Hope in the ‘Hood

   Baghdad, Iraq — Signs that the surge of U.S. forces into Baghdad is working to give the Iraqis time to establish a semblance of security and stability go beyond the obvious dampening of street battles and bombings. It’s in the smaller, slower transformations in neighborhoods where deeper validations are  taking place and where the seeds of possibility are starting to take root. “When we meet and talk, we speak about how we must hold together in the future, and if we don’t the future wont be so good,” said Thayia Aziz Kudam, a muhalla (neighborhood) leader in the East Rashid area of southern Baghdad. “All together, we must all help together to make the security for this area. “Gangs, militias, al-Qaida: All of us, we want them to go away. We don’t want them.” Thayia’s neighborhood is in East Rashid, an area of southeastern Baghdad known from 2006 until this autumn for sectarian violence and al-Qaida’s campaign of terror. It’s a long-standing mixed community, with Sunni Muslims in the majority but with Shiites and Christians as well.  “Welcome back,” a banner in the neighborhood says. “We are all one,” another says. The banners are a display of fact and hope. Some who fled earlier intimidation and bloodshed are returning, and the people of East Rashid hope more will do so. District leader say about 400 families have recently returned to East Rashid and its Muhallas since the end of the October. The hope and growing confidence of its residents is based on the establishment of security checkpoints in the area by the Iraqi National Police and Iraqi Security Volunteers – an armed, neighborhood watch-type organization being established around the capital. Also helping breed confidence are the frequent presence patrols by U.S. and Iraqi military forces.  The Americans, members of the 2^nd Battalion, 2^nd Calvary Stryker Regiment, are based nearby in an abandoned Chaldean Catholic seminary in a combat operations post dubbed Blackfoot. The seminarians fled in 2006 after al-Qaida not only threatened their lives but punctuated that threat by beheading a priest. In September and October of this year the Americans, surged to Baghdad from a base in Germany, fought tooth and nail against various gunmen in East Rashid to clean up the area. Door-to-door street battles, snipings, mortaring and IED (improvised explosive devices) explosions filled the days and rent the nights.  A testament to the sacrifice involved is on a wall at the Stryker headquarters – a long line of photographs of the young Americans who fell in battle  “When we first got here, there were memorial services (for U.S. soldiers killed) almost every day,” said Sgt. Jim Tripp, who belongs to a psychological operations unit attached to the Stryker group. When the dust finally cleared, AQI (al-Qaida-Iraq) and other extremist and insurgent groups were, in the main, pushed out. There are still occasional IED explosions and snipings, but nowhere near the number in previous months, soldiers say.   Thayia’s muhalla is the brightest spot in East Rashid. Others aren’t so bright.  Many neighborhoods closest to 60^th St., a main thoroughfare bordering the East Rashid area, remain deserted. The street, once a main shopping area, was the prime killing zone for militias and al-Qaida in their battles with each other for supremacy in the area, and later their.  Along 60th street, which extends north to south, only an occasional pedestrian is seen hurry across its broad expanse. Relative safety for them from possible sniper remnants to the west of the street is measured in hurried, anxious yards. Muhallas (neighborhoods) closest by lay deserted streets, as empty as the battle-scared houses that line them. There’s only heaps of rubble, heaps of garbage, pools of sewage and scavenging dogs. The deeper you go into East Rashid, where U.S. forces give numeric designations for the neighborhoods and communities, the more people are on the street, walking more calmly, shopping at markets that sell everything from vegetables to small electronics.   “It’s better, now,” said Omar Mohammed Salem, “It’s quieter now, not much shooting anymore.” Salem, 12, has lived in the Hader area of East Rasheed, a block off 60^th St., for a year. His family stayed despite the threats, violence and intimidation from al-Qaida, which ran roughshod over it. They had no choice. They were pushed out of another area in southern Baghdad by fighting between the Iraqi Army and insurgents and a house in Hader abandoned by a relative was their only option. Salem is just one of the estimated 2 million people displaced in Iraq. An equal number are believed to have fled the country altogether.  Salem was standing on a corner a block in from 60^th St. when he made the comment. He was standing outside a small shop that sold snacks. It was one of just a half- dozen shops open on that end of the long street – next to a police checkpoint. The hope of those who returned were for more police checkpoints along the road to encourage others to return and reopen their businesses along what was once a major shopping area. Much of that hope depends on cooperation between the Sunni and Shiite sectors of East Rashid. Their leaders meet regularly with National Police, local police and the Iraqi army to discuss security needs and to resolve friction. “They were fighting each other for years,” said an Iraqi who is a member of the U.S. Army and wanted to remain anonymous. “Trust and cooperation is going to be very slow. It won’t happen overnight.” That divide was subtly apparent at a recent security meeting in East Rashid attended by the National Police, local police, the Iraqi Army, an ISV representative, U.S. military officials and local community leaders. As they took seats along a squared, C-shaped table, all the Sunni community leaders sat on one side and all the Shiites community leaders on the other, barely looking at each other.  “I ask us please: Don’t put the bullets as a solution, don’t put the tribes between a solution,” a high ranking National Police official said at the start of discussions. “We’re all one people. All of us are responsible to God for the blood of the innocent people.”  Two hours later, both groups were eating together, chatting away with each other. More meeting would be held to reduce any frictions, head off trouble, and help build personal relationships between them.  A small step perhaps. But all journeys begin with one, and the increased security in Baghdad, brought on by the surge, appears to have helped set this one in motion – at least for now.