BAGHDAD "PROGRESS"

McClatchy points out one reason there might be a decrease in sectarian violence in Baghdad: ETHNIC CLEANSING!

What Crocker and Petraeus didn't say
By Nancy A. Youssef and Leila Fadel McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Monday, September 10, 2007

Petraeus presented a series of maps to show how sectarian violence had dropped in Baghdad from December 2006 to August 2007. But all of the maps showed the same color-coding for Sunni, Shiite and mixed neighborhoods, even though the ethnicity of many neighborhoods have shifted dramatically over the previous year. U.S. military officials say that Baghdad was once 65 percent Sunni and is now 75 percent Shiite.

From NPR's Morning Edition, we get observations from a Baghdad resident (audio) and here's part of the transcript from Lexis-Nexis:

Dr. HASSAN KHALIDY (Iraqi Dentist): My name is Hassan Khalidy. I am 24-years- old. I live with my family - my father, my mother. I have two brothers younger than me and one sister. She's also younger than me. I graduated from college of dentistry. Now, I'm a dentist.The situation in Baghdad is not stable and it's bad. So sorry for that. And we have to rebuild our country with our efforts.
BURNETT: His life is fairly typical for a young Baghdad professional. He chats on the Internet. He sleeps on his roof to keep cool. He drinks coffee with friends when it's safe to go out. And he's been touched by tragedy. Here then is Dr. Hassan's diary.
Today, he remembers the neighborhood his family had to flee because of rising sectarian violence.
Dr. KHALIDY: I felt very sad. Even my tears flow over my cheeks because I see it's empty. There is no people. No one walking in the streets. All the markets are closed. Like a ghost neighborhood. I saw my home. It was okay but our neighbor home was destroyed. The upper floor is with the earth level, so it's completely destroyed. I didn't hear anything about our neighbors from the time that I lived this neighborhood until now.