Arresting an Iraqi "general" takes a delicate touch. Michael Yon begins;
The city of Hit (pronounced “heat”) is a spot of green in the desert on the western bank of the Euphrates. The temperature is steadily rising here as the weeks melt into the mirage of summer; the haze shimmering at about 115°F now. The air was blowing hot and dry through the city Tuesday morning 29 May, when I accompanied LTC Doug Crissman for another day of meetings with local leaders in Hit and surrounding towns in Anbar Province. Crissman and the soldiers of Task Force 2-7 Infantry under his command have been welcomed in the area of Hit for about the last one hundred days. Prior to February, Hit was one of the hottest little battlegrounds of the war, with almost daily gun battles crackling through the air, mortars exploding on the bases, and bombs cratering the roads.But none of that noise punctuated a visit last Saturday, when LTC Crissman and I walked through the downtown portion of the city. Our several-mile stroll through the market—a veritable shopping mall for the area—was filled with men, women, and children of all ages, including one rotund boy furiously slurping an ice cream before it could drip away.
Hit could have swallowed us whole that day. Although there were vehicles nearby in radio contact, we had only two soldiers as guards during our stroll. But the people mostly just waved and smiled, or wanted to talk with Crissman, who stopped now and then to engage in conversations, all while the steam building inside the pressure cookers of our helmets soaked the pads in sweat.
Thanks Kate. Yon's report is a good read and very intriguing.
Heroism originates within the individual, not a committee. Great story!
This is a really great story, well written. It is so ridiculous that no one main stream media networks would even come close to showing, or reporting this or stories like this. Way simpler to be complaisant with the standard nonsense and rubbish they wish to perpetrate. Kate, keep up the good work.
It's refreshing to read a story of hope and positive nature coming from Iraq..I raqi forces getting it together and embracing ethical/equitable justice...seems the days of the warlord are ending...as usual it comes from an alternative media source.
I agree with talkinghead. Yon's story is brilliant.
Take this one story -- in terms of breaking news, rich details and revealing photographs, personal courage and breadth of coverage from the background of Hit to the aftermath of the arrest -- and compare it to the plodding, platitudinous whine of most stories in the Globe and Mail today.
What an awful indictment of the MSM.
thanks for the article - and note how Crissman behaved, completely, as a superb, top-notch professional. The MSM, however, doesn't inform us about these soldiers; it prefers to portray the military via the miniscule percentage found in a prison camp.
LTC Crissman makes this old Marine proud!..even if he is Army....one hell of a story,and Yon is one hell of a reporter!
Anyone reading this news story would have a completely different view of Iraq than the one we are fed by the msm.