Impressions from Baghdad

The NYTimes has an eyeopening report from a correspondent, Jeffrey Gettleman about the recent changes in Iraq.

It's short and well worth a read.

The minute I got to the scene, I realized I was stepping into a new Iraq. Another new Iraq, really; maybe even the third Iraq I have seen since I began reporting here in 2003.

Gone were the American tanks that used to guard the intersections. Instead, aggressive teenagers with machine guns and shiny soccer jerseys ruled the streets. They poked their heads into cars and detained whomever they wanted. There were even 8-year-olds running checkpoints, some toting toy pistols, others toting real ones. Whatever they carried, 4-foot-tall militias made me nervous. The streets now had a truly Liberian feel.....

If this all sounds depressing, it is. That's how people here feel. I've been looking hard, but in two weeks I haven't found an Iraqi optimist.....

It is difficult to communicate just how violent Baghdad has become.

Gettleman also has another more formal and "newsy" article on the scores of men who have been found tortured and killed in Baghdad simply for being Sunni or Shia, but this is the one that impacted me.