Fear: Real and Palpable

  Fear is more than a four-letter concept in Iraq’s Diyala province. It’s real. It’s constant. It’s all-pervasive, and for years while the area was under the thumb of al-Qaida it was a matter of life and death.

Meeting an IED — Up Close and Personal

    Encountering an improvised explosive device, or IED, in Iraq is a matter of odds. The bombs are al-Qaida’s weapon of choice and necessity as their numbers dwindle and U.S. military forces work to help the process along. But if you’re a U.S. military combat engineer, the chance of getting blown up is not a matter of “if.” It’s a matter of “when.”

Armed Neighborhood Watch Boosts Security

   Baghdad, Iraq — Ordinary Iraqis helping take responsibility for neighborhood security and earning money while doing so are contributing to the downturn in violence in Baghdad.

Hope in the ‘Hood

   Baghdad, Iraq — Signs that the surge of U.S. forces into Baghdad is working to give the Iraqis time to establish a semblance of security and stability go beyond the obvious dampening of street battles and bombings. It’s in the smaller, slower transformations in neighborhoods where deeper validations are  taking place and where the seeds of possibility are starting to take root.

Shakin’ With the Sheikh

 Hit, Iraq — Nearly five years into the occupation of Iraq the United States is learning what the British, the Turks and even Saddam Hussein knew and practiced before them: Forming alliances with tribal sheikhs is essential to pacifying and governing the country.

U.S.-tribal cooperation helps pacify Hit

 Hit, Iraq – Along the banks of the Euphrates River and just 30 miles from the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi sits a success story in U.S. counter-insurgency efforts in Iraq. The place is named Hit, or Heet, depending on the chosen transliteration between Arabic and English. And it’s a place where the sometimes controversial practice of cutting deals with tribal sheikhs has paid measurable dividends, at least for now.

Letter From Iraq: Complacency Kills

 “Complacency Kills” is the GI mantra in Iraq. It’s posted in every office, every briefing room, every mess hall. There’s simply no escaping it. It soon becomes part of your consciousness, whether you’re safe behind the razor-wire and berms of an encampment or out in harm’s way.

  Admittedly, “Complacency Kills” is an odd admonition for a war zone. But this is Iraq at the butt end of 2007, an Iraq where kinetic combat is – at least for the time being – waning and the daily focus is increasingly on the more pacific nuts and bolts of counter-insurgency and transitioning.

Musing: A Cruel Situation

  Man can endure many hardships, but life without coffee ain’t one of ‘em. It’s not just inconvenient; it’s not just unpleasant. It’s criminal – damn criminal — especially when you’re in Iraq. And especially when it’s freezing inside and out.

Commentary: Happy Thanksgiving From Iraq

Happy Thanksgiving from Iraq, America. And the wish is valid even if the day itself has passed for you and leftover turkey recipes have become mighty old to the palate. Let me tell you a little something about how your countrymen celebrated the holiday here. I don’t mean the dinners in the International Zone in Baghdad or its satellite installations that you saw on the tube, brought into your living rooms by TV crews, or written about for your newspapers by correspondents who stay close to their walled compounds in the capital. I’m mean Thanksgiving incountry, Thanksgiving on the more isolated FOBs (forward operating bases) and outposts.

Going for Hearts and Minds

U.S. Works the Angles of Hearts and Minds

By Richard Tomkins

 

  Rutbah , Iraq – The United States is in perhaps its most difficult phase to date in the war and occupation of Iraq – counter-insurgency and all the strategy and tactics it entails.