Who is in Control?

Here is another Iraq update. I first sent this back on 29 April. Remember, this is a lazy man's way of catching up to date rather than re-writing everything that has been happening in the past 2 months.

It may sound as if I am starting this email off with a little negativity, but when you see the figures, you will understand why that is the case.

Since last weekend, there were nearly 40 shootings in one of the northern cities of the country alone. In the past two weeks, there have been 19 murders in that particular city, with five bodies discovered dumped in one trashed house. Can you declare a country “civilized” or able to conduct self government when this type of violence occurs? Where are the police during times like this? They obviously do not control the streets or neighborhoods where this violence is occurring. Are they responsible for this condition, or are events simply too out of control for them to be able to have any effect? We think that the police are receiving top notch training, but apparently they are not able to deter these types of crimes. There appears to be plenty of corruption in the police force and in city hall. Is this violence a problem that the US military should be able to step in and fix, or is this type of violence at the city level something that the local authorities should be able to handle? Do we blame the national government for the failure to stem the violence, or is it caused by a culture of violence that the government can’t change overnight? There are people in these big cities who hate other people simply because someone belongs to a different group or wears the wrong color of scarf or bandana. Do we walk away and allow them to kill each other, or do we have some obligation to fight this violence to help the majority of people in these towns who simply want to be able to go to the store without fear of being attacked or killed? In addition to the problems up in this northern city, the southwestern border is equally out of control. Gangs of bandits cross the border at will and wreak havoc in the small border towns. The military is nowhere to be found on the border, and the few border police who are out there are doing the best that they can in between gunfights. From the border, these people are moving throughout the rest of the country, committing murders and other violent crimes. As soon as one thug is arrested, there is another one coming along to take his place.

Is the country out of control? Do we throw up our hands and walk away and allow lawlessness to rule, or do we make an effort to stand and fight?

Those are great questions, and I don’t have the answers. Since I am talking about the US (Chicago in the north and the Texas-through-California border in the southwest), you tell me what we should do. When I read these press reports of what is going on over there in the US, it makes me wonder if it is safe for my family to take that cross country trip this summer or not. Who is in control over there anyway?

I guess that is what happens when all someone knows about a situation is what one reads in the paper.

I am not going to downplay the enemy out here and pretend that all is well. These guys are ruthless and medieval in their desire to kill. What the US doesn’t have to deal with in its streets are IEDs and suicide bombers. For all of you women out there, you will be happy to know that there is a push from Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to give women equal rights in their group. The equality that they offer is the equality of being able to blow themselves up just to kill other people. Women are the suicide killers of choice right now over here. I shouldn’t even use the term “women,” because AQI is using young girls younger than 16 to do their work. A few weeks ago, a young girl blew herself up in front of an Iraqi couple and their two children up in Mosul. During that same day, the US 3ACR was fighting some AQI elements near a mosque (not IN the mosque, NEAR the mosque). Two AQI were killed in a house next to the mosque. The press was hounding our public affairs people about the damage to this holy mosque that could have occurred from this battle right outside its doors. No mention of the Iraqi suicide killer who killed 2 Iraqi kids and their parents.

I am honestly not being facetious here, but while men are being recruited to the suicide bomber ranks with promises of 72 beautiful women on the other side, no one has figured out what the women are being offered. It is looking as if these girls who are being used are generally very low IQ girls. The bomb vests are often being detonated by someone else using a remote control. In addition to using women, AQI is using little kids. A driver asked some Iraqi soldiers to allow him to park his car near a market so he could keep an eye on his two sleeping children in the back seat while he quickly grabbed some produce. The guards saw the kids and let the car park near the market. The driver got out of the car, walked away, and blew up the car with the two kids in the back seat. It turns out that he had kidnapped the kids to use as tools for his killing.

Both the Sunni Al Qaeda and the Shiite Mahdi Army (with their Iranian counterparts) are facing a slight dilemma at the moment. While both groups continue to declare that the US is the great enemy, these same groups keep killing their own civilians to prove that the US and Iraqi governments are not maintaining security. People in the north and in the south are starting to figure out that when the Americans are in their neighborhoods, they are not being shot and killed or blown up. When AQI and Mahdi elements are around, people get killed. AQI is beginning to try to target Iraqi police and military forces more than civilians, and they are trying to hit US forces in the north. Down in Baghdad, the Mahdi are directly confronting US troops, and they are loosing a lot of their own fighters by doing that. Iraqi citizens generally do not get a good feeling when they hear that Iranian agents are in their country influencing events, so Muqtada Al Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi bunch, went on TV to announce that there was absolutely no Iranian influence over him or the Mahdi army at all. Of course, he broadcast that speech from Iran, and everyone on the streets knew it.

Here are a couple of other news items from Iraq. Again, there is still plenty of fighting going on, particularly up here in the north, but these are just some other happenings that you probably don’t hear about.

One of the big challenges that US trainers have when training Iraqi military leaders is to get them to take the initiative. Remember, they came from a culture where if Saddam or his sons didn’t tell you to do something, then you had better not do it. The big Basra fight from a month or so ago occurred after an Iraqi general was given the green light to take the initiative and he took his forces to Basra to fight the rogue Shiites who are aligned with Iran. The US wasn’t completely informed of the operation, and the general, so proud that he was taking the initiative, forgot to inform the US military that he was carrying out this operation. At least he took the initiative.

There were a couple of bright spots from that operation. President al-Maliki fired 1300 soldiers and police who left their duty stations. Also, an organization called the National Police went in and cleaned house. The National Police are not the city police and they are not the army. The National Police intentionally recruit a mixed Sunni/Shia/Kurd cross-section from all around the country to become officers. They are trained to be loyal to the law and each other, and not to their sect or tribe. Since they are recruited nation wide and since they don’t operate in their home regions, they are becoming very effective. They are the guys who arrested the locals and soldiers who abandoned the fight in Basra. Their role is to deal with the insurgency. This organization is growing slowly but surely.

I don’t know if the US press told the complete story from Basra, but the Iraqi government sent in new leadership and took Basra back. An article from Basra begins with this: “CD shops sell love songs again. Some women emerge from their homes without veils, and alcohol sellers are coming out of hiding…The changes in recent weeks mark a surprising show of government sway – for now - after an Iraqi-led military crackdown…”

Progress is being made in incremental steps over here. It is a big deal when Iraqis take the lead and achieve some success. Their military hasn’t won anything in quite a few years, so each little victory is a proud moment for them.