Maliki, Petraeus Visit Insurgent Hotbed in Iraq

By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Foreign Service
March 14, 2007

The Americans are now fighting insurgents in Iraq with loudspeakers as a weapon of choice in Ramadi, in an attempt to sway Iraqis who have been bombarded with Sunni propaganda. The speakers have been broadcasting speeches by the local mayor, playing the national anthem, and even putting on the latest European soccer scores. All of this comes in a new attempt at bringing Iraqis back to the side of the Americans. US Gen. David Petraeus calling is “good counterinsurgency stuff”. Pretraus hosted Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki in what was his first visit to the province of Anbar in nine months. The move was designed to show Iraqis that Maliki wasn’t just a leader in Baghdad, but also a leader across the country, across all of the sects. Ramadi has been a definite thorn in the US’s side, as the region has been out of control for years now, and nearly a third of the US servicemen killed have lost their lives in the province. While in Anbar, but secured tightly within the US military base, Maliki had meetings in one of Saddam’s former palaces and pledged to improve the infrastructure and compensate residents for damage done by insurgent attacks. Maliki’s visit was without a doubt a needed one, because, as Petraeus had said, he had visiting Iraq but not his own people. To me, this makes a lot of sense because it would be very difficult to have a leader that you didn’t really know, especially in a crucial situation in Iraq where winning over every Iraqi is key in the success of occupation.