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US forces to wall off Baghdad streets
news.com.au ^ | April 11 2007

Posted on 04/11/2007 1:13:38 PM PDT by noname247

US FORCES in Baghdad are planning to seal off vast areas of the city with barricades, effectively imprisoning the inhabitants of neighbourhoods, according to The Independent.

"The campaign of 'gated communities' - whose genesis was in the Vietnam War - will involve up to 30 of the city's 89 official districts and would be the most ambitious counter-insurgency program yet mounted by the US in Iraq," wrote Robert Fisk.

The project to stop the movement of insurgents and weapons would involve joint US-Iraqi "support bases" in nine of the 30 districts to be "gated" off.

Militias would be cleared from civilian streets which would then be walled off and the occupants given ID cards.

Only the occupants would be allowed into these "gated communities" where there were likely to be pass systems, visitor registration and restrictions on movement outside. The plan, of which The Independent had learnt the details, was concocted by General David Petraeus, the US commander in Baghdad.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 04/11/2007 1:13:39 PM PDT by noname247
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To: noname247

Sounds like a reasonable plan.


2 posted on 04/11/2007 1:15:08 PM PDT by gridlock (On January 20, 2009, Fred Dalton Thompson will be sworn in as President of the United States.)
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To: noname247

It doesn’t sound like a bad idea considering how much middleasterners seem to love walls.


3 posted on 04/11/2007 1:16:18 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Peace without victory is a temporary illusion.)
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To: gridlock

Gated communities, will some have swimming pools or golf courses?

In all seriousness, this makes sense. Leave it to the MSM to criticize our forces.


4 posted on 04/11/2007 1:18:19 PM PDT by GeorgefromGeorgia
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To: noname247
whose genesis was in the Vietnam War

Right - no one had walls around their cities before that. But I'm from the MSM so I have to get "Vietnam" in somehow.

5 posted on 04/11/2007 1:20:02 PM PDT by Dilbert56
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To: Dilbert56

You’re on the right track.

“The campaign of ‘gated communities’ - whose genesis was in the Vietnam War “

The real “Genesis” was the British counterinsurgency in Malaya, which WORKED. The US borrowed the concept for South Vietnam but did not properly implement it.


6 posted on 04/11/2007 1:22:22 PM PDT by Flash Bazbeaux
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To: noname247

How can walls be possible in Israel and Iraq but not in the US?


7 posted on 04/11/2007 1:23:07 PM PDT by ryan71 (You can hear it on the coconut telegraph...)
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To: Dilbert56
Right - no one had walls around their cities before that.

Good catch! Let's see, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the (rain) came tumbling down? And don't forget the Great (Handball Court) of China.

8 posted on 04/11/2007 1:23:25 PM PDT by TruthShallSetYouFree (Abortion is to family planning what bankruptcy is to financial planning.)
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To: Marine_Uncle; Dog; Cap Huff; Allegra

ping


9 posted on 04/11/2007 1:24:19 PM PDT by noname247
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To: noname247

Compartmentalize?

Anyone know of recent historical examples?


10 posted on 04/11/2007 1:24:37 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: noname247

too bad they can’t do that to OUR borders


11 posted on 04/11/2007 1:26:07 PM PDT by sappy
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To: noname247
US FORCES in Baghdad are planning to seal off vast areas of the city with barricades, effectively imprisoning the inhabitants of neighbourhoods, according to The Independent.

No bias here.

12 posted on 04/11/2007 1:27:05 PM PDT by Logophile
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To: Logophile
...wrote Robert Fisk.

Fisk is proof positive that there are some people that you can't even beat sense into.

13 posted on 04/11/2007 1:29:05 PM PDT by SmithL (si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: GeorgefromGeorgia

They have some very nice gated communities like that in South Florida...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NzCg-oKVBk


14 posted on 04/11/2007 1:34:34 PM PDT by Whit
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To: Names Ash Housewares

See Flash Bazbeaux’s reference in #6 to Malaya. Many consider it the 20th Century ideal in counterisurgency ops, and it is frequently contrasted with the French failure(s) in Indochina.


15 posted on 04/11/2007 1:37:50 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack
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To: noname247

We are making the SUNNI GHETTO right now. Just you watch and some democrat lunatic will accuse us of the same tactics the Nazis used in Warsaw 1943.


16 posted on 04/11/2007 1:38:58 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Killing all of your enemies without mercy is the only sure way of sleeping soundly at night.)
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To: Dilbert56

Well, they can’t let this sound like a “new strategy.”

That would impinge the “Bush can’t change” and “we must have a new course” (toward defeat) meme.


17 posted on 04/11/2007 1:43:07 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Vote Republican. It's a matter of life and death this time.)
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To: noname247

It works in LA, it ought to work in Baghdad.


18 posted on 04/11/2007 1:44:48 PM PDT by RightWhale (3 May '07 3:14 PM)
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To: Centurion2000

Everything I’ve learned about the mideast over the last several years seems to indicate that they’ve already erected the walls on their own.

It’s a result of thousands of years of tribal warfare.

In this case it appears that all our military will be doing is erecting some barricades and checking IDs.


19 posted on 04/11/2007 1:46:01 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Peace without victory is a temporary illusion.)
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To: Centurion2000

Oh, heck! Don’t give them any bright ideas, eh?

Of course, it is inevitable...


20 posted on 04/11/2007 1:46:04 PM PDT by gridlock (On January 20, 2009, Fred Dalton Thompson will be sworn in as President of the United States.)
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