According to the
New York Times, the Iraqi government is planning to seal off Baghdad next month. That's right - they are sealing off the entire city.
A series of trenches will be dug around the city and a series of 28 checkpoints will be erected along the main roads leading into the city. Smaller roads will be closed.
It is unclear whether such a project could actually work given the size of Baghdad, whose circumference is about 60 miles. With so much terrain, insurgents and militiamen might find areas that are unconstrained by the trenches and checkpoints. On the main roads, traffic could be snarled for miles, especially in the final days of the upcoming fasting month of Ramadan, when people travel to celebrate with their families.
This is democracy blooming in Iraq. There is no civil war, no security problem. All is well.
Will this latest development open the eyes of those who still manage to ignore reality enough to support this disaster of a war? The capital city of Iraq is being isolated behind a series of trenches - the situation has become that bad. Insurgents are able to move about the city and the countryside at will, striking when and where they please.
Perhaps this new tactic will prove to be successful. But what is the cost? The increased isolation of the capital, more hardship for the people of Baghdad, more strain on Iraqi and American forces who will be manning the checkpoints, and surely more accidental shootings of innocent civilians.
How far must the situation deterioriate before the Bush administration admits the obvious?
(I didn't notice any posts on this development. If someone has already diaried this, I will happily delete.)