Baghdad Dispatch: The Wall
The decision to build security walls around some Baghdad districts is getting a lot of attention in the local and world media. It's creating many questions and even more rumors. Here's some background straight from Baghdad, just as protests may be making both Iraqi and American officials reconsider the plan, according to some press reports.
by Omar Fadhil, PJM Baghdad editor
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First and foremost, I don’t know why “The Wall” is becoming such an issue now. Work to construct similar walls started weeks ago in the Amiriya and Ghazaliyah districts. The “news” went utterly unnoticed then.
But that’s not what matters. What does matter is effectiveness versus side-effects. Neither should be neglected.
Yesterday leaflets were distributed in the streets of Adhamiya (or Azamiya, English doesn’t have the exact sound anyway). The leaflets — printed and distributed by persons unknown — called on residents to protest the building of the wall. Knowing that the only organized entity capable of such quick response to events in Adhamiya are either the insurgents or al-Qaeda strongly indicates that they were behind the planned protest. More important still is that it indicates they see the wall as a threat to their movement and ability to carry out their actions.
From a tactical point of view these walls can be very useful in reducing the levels of violence in targeted areas. Militants will have to stay in their home areas to avoid passing through the controlled gates. This reduces their ability to transport weapons and munitions for storage or operations in other districts. Failing that they will have to relocate to a district where it would be easier for them to operate. In either case the capacity of the militants to sustain their current level of operations would be impaired.
Having walls and barriers that seal off an area also means that troops don’t have to worry watching the numerous routes that connect Baghdad’s interlacing districts that militants use to maneuver around security operations. By extension it means that unit commanders would have a higher percentage of their troops free to conduct real missions against the militants. This makes the “clear and hold” strategy much easier to implement and sustain.
The wall strategy is pretty much like trying to control or protect a small crowd of, say, 50 people. If they are milling about in the street you’ll probably need a dozen cops to control the situation. But if you move the small crowd to a hall with one door one cop can stand at the door and control the movement in and out of the hall, while two cops can sort out the good guys from the bad guys. The remaining nine cops can move on to take care of other situations at other locations.
On the other hand one of the risks that needs to be taken into consideration when adopting this tactic of gated communities is that the main gate could itself become a target for spectacular suicide attacks. In the case of Adhamiya, (population estimated at 500,000 +) or other districts with large populations, the gates are likely to see a lot of traffic every day. There will be inevitably long waiting lines. That alone could attract suicide bombers or mortar barrages.
There are definitely downsides that come from surrounding communities with walls, mostly psychological and social. It’s sad to watch the capital of your country become the only city in the world that resembles a compartmentalized fortress where you need tall concrete walls to slightly improve the margin of safety.
But this is war and we can’t afford living in denial of the seriousness of threats. Emotions must not be allowed to disrupt taking practical steps that can save lives. So while I understand where PM Maliki is coming from in his opposition to the wall I have to disagree with him. The other thing I don’t like about Maliki’s move is that he broke the promise he made when he announced the security plan: he said he would not allow political interference in the work of the military. So his opposition to this particular plan is purely political in nature with disregard to the facts on the ground, and an obvious result of pressure from some politicians around him. However from his tone I suspect that he will eventually change his mind and deal practically with the issue.
Omar Fadhil is PJM’s Baghdad editor; his own blog is Iraq The Model
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20 Comments
Sissy Willis:Has anyone thought of transforming the fences from a soul-deadening barrier into a soul-uplifting light-and-sound “destination,” a place that enhances city life by its design? I know it sounds loony, but architect/jazz musician Christopher Janney’s “Rainbow Cove” installation at our local Boston Logan Airport got me to thinking. Here’s a description:
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS0103/70423014/-1/NEWS02
Apr 24, 2007 - 5:59 am Sissy Willis:I hope this link works (the one above goes nowhere):
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/04/logan_to_unveil_1.html
Apr 24, 2007 - 6:55 am Full Power To The Shields:I wrote an article on my blog regarding those concrete walls and how they can stop the more than 1,000 years of violence.
