While I was in Qatar on pass, I read the following article about the levels of violence in Baghdad during July.
The decision to include only victims of drive-by shootings and those killed by torture and executions allowed U-S officials to argue that a security crackdown led by U-S forces had cut the capital’s murder rate in half.
The omission of bombs, mortars, rockets or other mass attacks put the U-S military’s toll into conflict with Iraqi Health Ministry numbers. The ministry counted more than 1500 violent deaths in and around Baghdad — nearly the same number as in July.
To say that I am flabbergasted by this article would be an understatement. The process of tracking and monitoring levels of violence in the capital is a complicated one, but in my mind, there is no way that underreporting the violence by leaving out certain types of murders was unintentional. That reflects poorly on every individual tasked with helping to improve the security situation, including me.
If we are not being completely forthright about the situation on the ground in Iraq, then how can we expect to improve the situation on the ground in Iraq? I’m sure that someone, somewhere has a rational explanation for the above. Maybe this is bad reporting, or someone muddled something up. I certainly hope so. Someone needs to clarify what happened.
After nearly a year here in Baghdad, I am very weary of the violence. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like for the run of the mill residents who do not live behind blast walls and who are not protected 24/7 by an array of military weapons and security forces. Winning the long war requires always telling the truth, without editing, without spin. You cannot fix this broken city without examining its reality, and publicly facing daily life and death on its streets.
Things will eventually improve. Whether they improved during July or not remains in doubt, at least in my mind. I’m sure the city’s rank and file residents would have an opinion on that too, were I able to safely go out and interview them. I am not, and so I must often gather my news the same way you do, from behind a keyboard. I have been out and about in Baghdad, but always within the security of an armored and armed convoy, which is not something available to city residents.
Operation Together Forward is ongoing and it does appear that those neighborhoods being focused on are experiencing reductions in daily violence. Long-term plans to expand and extend the overall plan will be critical to the future of Baghdad, which is home to about 7 million of the nation’s 27 million citizens. Are the 6,000 additional troops enough? Time will tell. In the meanwhile, I hope that we get better, clearer news for the months of August and September.