“Nah,” he said. “That’s their deal. The Iraqi Police have their sources. We’re their liaisons, their trainers. We’re not in charge anymore. We’re just here to help them become police officers instead of paramilitaries.”
I kept hearing this sort of thing, and it always slightly surprised me. It may seem like Americans are in charge in Iraq, but that is really only true to an extent.
“We make sure they follow the rule of law,” Sergeant Guerrero continued, “that they don’t abuse prisoners. We’re trying to get them self-sustaining so we can pull out and go someplace where there’s some actual fighting.”
“At this point,” Sergeant Phillips said, “we’re just waiting for the Iraqi Police to work their magic.”
Weapons caches are usually found on land somebody owns. It wasn’t clear whether anyone owned the land we were standing on, but if so they didn’t seem to mind Americans and Iraqis digging holes all over the place. No one from the village next door came out to talk to anyone. No one even came out to watch. I found that curious, and it made me slightly uneasy. Often it means the locals know an explosion or ambush is imminent.
“Hey,” Sergeant Phillips said. “They brought in a front-loader.”
An Iraqi Police officer drove up in a bulldozer. Now we might be in business. I really hoped they would find something. There is so little “action” in and around Fallujah these days that this, I realized, might be as interesting as it gets anymore.
Another dispatch from Michael Totten.
Kate, Apologies, I can’t seem to get your email going, and this is a total aside:
http://rjjago.wordpress.com/2008/02/07/canadas-top-25-political-blogs-february/#comment-4456
However I will say this:
THE SOIGE IS WOIKING!
Meanwhile, lefties all over the place are peeing their pants wondering how to change this into a loss.
you’d never know it by reading the newspapers. bravo to our troops
I like the line about bringing in a front end loader!
Wouldn’t it be great if that’s how every day ended?
Lot’s of guys driving front end loaders…. burying shit…. demolishing derelict buildings … removing garbage … leveling roads and clearing fields.
I call that PROGRESS !
Just watch for some Soros funded group to come up with a NEW outrageous study showing how the evil Americans have been abusing the Iraqis!!
It’s coming …. count on it.
I’m not sure I’d be hoping for more action when digging for explosives…
It’s one thing to hope to come across some terrorists so you can dish out a little pain to those in need of it but another thing altogether when you’re unbarring mines and booby traps.
yeah I know that … in this case it was just an empty field right?
So that’s a good thing …. I’m hoping that finding the fields empty becomes the norm!