CPTnet
28 May 2005
IRAQ REFLECTION: It was a fairly quiet day in Baghdad
by Tom Fox
17 May 2005
In Baghdad today, four clerics (three Sunni and one Shi'a) were
assassinated. The bodies of two other Sunni clerics who had been abducted
last week were found. A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle in the
Abu Cher market, killing nine Iraqi National Guard troops and injuring
twenty-eight civilians. Two engineering students died when a bomb (or
rocket) struck their classroom at a local school. The dean of a high school
in the Shaab neighborhood was assassinated. One judge, two officials from
the Ministry of Defense and one official investigating corruption in the
previous Interim Government were assassinated. In all, thirty-one dead,
forty-two injured and seventeen abducted. Rumors abound in Baghdad about
who is responsible for all the attacks but no one has claimed
responsibility. And yet, compared to some days in recent weeks here the
number of dead and injured was fewer in number.
So comparatively speaking, it was a fairly quite day here in Baghdad.
Children walked to their schools and people went to work. Shops opened for
business and the seemingly endless parade of military, police and private
security vehicles went about their business.
Imagine if these events took place in one day in Washington, D.C. or London,
England. The governments of the US and UK would declare a state of
emergency. (Baghdad has been under a state of emergency for almost six
months) and impose martial law. Many civilians would probably stay home and
some might leave the area. The media would cover nothing besides the
bloodshed. Life as normal would cease, as the populace looked to their
government for leadership in bringing the chaos under control. The populace
would demand that their government mend immediately this complete breakdown
of the social fabric.
But eventually the populace would look for answers. Why did these horrible
events transpire? What led up to this total meltdown of civil society? Who
created this nightmare situation?
Why? What? Who? The 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes
described the ultimate nightmare of any society as being "the war of the all
against the all." Such is the state of existence here in Iraq. When the
U.S. led invasion tore away the facade of the state of Iraq, it unleashed a
torrent of religious, ethnic, tribal and cultural tensions. I have not
heard one person say that Saddam was a wise or revered leader. But I have
heard many people say that while they lived under the threat of violence
with Saddam, they prefer that life to the bloodshed, chaos and anarchy that
surrounds them now.
No one seems to offer a solution that does not entail more guns, more
restrictions on basic human rights, more soldiers, more barbed wire and
concrete barricades, more "security" and less freedom. Sooner or later the
insurgency will run out of suicide bombers and weapons. Sooner or later the
ringleaders will be captured or killed. But one of most restrictive,
oppressive police states in the world will remain.
"Spreading freedom and democracy." "The war of the all against the all."
It was a fairly quiet day in Baghdad.
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