The blog article is entitled:
“10 years of inconvenient walls VERSUS another 1,000 years of violence”
Thanks.
Apr 24, 2007 - 8:12 am marcie mccarty:I was wondering why this suddenly became as issue. Your saying the terrorists are behind the protests makes sense. I enjoy your blog and am disappointed on the days you don’t post a story. To me it looks like people would welcome a security fence. I know we would like one across the Mexican border. Ours is not seriously being funded.
Your last article was especially good. It is good to hear it from someone who knows and tells the truth. Keep up your excellent work both of you.
Apr 24, 2007 - 10:04 am Tom Holsinger:The walls around Sunni Arab areas would also keep Shiite death squads and militias from entering to encourage the inhabitants to move far, far away. This may be why Prime Minister Maliki is opposed them.
Apr 24, 2007 - 10:48 am Budicek:This should take you to the Logan Airport wall that Sissy Wills mentioned:
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/04/logan_to_unveil_1.html
Apr 24, 2007 - 2:30 pm SteveO:Fences were used to some effect in Belfast to enhance security in the downtown area during the troubles. I don’t recall there being a backlash to it, perhaps because the inhabitants thought saving lives was more important than scoring political points.
Apr 24, 2007 - 4:09 pm Budicek:Now THIS URL should take you to the Logan Airport wall that Sissy Wills mentioned:
http://tinyurl.com/3dpe5g
Sorry for causing the confusion.
The comments page inserted a space in the “unveil” part of the full URL. It did that to Sissy’s posting and to mine (I tried to enclose the URL in angle quotes but the page wouldn’t accept that).
Apr 24, 2007 - 5:00 pm Jamal:It’s beyond me why anyone thinks building a wall will stop the violence in Iraq, as it will only serve to further segregate communities (and segregation is a problem in Iraq) as we’ve seen in Israel, Berlin and Northern Ireland. Let’s face it, this type of apartheid wall, separation barrier, security fence, fortification, or whatever you want to call it, is never going to become a ‘Great Wonder’. Even though some idiots think it works in in Israel, the truth is that it doesn’t and will only serve to also aggravate the disunity, conflict and violence in Iraq.
Apr 24, 2007 - 6:49 pm greg:The walls are
1) temporary
2) necessary
3) as our host pointed out
they serve as force multipliers
One simply can not have every single
street checkpointed …
That said improvements can be made as follows
1)Parts of the wall can be large
earth filled concrete planters
with Date palms (barbed wire
between the trunks
of the trees)
This would provide some beautification
2) Maliki should annonce all walls
to be built as planned
BUT also announce that as more
Iraqi police and Army units get trained he will open up more and more streets for exit/entry
So a neighborhood which is walled and has three gates to enter
Will perhaps add 2 gates per month
as Iraqi forces expand perhaps
up to say 10 gates.
3) Once completed secure minibus
services that connect gated communities with each other
and Hospitals etc can also
be formed … the idea as another person wrote is to build with the future in mind … these al-queda
types WILL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ IN PEACE
4) once a gated community area has been swept several times then more reconstruction
projects can be done in those areas
Baghdad and other cities must start
Apr 24, 2007 - 8:47 pm Noliving:to look forward and build with the future in mind and build with security in mind
Actually jamal you could argue that the wall in israel does work, in fact suicide attacks after the wall went underconstruction have dropped significantly, if you go by what israel says it can range from 90-95%, other sources show its in the 80% range, for the berlin wall your confusing its sole purpose, to prevent east german’s crossing the border to west germany. This wall that is being built isn’t going to stop movement at all, what it is going to do is force certain areas to be the only way in or out, for example most neighborhoods don’t have walls as such people can move in freely in and out 360 degrees around that community, that is hard to monitor and requires a lot of man power to enforce, by building a wall your forcing people to head to the only openings by doing so you can control who enters and leaves, this means that less manpower is needed to do the same job, while at the same time it forces the people that wish to do harm(insurgents/terriosts) to those areas, which means its easier to force the insurgents/terriosts to fight on the terms of americans and iraqi security forces. By doing it this way its much harder for the insurgetns/terriosts to get into the heart or even just the city if not impossible undetected and be able to carry out attacks or set up roadside bombs. If they manage to do breakthrough it gives pretty much the location away of the insurgents/terriosts making it an early warning system for security forces and americans. Downsides is that the people that are in the area of the circle “might” have less contact with the community outside of it, the checkpoints are also big targets if they caues lines of traffic.
