Democratic Underground - 25% of Middle Class Iraqis flee as conditions worsen

We may be debating in this country on whether or not our troops should pull out of Iraq. But Iraqis who can afford to have already determined it is time to leave.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/world/middleeast/19migration.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

"The main thing now is to just get out of Iraq," said Mr. Bahjat, standing in a room heaped with suitcases and bedroom furniture in eastern Baghdad.

In the latest indication of the crushing hardships weighing on the lives of Iraqis, increasing portions of the middle class seem to be doing everything they can to leave the country. In the last 10 months, the state has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7 percent of the population and a quarter of the country's estimated middle class.

snip

Most frightening, many middle-class Iraqis say, was how little the government did to stop the violence. That failure boded ominously for the future, leaving them feeling that the government was incapable of protecting them and more darkly, that perhaps it helped in the killing. Shiite-dominated government forces have been accused of carrying out sectarian killings.

"Now I am isolated," said Monkath Abdul Razzaq, a middle-class Sunni Arab, who decided to leave after the bombing. "I have no government. I have no protection from the government. Anyone can come to my house, take me, kill me and throw me in the trash."

snip

"The past few months convinced us," said Mr. Kubba, a businessman whose wife is Sunni. "Now they are killing by ID's. The killing around Americans was something different, but the ID's, you can't move around on the streets."

"At the beginning we said, 'Let's wait, maybe it will be better tomorrow,' " Mr. Kubba said.

"Now I know it is time to go."

Also included in the above article are pictures of these families which is about as opposite of our images of Iraqis as you can get.

Here are some other examples of just how bad it is there. With a hat tip to Andrew Sullivan, here is another story of the pogroms against gays and others who "corrupt the community" in Iraq.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2183948,00.html

THE death threat was delivered to Karazan’s father early in the morning by a masked man wearing a police uniform.

The scribbled note was brief. Karazan had to die because he was gay. In the new Baghdad, his sexuality warranted execution by the religious militias.

The father was told that if he did not hand his son over, other family members would be killed.

What scares the city’s residents is how the fanatics’ list of enemies is growing. It includes girls who refuse to cover their hair, boys who wear theirs too long, booksellers, liberal professors and prostitutes. Three shops known to sell alcohol were bombed yesterday in the Karrada shopping district.

And here is news from an Iraqi blogger of the Talibanization of a Baghdad neighborhood:

http://citycalledhell.blogspot.com/2006/05/wild-wild-west-or-exodus-of-women.html

Al Amiriyah District is a small district on the west side of the Tigris river “al Karkh”, this district used to be one of the most expensive neighborhoods in beautifully Baghdad back in the stone ages “Prior April 2003”, its main street called “al Amal al Shabi” was one of the most busiest street filled with people shopping, going to the famous Chicken Restaurants, lots of teenagers hanging around till dusk.

Now in the Golden age “Post April 2003” you should see that same street, concrete barriers, so cars would slow down, 99.9% of the shops shut due to terrorist threats, not even barber shops.

On Sunday the whole street was filled with threat notices posted by the “Honorable Resistance” AKA “Zarqawi’s” its main subjects are:

Men are not allowed to grow goatees
Men are not allowed to wear Jeans
Men are not allowed to remove their facial hair
Woman are required to wear a “Juba” some kind of black gown that looks like a sack
Woman are not allowed to drive
Women are not allowed to leave their homes without a chaperon

Any one not obeying these rules will be shot.

I am sharing all of this bad news with you to simply illustrate the complete failure of the * administration to secure the country. In light of the cold blooded killing of 24 innocent civilians by American troops in November as confirmed by Rep. Murtha 2 days ago, it has become quite obvious that our troops are becoming less and less effective. Atrocities ultimately happen because of bad policy decisions at the top, and the despair and frustration of troops transforming into evil acts. Even hawks have to acknowledge what a complete failure this "Iraq Project" has become. Training Iraqis can no longer be an excuse to stay longer since the training seems to be used moreso than not to terrify, torture, and kill the local population. We must start the transition of leaving the country and containing the terrorist threat that could inevitably come out of the failed state of Iraq. And, yes, it is now a failed state, when 25% of the middle class leaves. These are the people that would have brought the country back and since they are gone, there will be no hope until after the civil war is over, a war the American troops will have NO control over.

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