Meanwhile, in America, democrats just blame Rove.
Frustrated Iraqis ready to take law into own hands
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis have begun barricading themselves in their homes
and forming neighborhood militias in an effort to fend off relentless
suicide attacks, residents in the capital said on Monday.
The measures come amid waning confidence in the Iraqi police and other
security forces as they struggle to get on top of the two-year-old
insurgency. In the latest attack, 98 people were killed by a suicide truck
bomb south of Baghdad on Saturday.
A senior member of Iraq's parliament on Sunday called for popular militias
to be created as an extra line of defense against the militants, and
criticized the government for failing to stop the bombs.
"The plans of the interior and defense ministries to impose security in Iraq
have failed," Khudair al-Khuzai told parliament during a heated session
following the latest blast. "We need to bring back popular militias," he
said, without expanding.
While there was some backing for his proposal, there are concerns militias
formed along sectarian lines could lead the country ever closer to civil
war, with Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs already involved in tit-for-tat killings.
Despite that fear, local militias have already been formed in several
Baghdad areas, and at least two Shi'ite political movements have their own
powerful private armies.
In the Sadiya district in the south of the capital, residents have
introduced a neighborhood watch program which involves men armed with
pistols and AK-47s walking the streets from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on alert for
attackers.
They carry a piece of paper signed by the Iraqi army granting them
permission to carry out the patrols.
In several other districts residents have blocked off streets with the
trunks of chopped-down palm trees, or with large concrete flower pots, to
try to stop suicide car bombers.
BOMB BARRICADES
"It's better to have our own militias because we can recognize every
stranger who comes into our neighborhood and the police can't," said Sattar
Hashim in New Baghdad, a district where a bomb blast last week killed nearly
two dozen children.
Hashim said local men guarding the area at the funerals of those killed in
the blast detained a Libyan man strapped with explosives who was aiming to
attack the ceremonies.
Neighbors supported the informal security.
"When they blocked this road, less people came to my shop and sales went
down, but I don't mind as long as we're all safer," said Sheikh Mohammed,
the owner of a herbal pharmacy on a street blocked off by water pipes, gates
and palm tree trunks.
In Aadhamiya and Karrada, two other Baghdad districts, shopkeepers and
homeowners have boarded up or put thick tape on the insides of windows to
prevent blasts splintering the glass. Others have fortified their doorways
to foil kidnappers.
"We are scared even inside our homes -- we expect attacks at any moment,"
said Hamid Hashim, a teacher in Aadhamiya who has padlocks on his doors.
"Our children are never allowed out of the house, even if that may hurt them
psychologically."
Shi'ite lawmakers are growing increasingly frustrated and fear militants
will succeed in their aim of provoking sectarian conflict if greater efforts
are not made to quell the insurgency.
"The multinational forces have to take responsibility for the bloodshed,"
said Sheikh Jalal-el-din al-Sagheer, a member of the main Shi'ite bloc in
parliament.
(Additional reporting by Seif Fouad and Mussab al-Khairalla)
--
"Mine will be the most ethical administration in the history of the
republic!"
President-Elect Bill Clinton, November 1992.
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