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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (50419)	6/15/2004 7:21:17 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793914

A BIT MORE SOPHISTICATION By Cori Dauber As I complained last night, a number of news web sites all depended on the AP for their reports of the bombing of a convoy in Baghdad yesterday, and their frame for the story made it all about a crowd celebrating the attack and wallowing in anti-Americanism. The Times this morning takes a slightly different approach. Their argument is that the escalating violence is part of a carefully planned strategy -- as was predicted -- designed to thwart the hand-off but at the same time that's happening, US forces seem to be backing off, trying to hand more responsibility to Iraqi forces, and it's that combination that isn't working. As more than 50 Iraqi policemen stood by, the mob stomped on the hoods of the crushed vehicles, doused them with kerosene and set them alight, sparking a huge fireball in the middle of a crowded neighborhood. Even as angry men ran past them, slipping through police lines to hurl bricks at a squad of American soldiers, few of the Iraqi policemen intervened. "What are we to do?" asked an Iraqi police lieutenant, Wisam Deab. "If we try to stop them, they will think we are helping the Americans. Then they will turn on us." The crowd became increasingly hostile, with one man shaking a severed finger, apparently from one of the people killed by the bombing, at a British reporter. Arab news crews broadcast the mayhem, reinforcing the image of Iraq as a country skidding toward chaos. In Baghdad, the rumble of explosions has become almost like a morning alarm clock. Many of the bombs go off between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., during morning rush hour, to inflict the maximum number of casualties. If there's a frame, it comes deeper in the article: There have been at least 12 car bombings since June 1, and usually both American soldiers and Iraqi policemen respond to the attacks. But a certain pattern is emerging. As soon as the American soldiers roll in, with their armored Humvees and swiveling guns, the crowds scatter. When the troops back off, no matter how many Iraqi policemen are there, the mobs return, in greater numbers. The story, in other words, is not about crowds celebrating attacks, is not about anti-Americanism, it's about the fact that the Iraqi security forces who are supposedly being prepared to take over control of the situation, are so completely passive that they have no street cred whatsoever. And if you have no credibility on the street when you are facing down a large mob, then the street will be taken over by the mob -- very, very quickly. rantingprofs.typepad.com