Trench coat

Historically, city walls were built to protect its citizens from maurading forces of a harsh, warring and ruthless outside world. But not today. Today we are seeing the curious sight that the Iraqi government is planning to build a "series of trenches," in other times known as moats, in order to seal off Baghdad from both possible directions of jihadist/insurgent flux.

The Iraqi government plans to seal off Baghdad next month by ringing it with a series of trenches and setting up dozens of traffic checkpoints to control movement in and out of the city of seven million people.

Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf informs us of the work:

We’re going to build a trench around Baghdad so we can control the exits and entrances so people will be searched properly. The idea is to get the cars to go through the 28 checkpoints that we set up.

Moats, walls, whatever. What is clear is that desperation has set in.