G
gilliam
Guest
Maj. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, who commands the 1st Cavalry Division and is thus the unofficial “mayor” of Baghdad, is the latest top officer to meet with reporters and complain about the press coverage about Iraq.
“What I think is missed back there,” he told the Washington press corps this week in one of his criticisms, “is the fact that Iraqis continue to want to join the national guard and want to join the Iraqi police.”
Gen. Chiarelli noted that in Sadr City, the Shi’ite slum long oppressed by Saddam Hussein, there has been a lack of violence for several months. He has put 18,000 Iraqis to work building for amenities Sadr City never had: sewers and clean, running water. “I can’t even imagine what it would be like to not have clean, potable water at my disposal, let alone live in a neighborhood that hasn’t had it for 35 years; to live in a house where sewage is standing right outside your home,” the two-star general said. “And we’re going into these neighborhoods. And many of the folks in [the Baghdad press room] we’ve taken out to Sadr City to show them what’s going on, and many of them have told me, at least privately, they cannot believe the change in Sadr City.”
gertzfile.com/gertzfile/InsidetheRing.html
“What I think is missed back there,” he told the Washington press corps this week in one of his criticisms, “is the fact that Iraqis continue to want to join the national guard and want to join the Iraqi police.”
Gen. Chiarelli noted that in Sadr City, the Shi’ite slum long oppressed by Saddam Hussein, there has been a lack of violence for several months. He has put 18,000 Iraqis to work building for amenities Sadr City never had: sewers and clean, running water. “I can’t even imagine what it would be like to not have clean, potable water at my disposal, let alone live in a neighborhood that hasn’t had it for 35 years; to live in a house where sewage is standing right outside your home,” the two-star general said. “And we’re going into these neighborhoods. And many of the folks in [the Baghdad press room] we’ve taken out to Sadr City to show them what’s going on, and many of them have told me, at least privately, they cannot believe the change in Sadr City.”
gertzfile.com/gertzfile/InsidetheRing.html