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Return to Iraq: A Fragile Peace That's Jarring

Troop surge, Awakening Councils have brought fragile peace

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 21, 2008 9:04 AM CDT
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(Newser) – When Dexter Filkins left Baghdad in 2006, it was a city of shuttered buildings and fearful citizens, in a land that looked as though it would never recover from war. But, writes the war correspondent in the New York Times, “to return now is to be jarred in the oddest way possible: by the normal, by the pleasant, even by hope” —reopened, packed shops, people outside at night, women walking alone.

The relative peace can be traced to the troop surge, built on the idea that the majority of Iraq was tired of the attacks of a small number of militants, and to the help of Sunni Awakening fighters on the US payroll, Filkins observes. But the calm seems fragile as America prepares to withdraw troops and the prime minister talks of disbanding the Awakening Councils, whose members once targeted him.

US soldiers stand guard during a meeting with families who resettled in their homes after being displaced by sectarian violence in the Hurriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Sept. 18, 2008.
US soldiers stand guard during a meeting with families who resettled in their homes after being displaced by sectarian violence in the Hurriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Sept. 18, 2008.   (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Awakening council members man a checkpoint in the southern outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 15, 2008.
Awakening council members man a checkpoint in the southern outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 15, 2008.   (AP Photo/Loay Hameed)
A man tries out an oud, an Arabic instrument related to the lute, at a music store in Baghdad, Iraq, in this Saturday, June 21, 2008, file photo.
A man tries out an oud, an Arabic instrument related to the lute, at a music store in Baghdad, Iraq, in this Saturday, June 21, 2008, file photo.   (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)
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Filkins 'is the greatest war correspondent of my generation'
The Atlantic

Slate follows Filkins in 2004
Slate

Bush foreign policy won't look good in history books
Chicago Tribune

Surge may not have been fix-it factor
Reuters

 
troop surge • peace • Awakening Councils • Iraq war

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