Baghdad Diary

ust a few blocks away on Karrada Street an IED had detonated between two Humvees, killing an Iraqi civilian in the busy shopping district. Another innocent Iraqi killed, another bloody reminder that here in Baghdad anyone, anytime, anyplace is subject to the same fate.

The crowd that had gathered in the aftermath of the blast had mixed reactions. Many people questioned why the resistance fighters are so willing to jeopardize the lives of innocent Iraqis.

But after a short time an older man asked to speak, and as everyone listened he pointed to the American soldiers milling about the blast site and said, "Those are the terrorists! If they weren't here to begin with, none of this would be happening!"

Most in the crowd nodded in agreement. Then about 20 men and boys crowded around the American soldiers, who were waiting for nearly an hour for another patrol to come to their aid. The patrol that finally showed up had gone to 'the wrong grid' of Baghdad. Such are the problems with bringing in fresh troops.

In the three hours following this attack I heard three large blasts around Baghdad, none of which were reported. This evening, as I stood atop my hotel, a huge blast and flash caught my attention to the northeast of central Baghdad, again not reported. It was just another day in occupied Baghdad; attacks on patrols, unreported blasts, automatic weapons fire in the streets at night, huge petrol lines, and flickering electricity.

It makes me wonder what people in America would do under similar circumstances: Having to wait 6-10 hours in a line to fill up their SUV; gas prices that had risen 1,000% in less than a year; flickering, unreliable electricity in their homes for months on end; a foreign (Muslim) military storming the homes of their neighbors; the daily threat of being blown up by a roadside bomb or shot by a trigger-happy soldier at a military checkpoint; sixty percent unemployment and rising...

How would you react?

Something to think about as you watch the ball drop tonight.

I learned that the Amiriyah Bomb Shelter has been closed by the Americans, due to the fact that an Islamic Fundamentalist group was keeping it open. The shelter has become something of a symbol for the resistance here. In Gulf War I, a 2,000-pound laser-guided U.S. bomb blasted through 10 feet of the shelter's hardened concrete and detonated, incinerating 408 Iraqi civilians.

I am glad I went when I did a couple of weeks ago. When monuments/schools/buildings are closed and/or occupied by the Americans here, they have a tendency not to reopen.

I also learned that the only reason the 16 school children who were detained by the Americans for a non-violent anti-occupation demonstration nearby were released within 24 hours was because Sheikh Wadah Malek Alsdid of Amiriyah went and spoke with the Americans at their base.

Meanwhile, the occupation of attrition continues to take its toll on U.S. soldiers here. According to the Pentagon, the total number of wounded soldiers and medical evacuations from the invasion and occupation in Iraq is nearly 11,000. Also according to the Pentagon, 461 troops have died, there have been 8,581 medical evacuations for non-hostile causes, and 2,273 wounded.

Many U.S. troops I talked to complain of being cut off from the outside world. Yesterday in Samarra one asked me, "So what is going on? We don't know anything." They told me they don't have access to email or phones, and have no clue as to what is happening in the rest of Iraq, if other soldiers have died, let alone what's going on back at home in the States.

Many also complain that they feel like they are in a prison on their base - the only time they can leave the base is to go out on a patrol, which is always, needless to say, extremely dangerous. They are working ridiculously long hours, having very little time off, and have no idea when they will get to go home.

Every time I've asked a soldier about when their tour is up, they respond with either, 'I have no idea,' or something like, 'Man, why'd you have to ask that? I don't even want to think about that.'

Thus far the number of soldiers killed each week has not diminished since the capture of Saddam Hussein. In the first nine months in Iraq there have been 461 U.S. soldiers killed. Between 1962 and 1964, 392 U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam.

There have been the usual fighter jets flying over Baghdad today and this evening, the usual helicopters skimming the buildings at times, a huge Chinook rumbling low over Baghdad, and the ever present random gunfire in the streets as the night pushes into the latter hours.

All this aside, it feels relatively calm, which for life in Baghdad means yet another storm of violence is near. Tomorrow, New Years Eve, already has a few of us rolling our eyes with dread and as a friend says, "I'm keeping my calendar open. Tomorrow my plans will make themselves, I'm sure of it."
Dahr Jamail is a freelance journalist living in Baghdad. This is his first story for GNN.

http://www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc3674.html

http://www.guerrillanews.com/

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