Haifa street near the Green Zone in Baghdad has come to symbolize the futility of America's efforts in Iraq as a whole. Right outside the safety of the Green Zone, the insurgents controlled a major street. American and Iraqi forces would clear it one day, and the insurgents would take it right back.
Here is a NY Times video from January. The fighting that night was described as "some of the most intense fighting of the nearly four-year-old war, a 10-hour-long firefight involving almost 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops along Haifa Street in central Baghdad, a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency."
Today, Haifa street tells a different story, one that shows what GEN Petraeus's tactics can accomplish, if given enough time and troops. Other COIN experts have been saying the same thing - we are finally executing the right plan, hopefully not too late.
Whether we can will it, given where we are as a Nation is another matter. You decide.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Vignette of change - Haifa Street
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1 comments:
One of the few positive facts coming out of the mainstream media is displayed in the CNN Haifa Street video. Unfortunately it seems slightly tainted by a pessimistic outlook of the whole operation by the anchorwoman. Too bad they can't build on the positive foundations, only reinforce the negative. Maybe we should embed military with the news organizations rather than the other way around.
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