowd beyond a concertina wire they had stretched out on the street. Again not a single American in sight. All roads leading to the two main entrances of the Green Zone had been cut off by Iraqi forces.
It was a demonstration, people protesting plans by the government to evict them from apartment towers in the area that were part of subsidized housing schemes under the former regime of Saddam Hussein.
Baghdad Bureau
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