Life Returns to Normal in Baghdad

BAGHDAD—Since the last soldiers of the "surge" deployed last May, Baghdad has undergone a remarkable transformation.

No longer do the streets empty at dusk. Liquor stores and cinemas have reopened for business. Some shops stay open until late into the evening. Children play in parks, young women stay out after dark, restaurants are filled with families and old men sit at sidewalk cafes playing backgammon and smoking shisha pipes.

To be sure, Baghdad is still a violent and dangerous place. Pockets of territory remain under the control of the Al Qaeda in Iraq organization. Bandits and gangsters roam back alleyways. Explosions still rumble through the air, though far less frequently than they did a few months ago. Many issues remain unresolved and much could still go wrong.

But for the first time in years, Baghdad's residents are starting to remember what an ordinary life is like.

"I used to close my shop at 6 p.m. but now I stay open till 9 or 9:30. Then I walk home and I feel completely safe," said Jawad al-Sufi, 64, who runs the House of Hijab head scarf shop in the much-bombed district of Karradah. He had to replace his windows five times because of bombings outside his shop, but there has hardly been an attack in Karradah since September.

"It happened very suddenly," he said. "There was a sharp turnaround, right after Eid," the Muslim holiday in late October. "Since then, security has improved 85 percent."

It's not only that Baghdad is starting to feel normal. Statistics compiled by the U.S. military and the Iraqi government show that the violence has fallen significantly countrywide. Most of the figures are not broken out for Baghdad, but the capital has in the past accounted for a high percentage of the violence.

Source: Chicago Tribune
Related: The Torn Ultimatum
Releted: Troops and Locals Stop and Defuse 20 Car Bombs

Commentary

The Surge has been successful beyond the Darkest Democrat Nightmare!

However, the relentless Democrats will continue to try to sabotage the mission in Iraq despite being warned by the Legacy Media that this will cost them the election in 2008 if they continue to play to the Moonbat Democrats, Loser Libertarians, and Idiot Ron Paul Supporters.
The strategy of President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and the Generals in the Iraqi Theater have worked, and will continue despite the Treason of the Defeatocrats.

And this, on the heels of the IVAW (Iraqi Veterans for Treason) declaring our troops to be "baby killers." Shameful. It is too bad indeed that there are no whackjobs protesting in the far western counties of North Carolina to taunt
with this information.