It’s been a bit more than two months since the coalition entered and subdued Iraq. By design and successfully so, Baghdad was boldly taken from within, thus limiting collateral damage and civilian causalities, but not without dealing with skirmishes, snipers and suicidal incidents, an ongoing concern.
The fleeing Iraqi regime sabotaged both the electrical and water systems, and emptied all jails of criminals with weapons of choice available for the taking. With this explosive mix, looting and a degree of anarchy ensued.
Enter the critics of the Iraq campaign. Yes, there are a few. They ignore all the successes and belittle any effort toward stabilization and demand instant law and order which incidentally has occurred in other large cities such as Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk. Can Baghdad be far behind?
Consider this scenario: let’s assume Los Angeles is dealt the same hand as Baghdad after a major military engagement. First, click back to the Watts and Rodney King riots and remember what happened.
So here is Los Angeles with its hands full of gang turmoil coupled with close to 700 murders per year or about two per day. Compound this with this nightmare. All prisons are emptied and former inmates are issued an AK47 with ammo. Then both the electricity and water services are discontinued. Talk about chaos.
The moral of this piece is to keep the faith that Baghdad will soon return to normalcy. We have a great track record (Japan, Germany, Kosovo and Afghanistan, a work in progress). All were former interventions with no empirical designs, only good intentions and for our national security.
Everett
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