There'll Never be a Street Named for Bush in Baghdad

Monday, September 22, 2008

Baghdad Mayor: US Tanks Run Amok and There'll Never be a Street Named for Bush in Baghdad

The USG Open Source Center translates a recent interview with Baghdad mayor Sabir al-Isawi in a Czech newspaper. The mayor

1. denies that the US troop 'surge' is the major reason for the reduced violence in Iraq; 
   
2. complains bitterly that US armored corps drivers continually run their tanks over lampposts, gardens and other things in Baghdad streets instead of going around them; and
   
3. says that that the US military too often goes in with guns blazing unnecessarily and arbitrarily detains too many Iraqis, treating them in ways that contravene human rights standards.

He also says plainly that there will never be a street in Baghdad named after George W. Bush!

"They shoot more than necessary," Baghdad's mayor on the American occupation".

"As Iraqis, we should feel gratitude that the Americans brought down the hated Saddam regime for us. But -- and I wish to say it very strongly -- so long as the Americans continue to be stuck in their ruts, the last remainder of gratitude will evaporate. They ought to be able to be liberators and not act as occupiers."

"During detentions, they do not heed human rights. They carry out raids without reason. They shoot more than necessary. They shrink from quickly determining the exact relations between the two states so that the situation no longer is that one occupies while the other obeys."

"They are driving their heavy vehicles and tanks insensitively, through people's gardens. They crush sidewalks. They demolish lampposts. They are driving, there is a post, but they will not go around it."

Read more the interview here.