There are a lot of upset CITIZENS of Baghdad and Iraq. They have the right to be. Their country was invaded, no control was rendered to protect them, they were left on their own to find order with the guidance of their holy men. Their faith has not abandoned them and they live according to that understanding.
Don't expect the people of Iraq to abandon their god for a new understanding of reality. Their losses over the past three years have been significant and extremely traumatic. They will stand on their faith and seek solice with their spiritual leaders. As far as they are concerned their worries are not over. Iraq is still occupied and Mr. Bush is still ranting about extremists that these people see as their saviors. They aren't going to change. The legend of The Imam Ali Mosque and the defeat of the USA military will live on for generations with those that died as heroes to their burgeoning nation. Do you realize the people involved in that march that stopped tanks already in the streets of Najaf? Those people are their own heroes. They are powerful. George Bush didn't do that for them. He was defeated and in that defeat lay their truth and their promise.
The USA is nothing to them. They were handed nothing by this country and they want to be free of all encumbrances that comes along with being grateful. They don't have to be grateful they died for their cause. They are the rebels to The Revolutionay War of Iraq.
District by District, Shiites Make Baghdad Their Own
December 23, 2006
District by District, Shiites Make Baghdad Their Own
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
BAGHDAD, Dec. 22 — As the United States debates what to do in Iraq, this country’s Shiite majority has been moving toward its own solution: making the capital its own.
Large portions of Baghdad have become Shiite in recent months, as militias press their fight against Sunni militants deeper into the heart of the capital, displacing thousands of Sunni residents. At least 10 neighborhoods that a year ago were mixed Sunni and Shiite are now almost entirely Shiite, according to residents, American and Iraqi military commanders and local officials.
For the first years of the war, Sunni militants were dominant, forcing Shiites out of neighborhoods and systematically killing bakers, barbers and trash collectors, who were often Shiites. But starting in February, after the bombing of a shrine in the city of Samarra, Shiite militias began to strike back, pushing west from their strongholds and redrawing the sectarian map of the capital, home to a quarter of Iraq’s population.
The Shiite-dominated government publicly condemns violence against Sunnis and says it is trying to stop the militias that carry it out. But the attacks have continued unabated, and Sunnis have grown suspicious.
Plans for a new bridge that would bypass a violent Sunni area in the east, and a proposal for land handouts in towns around Baghdad that would bring Shiites into what are now Sunni strongholds underscored these concerns.
Sunni political control in Baghdad is all but nonexistent: Of the 51 members of the Baghdad Provincial Council, which runs the city’s services, just one is Sunni....
