Curfew in Baghdad

Bush says stay the course, everything is fine, you can move along now. It doesn't wash any more, does it? Michael Signer of Democracy Arsenal has a post trying to imagine what it must be like to have a curfew at 2 in the afternoon (shades of Lorca!):

Without making any policy pronouncements or partisan postures on Iraq, it's useful now and then just to try and put yourself in ordinary Iraqis' shoes. The WaPo had a story last Sunday on the leak of a startling internal memo from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq showing that Iraqi employees at the Embassy can barely tie their shoes without worrying about being assassinated. Now today finds an unsettling story, again in the WaPo, describing the curfew that was just announced -- abruptly and with no notice -- in Baghdad:

Adding a new layer of confusion to the security crackdown gripping Baghdad, the Iraqi government today imposed a last-minute ban on pedestrian as well as vehicular traffic throughout the city.

The 2 p.m. curfew was announced late in the morning, after many people were already traveling to work or to mosques for weekly Friday prayers...

Read the whole article (and The Washington Post stories) and also the first comment. There have been some dishonest right wing Republicans talking about how much safer it is in Baghdad than it is in a number of American cities. So where are the tourists lining up to see the wonders of Baghdad? Here's a picture of what White House staffers think of the dangers of Baghdad on Bush's recent photo op trip.