"We're a people with so many resources and we have no heating oil?" Khalaf asked. "How can this be?"
"The Americans are responsible for this," he went on. Like others in Sadr City, he suspects that crisis after crisis gives the Americans a justification to remain in Iraq. "They could end the chaos in one month," he said, "but they want to stay a long time."
A U.S. soldier provides security at a Sadr City gas station while Iraqis wait in line. Residents say militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr were organizing such lines until the U.S. military forced them to leave.
(Reuters)
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"We won't accept it," Khalaf said.
Vying With Sadr for Credit
In Sadr City, there is much visible from the street.
For the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003, the sidewalks of potholed asphalt and buckling concrete are cleared of trash. Orange dumpsters are spaced every so often along the neighborhood's main thoroughfare, with a painted message scrawled by hand on their side: "Please leave them as they are." Along streets usually flooded with green sewage in which barefoot children play, the resurrected pumps have drained away the refuse, directing it to a station newly cleared of debris with U.S. funds.
And then there is much that is less visible to U.S. forces.
Graffiti celebrate the fight of Sadr's militia. "Congratulations on the victory of the army of Imam Mahdi," reads one. Others, in a similar vein: "Yes, yes, Moqtada" and "Long live the brave resistance." Over three days this week, the Sadr office distributed 13,000 posters to mark the anniversary of the death of Sadr's father. They adorn utility poles, storefronts and walls.
Holmes and Andrysiak acknowledge that it is sometimes difficult to get their message out. They want to bolster the local government and encourage officials to share in the credit for reconstruction.
No project can carry too great an American footprint, they say, for fear of attracting insurgent attacks. They still vie with Sadr's office, which has tried to claim credit for the work in the past.
"If you talk to local people on the ground, they know who is spearheading the effort and making it happen," Holmes said.
"People understand," Andrysiak insisted.
The tangible improvements in Sadr City have indeed encouraged some, even if their praise is hedged.
"The situation is good," said Lazim Finjan, 60. But he added: "I'd still like them to pave the street. And the lights. There's still no electricity." He paused. "More people should be cleaning the streets, and they should get rid of the thieves."
Along Urfuli Street, where Khalaf works, men gathered in a grocery store and talked about what was better in their neighborhood. Security had improved dramatically, they said, but they credited the foot patrols at night of the Mahdi Army. In civilian clothes, their weapons hidden, groups of five to 10 militiamen are responsible for every few blocks.
