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A different perspective.
January 04 when the USMC took the lost Anbar province the directions given by those we replaced that is that the majority of the patrols were to be out in the desert and to give the locals three weeks notice before going into any town/village on any “patrol”.
This “guidance didn’t set too well and attempts were made to work with the locals. Most here know that Fallujah happened. April 04 we approached the local sheiks. Of forty who wanted to play ball 22 survived. This initiative was not looked upon favorably at the time by either U.S. or Iraqi higher.
I am no CA by trade, my job was to get these sheiks to a destination for meetings in safer circumstances. All the sheiks that showed up made it to the meeting and back to Anbar. The most memorable part was upon arrival at the meeting destination relaxing with an awful “Cuban” cigar, some coffee and conversations with the sheiks. The gist was both sides knew that more blood would flow and that they would have to stand on their own and both his people and mine (he meant USMC) would have to fight our central governments to make the changes at the local levels first and present them as fait accompli.
I guess my ramblings are along the lines of WTF? Our country has had a representative democracy for a long time and has had that time to get use to it’s form. Expecting Iraqis to have a homogenous view of things when we in the U.S do not at best borders on lunacy. If people here do not or are unwilling to understand that lots (percentage unknowable) of Iraqis want some form of democracy and a stable government and are working for it from the bottom up despite the central government then they are missing largest part of what is going on. What part of making the changes at local levels despite the central government’s interference is not compatible with the U.S. ethos?
Watching the apathy of voting in this country and then watch the Iraqis vote under gunfire, RPGs, and mortars is humbling in my opinion. Others have called the notion maudlin, simplistic and naïve because the result wasn’t an instant Western European style democracy.
S/F, FOG
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