Street Lights Restore Iraqis’ Sense of Safety

American Forces Press Service ^ | Sgt. Luis Delgadillo, USA

[SandRat]

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Jan. 2, 2008 – With small additions like street lights, a sense of safety is returning to the streets of two Iraqi communities.

A concerned local citizen stands watch near a checkpoint in Arab Jabour, Iraq, Dec. 27, 2007. Street lights, a recent addition to the area, have improved the security climate. Photo by Sgt. Luis Delgadillo, USA  
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

More than a month after street lights were installed in Arab Jabour and Buaytha, south of Baghdad, local citizens and soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, from Fort Stewart, Ga., are enjoying the peace of mind the lights have brought to the area.

Yassin Majid Yassin, a member of the concerned local citizens group that helps to provide security in Arab Jabour, said the street lights are just the first step in securing the night. He said he hopes that in time, he and his fellow citizens will be able to take on a larger role in securing their neighborhoods at night, for a role now performed largely by soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment.

Army Spc. Dwight Arceneaux, a combat medic with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, said the street lights have made night patrols a little safer, because anyone out after dark now is easily identifiable, a fact that Yassin and his fellow concerned citizens find comforting. Arceneaux added that the lights also help him and his fellow soldiers recognize which vehicles should or shouldn’t be out on roads after curfew.

Yassin agreed with Arceneaux, adding that nighttime visibility also has meant that roads can stay open in the daytime, as those who would plant roadside bombs no longer have darkness to hide their activities.

“If you were to ask all the people around here, they would tell you the same thing: The lights have made things safer,” he said.

As coalition forces push further south into areas where al Qaeda has been pushed, concerned local citizens like Yassin will take on a larger role in defending their communities, military officials said.

(Army Sgt. Luis Delgadillo serves with 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs Office.)

[SandRat]

FR WAR NEWS!

WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!

All the News the MSM refuses to use!

Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!

Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.

If you would like to be added to / removed from FRWN, please FReepmail Sandrat.

WARNING: FRWN can be an EXTREMELY HIGH-VOLUME PING LIST!!

[secretagent]

“Reborn Mr Fix-it, Ahmed Chalabi, pulls Iraq out of darkness’

November 11, 2007

“MOST of Baghdad’s street lamps went on last week for the first time in years. It was a small improvement in the quality of life, but in the twinkling light the Iraqi capital looked a little less menacing and a lot more familiar.

Ahmed Chalabi, the former darling of American neoconservatives who lobbied hard for the overthrow of Saddam and later became deputy prime minister, toured the city with quiet satisfaction. The street lamps were the clearest sign yet that the reconstruction of Baghdad, a city of rubble, concrete and blast walls, is not a forlorn hope.”

snip

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2848203.ece

[do the dhue]

bump

[secretagent]

“Where’s the World’s Largest Single Installation of Solar Street Lights?”

http://solveclimate.com/blog/20071129/wheres-worlds-largest-single-installation-solar-street-lights

snip

“Brand new solar-powered street lights line the main roads. Now that insurgents no longer sabotage the electrical grid, Fallujah gets around twelve hours of electricity a day on average. (It used to be a lot less.) Getting street lights permanently off the electrical grid not only frees up power for televisions and air conditioners, it prevents the city from going dark even when the power is out. The Marines plan to have every street lit up with solar power in two years. Sunlight in this country is a terrible punisher for almost half the year, but it makes solar power almost a no-brainer, especially since the electrical system is already broken.”

snip

[lepton]

Let’s just hope that they never need to blackout their cities again.

[secretagent]

Do you mean good Iraqis deliberately blacked out their cities before?

[lepton]

I think people that were trying not to get hit by airstrikes - good, evil, or just hiding - blacked out their lights.