Ezra Klein: If It's Not on Television, It Isn't Happening

April 21, 2007

If It's Not on Television, It Isn't Happening

by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math

That clever fellow at Bag News Notes is on to something: why haven't we seen any pictures of the Baghdad Wall? Would it just be too much a sign of defeat, that in order to "accomplish something" war planners have resorted to the Vietnam-era tactic of fencing off populations for "protection"? Or is it so dangerous that no one will send a camera crew out to gather art? Neither is a particularly good situation.

April 21, 2007 | Permalink

Comments

americans should not be shown the signs of success prematurely lest they think that the work is already done and want the troops to come home.

this glorius wall in baghdad is america's gift to the Iraqis and they will remember this nice gesture for ever.

Posted by: gregor | Apr 21, 2007 5:26:21 PM

They don't want the taggers to find out. If the wall gets covered in graffiti, the terrorists will have won.

Posted by: BroD | Apr 21, 2007 6:59:37 PM

guess we'll have to destroy that 'village' (enclave) in order to save it.

so the plan is now to have bantustans in Iraq (like the West Bank), so that people can live freeeeeeeeeee.

with gates and guards too, just like in toney US McMansion developments.

my first thought when i heard of the baghdad Sunni-protection wall: the Warsaw Ghetto.

now those who want to murder the Sunnis inside can do it more easily since anyone inside requires killing, and no one outside will know how many have been wiped out. walls shield things as well as separate things.

Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Apr 21, 2007 7:19:39 PM

Bush thinks ahead. We will see the wall only after the U.S. pulls out, and the Shia are slaughtering the Sunni inside.

The wall is just part of another clever Bush plan for abject failure, in this case, the failure of withdrawal.

Posted by: Bruce Wilder | Apr 21, 2007 7:36:05 PM

NBC News showed it tonight.

Posted by: terryinaz | Apr 21, 2007 9:04:36 PM

Two theories:

The security situation is so poor around the wall that journalists and photographers are unable/unwilling to go there. I think this is likley because it is bound to be a magnet for terrorist attacks/suicide bombers, etc. If you build it, they will come...

OR...

The area is somehow cordoned off from reporters for polticial purposes - think of the lack of access to the flag-draped coffins of US soldiers landing in America. A wall is a solid, permanent, horrid thing. It would conjure up images of Berlin, and would lead people to ask why we need the darn thing in the first place.

Posted by: Adam | Apr 21, 2007 10:14:47 PM

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