'Gated Communities' For the War-Ravaged

[LiberalFighter]

Source: Washington Post

"If we keep the bad guys out, then we win," said 1st Lt. Sean Henley, 24, who works out of an outpost in southern Ghazaliyah, a Sunni insurgent stronghold on Baghdad's western edge that is among the first of the gated communities. The square-mile neighborhood of about 15,000 people now has one entrance point for civilian vehicles and three military checkpoints that are closed to the public.

In some sealed-off areas, troops armed with biometric scanning devices will compile a neighborhood census by recording residents' fingerprints and eye patterns and will perhaps issue them special badges, military officials said. At least 10 Baghdad neighborhoods are slated to become or already are gated communities, said Brig. Gen. John F. Campbell, the deputy commander of American forces in Baghdad.

/snip/

"They've been doing it in Florida, and the old people seem to like it," joked the platoon's leader, Sgt. 1st Class Charles Schmitt, 37, as he watched his team create the public entrance to the new gated community.

/snip/

So Fowler plans to have soldiers at the entry point use scanners to log the fingerprints and eye patterns of every person who enters southern Ghazaliyah. That will deter insurgents while building a sort of neighborhood census, he said, something counterinsurgency experts say is an essential step in tracking population movements. It will also let soldiers compare the fingerprints of people who enter with fingerprints collected during operations.

Read more: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/22/AR2007042201419.html?hpid=topnews

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The walls reminds me of movies involving after-effects of a nuclear holocaust

[saigon68]

1. Dear Sean Henley

I hope you are up to a "Life's Work" of keeping the bad guys out.

We won't be joining you.

Me and my family are going to be taking a serious time out from your little mischief adventure

[LiberalFighter]

5. I'm sure Lt Sean Henley at 24 years of age knows everything needed to know.

Probably learned it all from those video games.

:sarcasm:

[Occulus]

8. Don't knock the first person shooters!

If I'm being pursued by someone intent on doing me harm- which, being gay, is a very real possibility- I need to know how to "hide in shadows", while I "crouch" and "equip" my "pistol"

:sarcasm:

(This post was intended for those who think games are "too violent". Well, guess what. You can't learn jack shit about actual violence, and how to react to that, from a video game!!)

[sutz12]

2. Welcome to Berlinadad....

:shrug:

[Kagemusha]

3. Oh come on, you don't gate an insurgent stronghold to keep bad guys OUT.

You do it to keep bad guys IN. They're gonna try to wall off 2 million strong Sadr City too. Good luck.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

4. What will you " win " Lt. Henley

[LiberalFighter]

6. How many points does he need to win the video game?

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

7. Well said, goodnight and peace to us all.

[Cobalt-60]

9. "Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man"

-George Patton.
Indeed ,will they put armored steel domes over them too?
Last time I checked the cheap and plentiful mortar was ideal for assaulting such a place.

[OneBlueSky]

10. it's what we do best . . . treat the symptom, ignore the disease . . . n/t

.

[gorbal]

11. This MIGHT be a good idea.

Sure the whole war was one travesty after another, but if the Iraqi's in those communities in those communities like their living situation, this could raise us up in their estimation, for good or for ill.

Of course, I'm guessing most of them will be rich.