Military Delays, Detours Make Driving In Iraq Frustrating

by Trish Schuh

(IPS) KARBALA -- It should have been a little more than an hour's drive south from Baghdad. But it took an hour just to pass the checkpoints, with U.S. military hummers intermittently veering into oncoming traffic.

At one point we saw a small car that had collided head-on with a tank. A common complaint from Iraqis was about American tanks driving over family cars, squashing those inside.

Outside the city, progress was frustrated by a mile long convoy of U.S. armored personnel carriers, tanks, humvees and military supplies waiting for deployment to 'Operation Lightning' in Baghdad. Hundreds of civilian vehicles were forced off the four lane highway onto a narrow dirt road bisected by rail tracks.

We repeatedly stalled, zigzagged, and backtracked among cars, trucks and tanks. More waiting. Then out of the chaos of noise and dusty, reduced visibility careened a train which sent cars squealing. We arrived in Karbala, 105km from Baghdad, four and a half hours later.

When we got to Camp Lima Base of the U.S. military, we were greeted by the civil affairs battalion team. Major Ken Booth voiced U.S. concern for Iraqi human rights and democracy. He also explained U.S. reconstruction plans and the unit's motto: SWEAT (sewage, water, electricity, academic, and trash priorities).

He said that a major obstacle was getting money for rebuilding Karbala. Despite this, the military had begun five water and electricity projects, as well as a nursing home, he said. Maj. Booth felt that Iraqis who expected more were being unreasonable. "They think every problem is a U.S. problem. They can't expect us to turn Iraq into Switzerland in six months."

Major Jack Helmers was asked why the U.S. forces invaded Iraq. "There are many reasons," he said, "but mostly Saddam himself was a weapon of mass destruction. He killed Kurds and Shiites. He was working on other WMDs -- we may still find them." He added that a part of the U.S. mission was "explosive ordnance disposal."

Certainly radioactive depleted uranium (DU) is not hard to find, but U.S. authorities have refused to clean it up. At one point, piles of live munitions were tossed in piles along the streets, unmarked due to a shortage of yellow plastic 'caution' tape.

On a visit later to the office of Al Abrahemy of Iraqi Human Rights Watch in Karbala office, he showed what this could mean to Iraqis. Placing a cluster bomb on his desk, he said people had unsuccessfully requested many times that the U.S. military retrieve the WMDs they had dropped. Parts of 'Daisy cutters,' 15,000 pound bombs with a lethal radius of about 900 feet too, were still being found all over the city.

Children thought the yellow devices were toys. So on April 3, a committee headed by local volunteer Ali Hamza finally decided to dispose of the ordnance themselves. Attempting to clear a schoolyard, Ali Hamza was killed.

The Army promized compensation, but the family has received nothing. Responding to U.S. inaction, a Community of Victim's Kin was founded, demanding that 5 percent of Iraq's oil income be distributed among victims' families.

The incident refuted Major Booth's earlier focus on liberty, democracy and Iraqi human rights.

Ali Nassir of the Iraqi Council for Solidarity and Peace said that democracy was a long term commitment. "If you want to build a house it may take a year, but to build human beings it takes the future. The U.S. Army didn't bring democracy."

It may not have brought basic equality either. On the way out of Camp Lima Base were two latrines, one marked "Iraqis Only" and the other "No Iraqis -- Americans Only." Asked for an explanation, Major Booth replied that this was due to 'cultural differences.'