Baghdad By Night

November 19, 2007

At the first of the year, the streets of Baghdad, especially at night, were utterly deserted, save for packs of dogs running the streets, and digging into garbage. It wasn’t safe to come out at night and most of the time, a curfew was imposed. The citizens were too afraid to venture out, even if they were allowed to do so.

Then, the surge came along, and now things are completely different on the streets of Baghdad. Now the gaudy glow of neon lights in an electric palm tree can be flashing in one of Baghdad’s favorite nightspots areas. When you enter the area, you can see a colorful assortment of restaurants, juice bars, fruit shops and fish vendors lining the street. The area is alive with people; couples, families and even lone people, going from shop to shop.

“Even two or three months ago we would have been afraid to come here at night,” said 20-year-old Hussein Salah, an off-duty soldier, slurping a milkshake with his wife, Shihad, at the Mishmesha (apricot) juice bar in Baghdad’s relatively safe Karrada suburb.

“Now we sometimes sit outside here till one or two in the morning. It is quite safe. The security situation is vastly improved,” said Salah, the orange light from a nearby flashing palm alternatively brightening and dimming his clean-shaven face.

US Commanders give credit to the surge in forces, earlier in the year, while many on the street, proclaim that the Iraqi government and Iraqi Police are responsible. Regardless of who is responsible, most likely a combination of the two, people are beginning to feel comfortable in venturing out of their homes at night and once again, taking part in things that wouldn’t have been possible, even 3 or so months ago.

“We have the Iraqi government to thank for the peace in our neighbourhood,” said fishmonger Muqdad Mohammed, 38, smoking “mazguf” (carp) — a Baghdad delicacy — netted in the Tigris river on an open fire at a street corner.

– “Things are normal here” now –

“As you can see, things are normal here. It’s after eight o’clock and the streets are still full,” he added, pointing to the groups of people, families and even single women wearing headscarves strolling up and down the road.

“Six months ago we had to close up by 7 pm, now we stay open till 9 or even later,” he said, as live carp flapped about in a tank inside his small stall plastered with pictures of Iraqi Shiite clerics.

Some suburbs of Baghdad, have seen even more revitalization than Karrada, while others, where there is still an al-Qaeda and insurgent presence, the shops close early and people remain safely inside their homes.

While it’s still too early to tell if this revitalization of some of Baghdad’s neighborhoods will remain, as US and Coalition Forces begin to draw down the number of forces in Iraq, it’s hopeful that with more and more Iraqi citizens standing up to join the Iraqi police force or their neighborhood Concerned Local Citizens groups, that things will continue to improve and scenes like this will once again become commonplace all over the city. It will definitely bear watching.

Yahoo News

Written by Terri · Filed Under A Different View of Iraq, In The News, Military, Rebuilding Iraq

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