Patrols turn ugly on Baghdad's Haifa Street
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, September 22, 2004


BAGHDAD — Until last week, the world knew little about Haifa Street. Then came the spectacular car bombs in front of the Iraqi police station, and suddenly, Haifa was Iraq’s newest war zone.

But to the soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, who must patrol the sector that includes Haifa Street, that area has been an all-out war zone for months.

In fact, soldiers with the 1-9 Cav don’t call it Haifa Street. To them, it’s “Grenade Alley,” or “Purple Heart Boulevard.”

In Baghdad, “there are two areas that are highly contested,” said Capt. Chris Ford, commander of the 1-9’s Company C, “Sadr City and here,” in the Haifa area.

Imagine if the New York Times had published this, the right wing would be howling about anti military and anti Bush bias, and not reporting the good news. Actually though there is a grain of truth - the New York Times might not have sufficient sources to report all the real bad news.