Leader

We expressed our condolences to the Provincial Council Chairman at a get- together at our usual coffee shop here in the IZ. You do see a truer picture of a leader when something tragic strikes; I think we’ve all got a particular image of the Mayor of New Orleans in the past several days. Of course being the premiere elected official in Baghdad means that he’s by definition in ‘crisis mode’ all the time. But he handles it well. We discussed the difficulties faced by the hospitals and the emergency responders. They are now among the primary targets of the insurgency, but still they get out there when something goes bad. To clarify, the tragedy occurred during a Shia celebration which involves processing from one side of town, across the Aima Bridge and on to the Khadhimiyah Mosque in remembrance of the death of Imam al-Kadim. Most of the participants were older women and young children. In the morning, mortar fire was reported as hitting near the mosque, but nobody was deterred from marching in one of the largest gatherings in Baghdad since the war. There were police check-points on the bridge to control movement, but as the numbers grew the parade got backed up on the way off the bridge. The bridge has large fences and guard rails along its span. Someone shouted that there was a suicide bomber and the stampede started. The rush killed many, but bottle-necked on the bridge the pressure against the fences was too great and each side collapsed, causing hundreds to fall either into the river or onto concrete bases below. The Tigris is a filthy urban channel through town, swiftly winding through obstacles of industrial debris. There are a lot of soldiers here from Louisiana, and one member of our team will be headed home this week after a year in Iraq to his house which no longer exists. There’s a strange sense that the tone of our meetings is a little different this week. There’s a deeper sense of empathy perhaps. I thought I ought to pass on that Chairman Mazin, on behalf of Baghdad’s citizens, expresses his concern for the victims of Katrina and to the massive reconstruction effort needed in New Orleans.