U.S. Begins Erecting Wall in Sadr City

[struggle4progress]

Source: NYT

By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: April 18, 2008

BAGHDAD — Trying to stem the infiltration of militia fighters, American forces have begun to build a massive concrete wall that will partition Sadr City, the densely populated Shiite neighborhood in the Iraqi capital ...

Iraqi troops, who are manning strongholds hundreds of yards ahead of the American positions, reported that they had run desperately low on ammunition, according to tactical radio reports.

American commanders were eager to avoid a repeat of the setback Tuesday evening when one Iraqi company abandoned its position to the front of American forces. That area was reclaimed the next day by a different Iraqi unit, but the episode gave militias temporary control of a critical stretch of road and a fresh opportunity to plant roadside bombs ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/middleeast/18sadrcity.html?hp

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/middleeast/18sadrcity.html?hp

[acmavm]

1. This administration thinks everything can be fixed with a 'wall'.

[saigon68]

14. Now the Chimp has his own BERLIN WALL

"Hey Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall", Ronnie Ray-gun 1988

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Something there is that doesn't love a wall..." - Robert Frost

...or an AWOL WMD liar posing as Commander in Chief

[ExPatLeftist]

3. Good plan!

Historically, walls have always fixed EVERYTHING!

[More_liberal_than_mo]

4. New Iraqi Prison

That’s the ticket! Build a wall to imprison them. That will teach them how to love the USA. Sorta’ makes you proud to be an American. :sarcasm:

[grytpype]

5. I think they're building the wall so Maliki's forces can't retreat.

That's what I would do anyway.

[bemildred]

8. Won't help much unless they get bullets too.

Probably not even then.

[darue]

22. ya, and how about that, unencypted radio communication for the iraqi's?

maybe trying to draw the militia into making an attack with this?

[izquierdista]

6. Just like Grandpa Bush

Georgie wants to build a wall just like the one Grandpa invested in.

[mbperrin]

9. What an original idea!

n April 1940, construction of the ghetto walls began. On Yom Kippur, October 12, 1940, the Nazis announced the building of Jewish residential quarters. Roughly 30% of the city’s population was to be confined to an area that comprised just 2.4% of city lands. Jews from Warsaw and those deported from other places throughout Western Europe were ordered to move into the ghetto, while 113,000 Christians were moved out of the area. The ghetto was divided into two sections, a small ghetto at the south end and a larger one at the north end. German and Polish police guarded its outside entrance and a Jewish militia was formed to police the inside.

The population of the ghetto reached more than half a million people. Unemployment was a major problem in the ghetto. Illegal workshops were created to manufacture goods to be sold illegally on the outside and raw goods were smuggled in. Children became couriers and smugglers.

Hospitals, public soup kitchens, orphanages, refugee centers and recreation facilities were formed, as well as a school system. Some schools were illegal and operated under the guise of a soup kitchen. Still, many Jews died from mass epidemics (such as typhoid) and hunger. The streets were filled with corpses. Jews in the ghetto still had to pay for burial, and if they couldn't afford it, the bodies were left unburied.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Warsaw.html


Clandestine prayer groups and yeshivot were also started. Some religious Jews believed that their suffering was preordained and would bring about the Messiah. There were also many religious Jews involved in heroic acts. One famous leader was Janusz Korczak, the director of the Jewish orphanage, who chose to accompany the children he cared for when they were deported.


And as everyone knows, this tactic won the war for the Germans!!! No, wait....

[AlphaCentauri]

12. That's how the "free" world works today

[EFerrari]

21. This is exactly what I thought of when I heard about this wall. n/t

[saigon68]

15. How sweet, line up a few jews at the Warsaw ghetto wall and gun them down

[gratuitous]

7. And if that doesn't improve morale . . .

It will be time for the trains, the camps, and the whole ovens thing. Did I say ovens? I meant showers!

[LynnTheDem]

10. We are the enemy.

The blowback to America caused by this monstrous bUsh regime is going to be massive.

[fascisthunter]

11. A Lot Good Walls Do

idiots

[Tempest]

13. Reagan: "Tear down this wall", Bush: "Build up this wall"

[ckramer]

24. This is like an economic cycle

Up and down, repeat...

[TrogL]

16. What an irony. I'm watching Pink Floyd/Roger Water's "The Wall" concert

[saigon68]

17. That's nicer than this wall

[maddezmom]

18. US, Iraq forces build wall through militia bastion by Jay Deshmukh

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US and Iraqi forces are building a concrete wall through the Baghdad Shiite militia bastion of Sadr City in a bid to stop militiamen firing rockets as fresh clashes in the district killed 13 people on Saturday.

The wall of varying height is being constructed along the main road dividing the southern side of Sadr City from the north of the sprawling district of some two million people.

The barrier of cement blocks, some up to three metres (12 feet) high, "will enclose the neighbourhood (the southern section) in order to control access in and out of the area," US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover told AFP.

Stover said it was the plan of the Iraqi government. "We don't operate independently."

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080419/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestsadrcitywall_080419122234;_ylt=AmPmP76GaJ3anfrKW4goV.BX6GMA

[fshrink]

19. Yup. It's all about erection.

[KansDem]

20. Get Christo to build "The Wall!"

[DebbieCDC]

23. Great -- let's build the Sadr City Ghetto

Just like ol' grampa in Europe ca. 1939.

Don't you love bushco family traditions? "Summering" at k'bunk; wars; recession; building ghettos

:puke:

[saigon68]

25. The Man and his father are Monsters

And his Mother whose face is on the $1.00 US Bill

In spite of her urging has a diseased mind (Not a beautiful One)

[MetaTrope]

26. If you don't have a concentration camp big enough for Baghdad's Shiites...

Then just wall them into one.