Something that doesn't love a wall

This business of walling off neighborhoods in Baghdad is emblematic of this country's total cluelessness governing every aspect of our Iraq policy. The idea is terrible: Walls will create maximum antipathy with minimal effectiveness; the execution is already ham-handed; and the politics of the situation reveal us as, once again, insensitive to any concerns beyond military efficiencies.

Tristero is correct when he compares the wall to surround the Sunni district of Adhamiyah with the ghetto walls of Europe. Those walls, too, were built to "protect" the people inside from those outside. At some point, it's all too easy for those walls to contain and imprison.

The cluelessness of this entire scheme, however, is apparent from the almost universal protests it has prompted from both Sunni and Shia factions. As the NYTimes reports:

American and some Iraqi officials were clearly taken aback by the ferocity of the opposition to the wall, and on Monday the United States was showing signs of backing away from the plan. The strong reaction underscores the sense of powerlessness Iraqis feel in the face of the American military, whose presence is all the more pervasive as an increasing number of troops move on to the city’s streets.

And it has proved to be an unlikely boon for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, making the Shiite politician — at least for now — into a champion for Sunnis because he publicly opposed the wall’s construction.

I suppose we should applaud such unity and newfound popularity for Maliki. It would just be nice if it were a result of some smart moves, rather than widespread revulsion for what we're doing. I would not be surprised if the Iraqi-on-the-street is darkly speculating that the plan was hatched in consultation with the Israeli wall-builders.

On Monday, the Washington Post detailed the efforts to create "gated communities" in Baghdad. Despite an attempt to include positive security results from the walls, the anecdotes all come from the military personnel involved:

Hudson's unit spent weeks installing two six-foot-tall, mile-and-a-quarter-long walls along the northern, western and southern borders of southern Ghazaliyah. Another unit blocked the cross streets on the east side with waist-high Jersey barriers.

Under cover of darkness on a recent night, Hudson's soldiers placed 44 barriers at an intersection on the eastern edge of Ghazaliyah, a spot known for bombs and snipers. Tanks and Humvees provided security for the cranes and forklifts being used to build what would be the neighborhood's lone civilian checkpoint.

"They've been doing it in Florida, and the old people seem to like it," joked the platoon's leader, Sgt. 1st Class Charles Schmitt, 37, as he watched his team create the public entrance to the new gated community.

Somehow, I'm not so sure the residents of Ghazaliyah would appreciate the joke when they're waiting for fingerprint and biometric scans at the "lone civilian checkpoint" and just trying to get home:

In some sealed-off areas, troops armed with biometric scanning devices will compile a neighborhood census by recording residents' fingerprints and eye patterns and will perhaps issue them special badges, military officials said. At least 10 Baghdad neighborhoods are slated to become or already are gated communities, said Brig. Gen. John F. Campbell, the deputy commander of American forces in Baghdad.

The NYTimes is not so sanguine about the plan as the Post:

But the Adhamiya wall, only partly built, has fast become a metaphor for the cumulative resentment that Iraqis feel about the violence and disruption of daily life that have brought so much misery to the country since the American invasion in 2003.

The latest indignity is the new security plan, which has snarled traffic with checkpoints that turn even the shortest journeys into hourlong forays. And to the chagrin of many Iraqis, even after four years, the Americans still seem to be oblivious of the havoc they cause in Iraqis’ daily lives by forcing traffic to stop, blocking roads and taking property for military outposts.

Iraqis feel demeaned and infuriated when they find themselves sitting in traffic for hours as it trickles through checkpoints or standing in lines in the already blazing spring sun waiting to be frisked to get into government buildings.

Most revealing of American folly is that our military and diplomatic personnel seem to have had no idea that these plans would encounter united opposition among Baghdad's citizens and that Maliki would turn as well.

And we're still stumbling around in the dark. The AP reported on Monday that the American ambassador "would 'respect the wishes' of the Iraqi government after the prime minister ordered a halt to construction of a three-mile wall separating a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad."

However, confusion persisted about whether the plan would continue in some form: The chief Iraqi military spokesman said Monday the prime minister was responding to exaggerated reports about the barrier.

"We will continue to construct the security barriers in the Azamiyah neighborhood. This is a technical issue," Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said. "Setting up barriers is one thing and building barriers is another. These are moveable barriers that can be removed."

Those "moveable barriers" in Adhamiyah consist of 12-foot high slabs of concrete weighing 14,000 pounds each. 

The confusion and lack of communication once again show how ill-prepared we are to succeed at anything in Iraq. Tactics are adopted as short-term solutions no matter how destructive they are to long-term strategic goals. And a failure to listen and learn will, ultimately, do us in:

Earlier this month, Fowler led off the nightly meeting of Iraqi and American soldiers, gathered around a dining table to review operations on PowerPoint slides. [...]

"Soon he addressed the barrier plan. The rural lanes to the west would be sealed off soon, he said, "so terrorists cannot use the farm roads to get into Ghazaliyah."

Many of the Iraqi soldiers nodded. But not Maj. Hathem Faek Salman, who fears the barriers are more likely to anger residents than shut out violence.

"This is not a good plan," Salman, 40, had said before the meeting. "If my region were closed by these barriers, I would hate the army, because I would feel like I was in a big jail. . . . If you want to make the area secure and safe, it is not with barriers. We have to win the trust of the people." [...]

Abdullah, cross-legged in a gray dishdasha, or traditional robe, said he had missed the meeting because of an emergency. But the gated community idea, he said, "doesn't make any sense." His villagers had long driven into Ghazaliyah's west end to go to its markets or continue toward central Baghdad. Now they would have to drive around it.

"The barriers cannot be moved until all of the Ghazaliyah barrier plan is in place," responded Lt. Lance Rae, 25. "But we will not forget the people down here. They've been very faithful to us."

"It's your order. I disagree with it. But I accept it," Abdullah said. "It does not matter to me. It matters to the people."

Abdullah rose, turned toward the blank white wall and sketched an invisible picture of the area with his hands. He pointed left, to Bakriyah. And a few feet right, to the checkpoint.

"It will take two hours to get from here to here!" he said.

Rae simply nodded and said, "Security is the key."

Of course we must do whatever we can to improve security for these people while we're there. After all, we are the ones who unleashed the forces now tearing apart Iraqi lives. We set the stage back in 2003 when we guarded the oil ministry and allowed the museums to be looted. But walls will not win hearts and minds and that is the "key" to security.