Iraqi citizens shovel debris from the streets of al-Doura, Aug. 12. Department of Defense photo by Army Sgt. Steven Phillips.

BAGHDAD

Fear is beginning to disperse. 

“We’ve dropped the violence down to near nothing (in al-Doura),” Maj. Gen. James Thurman, commander of Multi-National Division – Baghdad, told the Los Angeles Times. “We’ve got a positive trend happening, but it’s the will of the Iraqi people that we need to encourage.”

The Iraqi capital is an ancient city whose 6 million residents are enmeshed in a complex web of tribal affiliations and religious rivalries where a lack of jobs spurs resentment and violence breeds reciprocal violence. 

Yet, the vast majority of people just want to live in peace.

The Iraqi government and the Coalition are counting on those who want a peaceful Iraq for their children to help them stamp out bloodshed.

“I think we've all seen progress in Baghdad in the last five or six weeks as a result of the operations that we've been conducting,” Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the commanding general of Multi-National Force – Iraq, told a group of reporters last week.

“The difficult part is going to be holding these areas with Iraqi security forces and building the relationships between the Iraqi people in the neighborhood and their security forces so that they can get on with their economic development in those areas,” Casey said. 

Success in the ‘Battle of Baghdad’ will depend on political negotiations and economic development, as well as military force, he added. 

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Tom Mazalewski, from Civil Affairs Team Three, interviews a local shop owner in the marketplace to see if anyone has started to throw trash away into the new dumpsters in al-Doura, Aug. 11. Department of Defense photo by Army Sgt. Steven Phillips.

Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the Multi-National Force – Iraq senior spokesman, said the plan to secure Baghdad includes about $630 million in development funds for targeted neighborhoods. 

The Government of Iraq, with Multi-National Force - Iraq support, is working very closely with local district advisory councils, together employing thousands of local laborers from the community to clean and rebuild parts of the neighborhood markets and repair and restore essential services, Caldwell said.  

Additionally, thousands of tons of trash have been removed from these areas in order to help the citizens live in, and feel better about, their city. These projects not only help the area get back on its feet, but create critical short-term jobs, offering young men alternatives to violence, Caldwell added.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, the government’s top economic official, said that economic development must go hand-in-hand with security. 

“Undeniably security has to rank at the top,” Salih told Reuters news agency. “But does that mean at the expense of the economy and services? You cannot. All these things are inter-related. You need to regenerate the economy, create meaningful opportunities for employment, in order to help the security environment.” 

In al-Doura, a neighborhood of 135,000 people, “we went out of our way to actually meet with the imams and religious leaders,” Brig. Gen. Obd al-Karim, commander of the 6th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police Division, told the Los Angeles Times. “Our main goal is to re-establish security in this area.  The second goal is to provide essential services to the residents. The third goal is to stop migration of residents and bring back those who have been forced out of their homes. 

“Most are comfortable and actually very glad of the operations and security we are providing in the area,” al-Karim added. 

Iraqi and Coalition forces swept through some 5,500 buildings in al-Doura, and engaging local leaders has paid dividends, Casey said. 

“We thank those committees operating at the neighborhood level with the Iraqi Police and the Iraqi military, providing information on threats in the neighborhood,” he said. “We think those committees can make a positive contribution, but we also think that they should be unarmed and provide information and let the security forces deal with the threats.” 

Militias remain a problem in Baghdad as a whole, Casey said, but the Coalition and Iraqi government is taking a nuanced approach in dealing with these armed groups.

“There have been, and there have been ongoing discussions for several months that have produced some political and military steps that we believe will ultimately lead to the disarmament of the militias,” he said.

“There are several things that need to happen for the militias to feel comfortable that they can lay down their weapons.  The first of those, I think, is the improvements that we're seeing in the Iraqi security forces.  And what we're seeing in Baghdad, as these neighborhoods are cleared it's the Iraqi security forces that will go in and hold the security in those neighborhoods. And I think when the people begin to feel more confidence in their security forces, they'll feel less need to rely on the militias.” 

But not all militias are the same, the MNF-I commander said:

“There are militias that are no better than murdering, criminal gangs, and they flout the rule of law every day. And those need to be dealt with firmly by the government because no government can stand to have criminal groups terrorizing their population.

So while some militias need to be dealt with militarily, others will lay down their arms through negotiations and assurances.

“There's a political and a military track that are working in parallel here, and it's fairly sophisticated and delicate, but both those tracks have to be pursued if we're going to stand the militias down in an appropriate fashion,” Casey said.

The main threats to security are still the terrorists and the death squads.

“And both of those threats have to be addressed if Iraq is going to progress,” Casey said.