Healing Iraq Blog

Trudy Rubin
December 19, 2006

In military parlance, there is a concept known as “the golden hour.” It refers to the window of time within which badly wounded troops have a good chance of surviving if they can be evacuated to medical facilities. But if this window closes, the chance of saving the wounded soldiers drops sharply.

“We have missed the golden hour,” I was told recently by a U.S. officer with extensive combat experience outside Baghdad. He was referring to the chance of stabilizing Iraq.

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Iraqi Bloggers React to Saddam’s Verdict:

“Although I am happy that Saddam is going to be executed, I think it’s not going to change the real mess in Iraq…”

“Most of the Iraqis I’ve prodded felt oblivious to what could happen to Saddam’s neck. A Sunni cousin of mine by the name of Omar in Ghazaliya said, “To the hell,” while another Sunni cousin of mine in Egypt said, “To the heck.” I for one, felt happy, and congratulated everyone I saw…”

“We are witnessing an incredible moment in the history of freedom. I had no idea that the verdict would release such an intense bond of fealty to Saddam among those who reject and fight the new Iraq…”

“The decision on Sunday was bittersweet, as an Iraqi Kurd I think this is the day of justice we have all looked forward to and dreamed about, that Saddam would find his fate and that the martyrs and people of Iraq who have suffered due to him would be on the other side of the equation…”
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Nearly half of Iraq’s population is under the age of 21. ‘Iraq: The Lost Generation,’ which was shot for Channel 4, opens a window into the hidden lives of Iraqi Youth. I strongly recommend watching it.

It follows the lives of the insurgent, the soldier, the doctor, the militiaman, the prisoner, the salesman and the disabled. All of them young Iraqis who have lost hope and feel they have no future.

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What happened yesterday in central Baghdad borders on the farcical.

Up to 80 gunmen, dressed in camouflaged Interior Ministry uniforms in dozens of unmarked four wheel-drive vehicles and pickup trucks with tinted glass, surrounded and blocked all roads leading to the Directorate of Scholarships and Cultural Relations at Andalus Square at 9:30 a.m., Wednesday.

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A coordinated series of car bombings and mortar attacks by Sunni insurgents – the deadliest yet since the American invasion in 2003 – has killed at least 161 Iraqis and wounded up to 260 at the Shi’ite district of Sadr City, northeast of Baghdad. They targeted several checkpoints and marketplaces at three busy streets leading into Sadr City from across the Army Canal, which separates it from the rest of Baghdad. The death toll is likely to increase as hospitals in Baghdad struggle to accommodate and provide treatment for the wounded.

The bombings at 3 p.m., Thursday, followed a bold attack by dozens of masked Sunni gunmen, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles, against the Health Ministry at Bab Al-Muadham in central Baghdad. The gunmen attempted to storm the ministry but were kept at bay by ministry guards. They continued to shoot at the ministry from the rooftops of surrounding buildings until U.S. and Iraqi forces arrived at the scene, two hours after the attack had started. The Health Ministry is housed in Baghdad’s Medical City, where the Baghdad Medico-legal Institute (the main morgue in Baghdad), Baghdad University’s medicine and dentistry colleges, as well as several health departments and hospitals are located. The Defense Ministry is just across the street, but it took two hours for Iraqi and U.S. troops to intervene.
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