Juan Cole: "The security situation in Baghdad sucks big time."

[blitzen]

http://juancole.com/


The Green Zone was originally supposed to be the safe place in Iraq, with the area outside it (everything else) called the "Red Zone." The US Embassy in Baghdad appears to have forgotten what the phrase "Green Zone" means, since a spokesman there told the LAT, "There's fire into the Green Zone virtually every day, so I can't draw any conclusions about the security situation based on that . . ."

Let me draw the conclusion. If you've got fire into the friggin' Green Zone every day, then we can draw the conclusion that the security situation in Baghdad sucks big time. When you've got people killed and a large number of people wounded in the one place in Iraq that was supposed to have a "permissive" security environment, then security in general is the pits.

Now you might say that we can't draw many conclusions from the events of a single day. And, being able to lob mortar shells over a wall doesn't speak to that much organization. But then what about these two nuggets in the LAT story?

1) "There were about 39 attacks in May, compared with 17 in March, according to a U.N. report."

2) "Tuesday's attack came the same day gunmen kidnapped Iraqi Police Col. Mahmoud Muhyi Hussein, who directs security inside the Green Zone . . .

[Jacobin]

1. The Green Zone security chief was kidnapped?

Oh man.

Alice in Wonderland time for the Bushies.

[leftchick]

2. I am sure he is being "debriefed"

now.

[Schema Thing]

4. Apparently their first question was

"here is a map of what we know of the green zone, please use your bloody stump to point out where Maliki's office is located".

[Kagemusha]

3. As we keep getting told, the terrorists don't follow Geneva Conventions.

So it really sucks to be him. :(