BAGHDAD – President Bush announced plans on Tuesday to pull 8,000 more combat and support troops out of Iraq by next February, but not all Iraqis are happy about the security situation here.
At Baghdad International Airport a handful of returning Iraqis, who were recently denied residence in Sweden, blamed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for their disappointment. “He visited Sweden and painted too rosy a picture of conditions here in Baghdad. So Sweden is no longer accepting Iraqi applications for asylum, and we were sent back here,” said one of the Iraqis at the airport who had been turned away.
To be fair, involuntary repatriation may not be the fate it once was. Baghdad’s security has definitely improved. When I was traveling down the road from the airport to the center of the city recently there were fewer checkpoints than during my last visit in June. And the high-speed security convoys escorting important visitors now appear to have blended into the traffic streams. Dozens of shops abandoned by fearful merchants have been reopened and there is a noticeable absence of armed police patrols in the streets.
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