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Ear to the Ground

Inside the Green Zone Bubble

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Posted on Jun 24, 2007

Living inside Baghdad’s Green Zone seems to encourage a dangerous disconnect between its occupants—American or Iraqi—and the chaotic and violent reality outside its bounds.  American journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran takes a sobering look inside for the UK paper The Sunday Times.


The Sunday Times:

The sectarian fighting that is occurring on the streets is not simply about religious zealotry.

It’s a naked grab for power that begins inside the green zone, where Iraqi political leaders are fighting for influence. They continue to bicker with one another because they are largely cut off from the consequences. They do not live in fear that their neighbours might turn on them or that Shi’ite militiamen or Sunni insurgents might come and kill them.

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By Bukko in Australia, June 25, 2007 at 4:06 pm #

The bubble-world depicted in Chandrasekaran’s “Emerald City” book are an apt metaphor for EVERYTHING the Bush Crime Familty has done in government. In Iraq, they appointed naive ideologue tools who botched all their tasks, while well-connected people were stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. (Whatever happened to those truckloads of Benjamins that were airlifted to Iraq, anyway?) And inside the U.S., more incompetent fools like Mike Brown and Monica Goodling were placed in jobs that they screwed up, while criminals like Stephen Griles allowed corporations to loot and pollute. America IS the Green Zone now, until reality comes crashing in like an insurgent mortar shell.

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By Mark in NY, June 25, 2007 at 11:33 am #

Bush and his criminal cohorts created Al Qaeda in Iraq.  They would never have found a foothold there if not for the US and its illegal and ill-advised invasion and occupation.  Osama gives daily thanks in prayer for his staunchest ally: George W. Bush.

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By John F. Butterfield, June 25, 2007 at 5:53 am #

The Iraqi forces fighting the U.S. in Iraq can overrun the “green zone” any time they want. They don’t because, at this point in time, it is to their advantage not to. When the time is right for them, they will kick the U.S. out of Iraq.

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By Dale Headley, June 25, 2007 at 2:06 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Look for George Bush to declare de facto martial law in September, thus abandoning any pretense at creating a “democratic” government in Iraq.

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By Enemy of State, June 25, 2007 at 1:44 am #

TDoff. The one fly in the ointment, is that AlQaeda in Iraq is promarily attacking Iraq civilians. They have successfully stirred the inter-ethnic tensions. The Shia were remarkably restrained it took a couple of years and the Sammara Mosque bombing to get them to start attacking Sunni civialians.

  Of couse Osama probably read the Project for a New American Century (the neocon manifesto), and knew of the Bush/Cheney/neocon obsession with Iraq. I remember an American acquaintance of mine predicting we would invade Iraq long before 9-11 (i.e. as soon as Bush took office). The Shrub was just waiting for a situation that would allow him to pursue his obsession.

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By great_satan, June 24, 2007 at 9:35 pm #

TDOFF:
  Actually, according to the long PBS report on radical Islam and terrism and the rest, Osama predicted that the attack on the WTC would cause Bush to attack Iraq. So, you are absolutely correct in your assumptions that it would be to his benefit.
  Aside from being savvy to just what a putz Bush is, how would he have predicted that?

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By TDoff, June 24, 2007 at 8:35 pm #

You know, there’s a ‘flip’ side to The Dummy’s famous mantra, ‘We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here’.

From Osama’s point of view (and an excellent one, tactically and strategically), he may be quite pleased to ‘Fight them over here, so we don’t have to fight them over there’.

While they’re taking advantage of the enormous recruiting effort the US has undertaken to benefit Al Qaeda, they can train their new armies near to their home bases, so they don’t have to extend their supply lines. They can teach them to fight and kill their enemy (the US army), by just sending their new recruits around the block, instead of across the sea.

They want our troops in Iraq, and anywhere else in the middle east they can entice The Dummy into sending them. If not, they could easily get them to withdraw by creating a few ‘terrist’ attacks along the Mexican border. But Osama, who has at least twice the IQ, and an infinitely greater understanding of war and disruption than The Dummy, is probably holding off on the Mexican and Canadian border attacks until our treasury and troop levels are more depleted.

Or he secures the victory he wants in the middle east, whichever comes first.

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By TDoff, June 24, 2007 at 8:09 pm #

We ingenious americans have turned Iraq into a giant video game.

The Green Zone is the console, the home of the joy sticks, and the viewing screen.

The viewing screen shows the exciting effects, the attacks, the raids, the bursting bombs, the exploding homes, children, women, men caught in cross-fires. It’s a tough game to play, ‘cause the ‘terrists’ look just like everyone else (except our ‘warriors’, our ‘fighters of evil’, who wear uniforms, armor, are well-armed, and travel in convoys in up-armored vehicles).

There are still a few ‘glitches’ in the game. A major one is that the exploding children and women are not ‘virtual’. They are ‘real’.

And so are our troops.

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