A Restless Calm
By Dahr Jamail
14 January, 2004
Dahrjamailiraq.com
Im
typing as mortars are blasting away in the nearby Green Zone.
Mortars are easy to tell-the higher pitched thunk of their
launch, then a pause, then a loud boom that echoes through the still
night. Blaring sirens wail in the distance, along with the random cracking
of gunfire. Nightfall always seems to bring action in this area of central
Baghdad-just last night there were many sporadic gun battles out my
window.
Earlier today while
I was in the al-Adhamiya district of Baghdad the US base there was mortared
8 times. We heard it just after finished huge plates of kebabs at a
sidewalk restaurant. After finishing the meal an old woman came to our
table and asked if she could take our leftovers.
He took two plastic
bags and began dumping our half eaten salads and extra bread into them.
She thanked us and blessed us, then began to shuffle off
Abu Talat
and I both quickly walked over to her and gave her a small wad of Iraqi
Dinars. We walked back to the car not saying a word about it.
Funny that everyone
lately is talking about how calm it is here in Baghdad
expecting
things to grow so much worse as the election approaches. If this is
calm
Calm looks like
the military not releasing the number of times each day they are attacked
at
last count this was around 70 per day that they admitted to
which
means it is probably more.
It also looks like
a van with four bank guards being destroyed, burning the men to death;
it looks like another US soldier being killed in al-Anbar province (read-Fallujah),
four Iraqi soldiers being killed in Samarra, and Iraqi soldiers in Duluiya
slaughtering three Iraqi civilians in their car at a checkpoint. In
addition, in Hiyt, west of Ramadi, two US military vehicles were destroyed
in a rocket attack. In Haqlaniya, also west of Ramadi, a roadside bomb
detonated near a patrol, destroying two more US military vehicles. No
word yet on casualities from either attack, although witnesses reported
watching helicopters evacuating bloody soldiers from the attack scene
near Hiyt.
Both of these locations
are in the vicinity of Fallujah.
Calm looks like
mortars and gunfire everyday, sporadically around Baghdad. Calm looks
like two vehicle bombs in Mosul today, one a suicide van bomb that killed
an unknown number of civilians when it missed a US convoy, the other
a suicide car bomb that killed two Iraqi soldiers.
Of course it also
looks like gas lines up to 6 miles long.
It is impossible
to drive for long in Baghdad without running into these
lines of
cars on the sides of highways and side streets, as people stand outside
their cars waiting, then pushing their car forward each time the line
inches a few meters closer to the sacred gas station. With 70% unemployment
in Iraq, obtaining fuel is the most common full-time job for Iraqis
now.
Sitting in another
traffic jam while trying to decide how well work if any more fuel
stations close and the black markets begin to dry up, I suggest to Abu
Talat, We can get a donkey. You can drive and Ill sit on
the back and write in my notebook and take photos.
Yes, that
is certainly an option, he laughs, Definitely a much better
idea than trying to steal a fuel tanker.
That had been my
previous idea.
Earlier today I
interviewed a man who was in the intelligence service of the former
regime. He asked me if I wanted to go into Fallujah.
Um, no thanks,
I said, Not right now, speaking to him from across a small
table as we drank our orange Miranda soft drinks. The room was darkened
by curtains, and he spoke to me only on condition of anonymity
after
he took my satellite phone and placed it in another part of the building.
They can track
the satellite phones even when they are not on, he explained to
me, Only by removing the SIM card can they not be tracked.
Information I hope
I never need to apply. One learns the most interesting things in Iraq
nowadays.
He gives me a quick
rundown of what he knows of Fallujah, telling me that the military controls
two main checkpoints into the city and the main road which divides what
is left of the demolished city. There are still 25 attacks each
day by the mujahideen there against the occupiers, he says, And
the resistance is in control of large areas of the city to this day.
Who knows how accurate
this is. And with the military cordon around most of the city, its
almost impossible to verify for now.
He claims that only
3% of the people killed during the assault were fighters, and the rest
civilians. Im sure this is a little low
but certainly closer
to the truth than the US estimate that 1200-1300 of 2000 killed were
fighters, and definitely closer than the statement from Allawi that
every single person killed in Fallujah was a fighter. Even members of
the Iraqi Red Crescent have stated that the majority of bodies, at least
60%, are of women, children and elderly.
He suddenly says,
Thats it, no more, and the interview is over.
We thank him for
his time and are back on the street.
There are white
military surveillance balloons floating all over Baghdad now.
Most of the Iraqi
Army (formerly known as Iraqi National Guard) is wearing black facemasks
as they ride around in the backs of pickups with makeshift machine guns
in them. They seem like boys with toys compared to the Humvees with
the 50 calibers on top of them, rocket launchers slung over the backs
of the seats of the soldiers riding atop them
their faces hidden
under helmets and behind goggles.
Baghdad feels restless
during this calm time. There is an expectant energy in the
air as the days tick off leading to January 30th. Its as if we
are all waiting for the bombs and fierce clashes to kick off at anytime.
Or maybe they will not occur until afterwards
nobody can say.
Driving down the
highway this afternoon a van passes with a man waving a pistol at cars
making
them give way so it can speed ahead.
This is our
civilization now, says Abu Talat, laughing his deep contagious
belly laugh as he lights another of his terribly harsh Gold Seal cigarettes.
If you dont
laugh here, you lose your mind in a hurry.
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