Psyche, Science, and Society

The construction of the Baghdad Ghetto

April 20th, 2007

The United States is taking new steps to transform Baghdad into a series of ghettos:

A U.S. military brigade is constructing a 3-mile-long concrete wall to cut off one of the capital’s most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq’s most populous and violent city.

U.S. commanders in northern Baghdad said the 12-foot-high barrier would make it more difficult for suicide bombers to strike and for death squads and militia fighters from sectarian factions to attack one another and then slip back to their home turf. Construction began April 10 and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Although Baghdad is replete with blast walls, checkpoints and other temporary barriers, including a massive wall around the Green Zone, the barrier being constructed in Adhamiya would be the first to be based in essence on sectarian considerations.

Given historical precedents in Palestine and  Eastern Europe, one can only wonder what will follow, after the “undesirables” are fenced off from the rest of society.,

Entry Filed under: Iraq, Rights and Liberties, War Crimes