Dahr Jamail: The Streets of Baghdad

Walking and driving on the streets Baghdad I find myself in a sea of chaos. Traffic is mayhem for many reasons. The current fuel crisis being the lead cause. Lines at petrol stations stretch for miles at some of the stations. A common scene at these lines is that of people pushing their cars because they are already out of gas or to save what precious little may be left in their tank.

The fuel lines that stretch in the busier parts of the city cause huge snarls of traffic as it is squeezed into one of the remaining lanes left open.

Another reason is military patrols and searches. Oftentimes when we are caught in crawling traffic, we come upon several Humvees blocking one of the lanes as they are searching a store or guarding troops who are doing a small foot patrol.

Iraqi reaction to military vehicles in the city continues to be cold. Actually, more than cold-it has become notably hostile.

I was walking with my interpreter along one of the main streets of Baghdad when a couple of different times patrols rolled by of two Humvees with guns pointing out the windows at people and the machine gunners atop them swinging their guns back and forth at the rooftops of buildings. Each time men nearby said to nobody in particular, “Get off our streets with your guns,” “You aren’t here to protect us you bastards,” or as one man laughed to his friend, “Can’t you see we have no weapons of mass destruction? Now go home!”

A little later a group of two white SUV’s full of (I presume) CIA and/or mercenaries followed by a GMC with several large antennae rolled down the road with their guns pointing out the tinted windows at pedestrians. As the GMC passed, the back was open because inside was literally a machine gun bunker-a black metal shield covered the opening, with a small rectangle on the top portion which had the barrel of a large caliber machine gun hanging out of it.

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