Nearly three and a half years after the Iraq invasion, the London Times publishes a staggering portrayal of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq. Combined with accounts from bloggers like Riverbend, there is a shocking disconnect between what is reported to the American people and the reality on the ground.
This is the picture of chaos.
James Hider of the London Times writes of his friend Ali, the Times' translator:
"As I hung up the phone, I wondered if I would ever see my friend Ali alive again. Ali, The Times translator for the past three years, lives in west Baghdad, an area that is now in meltdown as a bitter civil war rages between Sunni insurgents and Shia militias. It is, quite simply, out of control."
The violence is so pervasive that neither the Iraqi security forces nor the Americans can check it. When Hider phoned the American troops attached to Iraqi security forces, he received this response:
"There's always shooting at night here. It's like chasing ghosts."
Hider expands on the American and Iraqi security forces, and their inability to control a situation spiraling rapidly out of control. He notes the Americans can only intervene when the Iraqi security forces request their presence, and the uniformed Iraqis are more likely to turn a "blind eye" to the violence around them. The writer even goes as far to say that "ethnic cleansing" has begun in West Baghdad:
"West Baghdad is no stranger to bombings and killings, but in the past few days all restraint has vanished in an orgy of ethnic cleansing."
Iraqi legislators of all ethnic and sectarian persuasion noted similar concerns regarding the terrible predicament Iraq is facing. The unity government of Nouri al-Maliki seems to be grasping at straws to resolve the crisis:
""The country is sliding fast towards civil war," Ali Adib, a Shia MP, told the Iraqi parliament this week. "Security has deteriorated in a serious and unprecedented way," said Saadi Barzanji, a Kurdish MP."
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), a guy many on DKos aren't exactly fond of, was dreadfully pessimistic after his latest visit to Baghdad. Formerly a war proponent, he seems to be changing his tune quite a bit. Biden "described Baghdad after a recent visit as a city in the throes of 'nascent civil war'."
The most staggering revelation in the article is right at the end. Iraqis are fleeing the country in droves. The roads to Syria and Jordan are essentially jam-packed, and the article notes many Iraqi citizens scrambling to escape the mess. Hider writes about the mass influx from Iraq to neighboring countries:
"In one of the few comprehensive surveys of how many Iraqis have fled their country since the US invasion, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants said last month that there were 644,500 refugees in Syria and Jordan in 2005 -- about 2.5 per cent of Iraq's population. In total, 889,000 Iraqis had moved abroad, creating 'the biggest new flow of refugees in the world', according to Lavinia Limon, the committee's president."
Think about 2.5% of an entire population leaving a sizable country. In American terms, that would be equivalent to the entire city of NEW YORK migrating to Canada or Mexico (7,500,000 people), fleeing for their lives.
Was this "Mission Accomplished"? Sporadic ethnic cleansing and a refugee crisis? A "nascent civil war"? Only in horribly sick, deluded minds.
The article can be found here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2268585_3,00.html