Basically in the end walls force violence to only certain areas, and because its only at certain areas you are already ready or expecting an attack and as such any attacks carried out would be less deadly, which makes it much easier to deal with rather then having to deal with 360 degree threat. Because it is easier to deal with the chances of the violence ending or reducing also dies down because they can no longer be able to get the same type of success or access to their targets which will cause them to move onto easier targets.
If you don’t believe me that walls don’t add security just look at any home or building, can someone just walk into your house from any side? nope, why? because there are walls blocking that intruder, what about doors? If they are locked they also become like a wall and if they are unlocked they act a like a checkpoint they force people to those areas of the house and as such you only have to guard that door, the only wall that doesn’t provide as much security would be a windows much easier to breakthrough but also will cause a lot of noise alerting you to the presence of an intruder. Literally when you think about it, almost 90% of the security your home or apartment offers you is because of the walls that surrond you preventing people easy access.
Apr 24, 2007 - 9:46 pm Purple Avenger:The state of Florida is full of gated walled communities.
Apr 24, 2007 - 10:55 pm Tmal:Besides all the mentioned points of improoving security there is another one. I hope it gives iraqies some more jobs that can can be usefull in occupaing young jobless males, which also can lead to improoving security.
Apr 25, 2007 - 6:34 am bray:Thank you for your insight. You are really providing a great service.
Apr 25, 2007 - 10:19 am Scott Isaacs:I think this is one of the better ideas I have observed to multiply the force of a badly overtaxed military. While I have argued since before the war that the US should use 500K soldiers, it’s pretty clear the US administration has no intention of doing such a thing. Therefore, if we must remain (and it looks like we must because the President refuses to leave and the opposition doesn’t have enough votes to override him), we need to use things like this wall to achieve our objectives in country.
BTW, love the blog.
Apr 25, 2007 - 4:50 pm David:Is it too much to ask at least some part of the Iraqi political leadership to stand up and defend this initiative? The program was obviously cleared by the Iraqi military and government in advance and will dramatically enhance the safety of all citizens of Bagadad. Yet,when it becomes controversial (for what seem like idiotic reasons), Iraqi politicians behave like American Congressmen. Please, Do as we advice, not as we do!!
Apr 25, 2007 - 8:31 pm Northern Magus:I thought you Americans went into Iraq to “win hearts and minds” and build democracy. Now you’re building walls. Hmmmm, does it never occur to you that your mission which has killed more than 3,300 of your own soldiers and more than 600,000 (democratic?) Iraqi civillians is an even greater failure than your tragic blunder in Vietnam?
Apr 25, 2007 - 8:41 pm Noliving:Thank God I live in Canada.
Northern magus, if you actually research the vietnam war you will see that the USA was actually winning that war militarily, also a North Vietnamese general even said that the USA was winning the war.
As for iraq, 3,300 over the course of 4 years is not that much, USA lost over 5k during dday and over 3k in pearl harbor, if anything the the USA military suffering 3,300 dead is not that much. Sure its a tragedy but in terms of 3,300 being a number that means the USA is suffering high causalties it is not.
As for the 600k civilians killed, that study has already been proven inaccurate and the people that were in charge of that study refuse to back up their claims.
Also northern magus I don’t think you realize the importance of a wall militarily and how it affects security.
Apr 26, 2007 - 4:18 pm jharek:no magus, that never occurred to me, can you post the source of your 600,000 civilian figure , and for balance, civilian casualty figures caused by insurgent groups.
Apr 26, 2007 - 4:24 pm Rufus:Yes, Magus, Thank God you do.
Apr 26, 2007 - 5:37 pm