The number of indirect fire attacks has slowed down as the optempo around here has ramped up. New troops are moving into Baghdad, and you can see, hear and feel their presence.
Now that my web site project is (mostly) done, General Casey, our top commander in Iraq, has taken an interest. In fact, he wanted the whole site (2,000 plus pieces of content) translated into Arabic by Friday. I got that news on a Monday. It didn’t happen by the deadline. But it’s being worked on. We had to work out a compromise. With a staff of four people on this side of the pond and a few more on the other end in Washington, D.C. it simply wasn’t realistic, especially since none of us speak more than a few words of Arabic.
The last few days have been much better than the few days that preceded them. It’s hard to think while taking mortar fire. All you think about it where the next one will hit, hoping it isn’t on top of your hooch, building or whatever.
We are in a battle for Baghdad. This battle involves physical force, but also means we need to win the trust of the residents here. One of our generals recently said that Iraqis will need to love their children more than they hate each other for Iraq to have any hope of becoming a decent place to live. That’s a loose paraphrase, but the country is on the brink of change; whether for better or worse is in question. In the movies one of the most popular cliche scenes is a car or truck on the edge of a cliff with the wheels spinning and the occupants desperately rocking the vehicle trying to back up and get away from the edge. Iraq is the vehicle and the occupants are Shia and Sunni. They’re all in the same car, but some of them are fighting instead of trying to help back away from the cliff. And for the last few months, thousands of Iraqis have been dying as the result of this foolishness. Americans and others are dying too, but this is mostly Iraqi on Iraqi violence rooted in generations old grudges and abuses that the Shia suffered under Saddam’s rule.
Will the additional troops be enough? I hope so. The next few months will be a pivotal time for the newborn government, which is the first representative elected government any Iraqi has seen. It’s a messy, messy journey.
Iraqi politicians need to step up to the plate and renounce violence. The power brokers here have always been ruthless men. That has to change for progress to come. As my time in the sandbox grows short, I hope that these men will grow tired of watching Iraqis squabble like children over little pieces of nothing. History shows that when men work together they achieve much more than they could alone. Life is infinitely better when it is peaceful.