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Iraq dreams of what is called sustainable peace - a qualified condition that allows life to go on with an acceptable level of tumult. And so, with a measure of bravado, the government recently announced the imminent removal of most of the concrete blast walls that separate warring neighborhoods and protect citizens traveling on main and secondary roads. As it tries to put the bad days of Sunni vs. Shi'ite violence behind it, Baghdad is rewarding post-sectarian behavior, giving $2,000 to couples who marry outside their sect - an incentive for Sunni-Shi'ite nuptials - in an effort...
...blast walls, says businessman Abu Nour, 35, should not be taken down. The national elections, scheduled to take place in five months, will only add to the dangers, he says. "I believe that violence will increase before the parliamentary elections, and I think that the party which will not find a base or do not find people to vote for them would work to make violence," he says. The government, he adds, does not have enough resources to protect its citizens. Hussam, a cashier at a bustling restaurant in another part of town, agrees with Nour's assessment. There will...
...fatalities: just 240 deaths in July 2009, an 86% drop from the same month in the bad year of 2007. "It's a large difference," Hussam says. "Better than two years ago." The paint in his restaurant is bright and fresh. Meanwhile, young couples dine while flat-screen TVs blast modern Arabic music videos. It's almost easy to be relaxed. But then my companion and translator whispers in my ear, warning me not to speak English and to try to blend in for my safety...
...following the redeployment of U.S. forces out of Iraq's urban areas. In Baghdad, the violence has ebbed to the point that the Iraqi government, whose forces are now responsible for security, this week announced that over the next 40 days, it will tear down the razor-wire-topped blast walls that had for years divided the capital into a collection of fortified, warring Sunni and Shi'ite fiefdoms. (See TIME's behind-the-scenes photos of Obama in Iraq...
...extensive campaign to combat local militants and supposed drug gangs operating in its mountainous borderlands, but there are also rumors of the return of Tajik Taliban fighters who have traded one rugged frontier for another. As if on cue, while the premiers were in discussion, a car bomb blast rocked Dushanbe. No deaths were reported, but the bombing has been linked to suspected militant activity. (See pictures of Pakistan's vulnerable North-West passage...