Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Baghdad blast walls start coming down
In an Associated Press article published today at the washingtonpost.com web site, AP reporter Rebecca Santana reports that the Iraqi government has begun removing the tall concrete blast walls that the U.S. military installed "as protection against bombings and insurgents" during its invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Thousands of grey walls were put up in Baghdad and other cities by American and Iraqi forces to "shield markets and buildings from bomb blasts, disrupt insurgents' communications and hinder the movement of car bombs and weapons..., encircl(ing) almost every government building, military installation and mosque" according to Santana's article.
But the walls "exacted an economic and social price, and (some) Iraqis now view them with... hostility," wrote Santana.
In the past couple of weeks they've been coming down, easing traffic jams and allowing better access to businesses, schools and health facilities. Removing the walls will at least "give us a feeling that the security crisis we have lived through is finished," said Qassim Karim, a 50-year-old flour trader.
Municipality workers remove concrete blast walls in Baghdad, Iraq in this Feb. 15, 2011 photo by Karim Kadim/AP

What does Jeremiah the prophet say about the walls? To him, the tearing down of the walls simply helps make the land of the Chaldeans even more vulnerable to the coming destruction -- "Raise your battle cry against her on every side! She has given herself up, her pillars have fallen, her walls have been torn down. For this is the vengeance of the LORD..." (Jer 50:15).
Twice more Jeremiah predicts the walls, which might have offered some security, would be removed -- "Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down!... (her) whole land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst... For the destroyers will come to her from the north," (Jer 51:44, 47-48).
"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'The broad wall of Babylon will be completely razed, and (then) her high gates will be set on fire; so the peoples will (have) toil(ed) for nothing, and the nations become exhausted (because of the) fire," (Jer 51:58).
Rather than the walls of Babylon being torn down by the invaders, apparently the walls are torn down by the Chaldeans themselves, thereby facilitating their own destruction.

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