I've mentioned this before

From 2007- Iraqi's speak out about the changes last year, including the walls that separate the people. Wires, concrete walls, checkpoints, militias on the road. (Audio).  And this from 2007,  and, ourside the bases.

So let's just talk about what it is LIKE to live there and while you read this, remember that the US is the invader and the occupier of a sovereign country where the rulers want the US to LEAVE by 2010. WHY does Al-Maliki want the US to leave? Well, this may be partly why.

I've sat down with dozens of Baghdadies in recent years and listened to how they plot trips to the grocers the way James Bond maps out the path into a villains lair. The timing, the pace, the fakes _ ducking into one store then racing across the street to the real target. They figure out who will take the lead gun, and who will take trail. What they buy becomes secondary to the idea of surviving the trip.

And so, in these circumstances, when U.S. troops started introducing 12 foot blast walls that blocked off most streets into any neighborhood, then setting guards and controlling the remaining entrances, there was a sigh of relief.

Baghdad since shortly after the invasion, has been deteorating. The last year, though, because of the decision to limit freedoms, of movement, to work, to go to school, it has been safer.

And now, perhaps in the best sign we've seen that the Iraqi capitol is nearing normalcy, many of the five to six million are starting to complain about the lack of freedoms in their city.

Again, imagine living life on a daily basis like that here. (I suppose gated communities that the well to do have are synonymous with this-giving up freedoms in order to feel safe). You must read this entire article.

First introduced by the Americans in 2003 to protect their Green Zone headquarters, walls became much more widespread with the launch early last year of a major security campaign in Baghdad. In some walled-off neighborhoods, access was granted only on proof of residence or special ID cards.

Nowadays there's hardly a street in Baghdad without a wall - or a cheaper substitute like barbed wire, palm tree trunks, mounds of dirt or piles of rocks. They're even used to control pedestrian and vehicular traffic in risky areas. ...

And not just talking about 20 foot high walls but also security towers looking down on the neighborhoods. Remind you of a prison?

The wall reduced violence significantly in Azamiyah, but the stringent security checks and the delays at crossing points ruffled many residents.

"The wall came to make us suffer," said Waleed Mahmoud, a 35-year-old Azamiyah resident and father of four. "It takes my children an hour to get to school, I am often late for work and there is never fewer than 10 cars in the line at the two crossing points."

The local economy, which suffered during the worst of the bloodshed, hasn't improved since the wall was built. The neighborhood's popular garment stores and kebab restaurants are still doing a fraction of the business they enjoyed before the war. Potential shoppers from other neighborhoods are staying away, wary of the identity checks at the wall.

So, keeping an extra number of troops in Iraq, many of whom have been buildilng these huge concrete barrier walls, might indeed have brought down the violence...because people are caged in, have to go through checkpoints and present ids (which I'm betting include biometic eye scans). Would we ever want to l,ive like that HERE?