If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough. - Mario Andretti

Ramadi

by Lee

One bright spot tin Iraq:  Ramadi

The Iraqis in Ramadi, almost all Sunnis, had been worn down by chronic violence. Many had been victims of kidnappings or blackmail at the hands of mafia-like terrorist groups. They had finally come to the realization that, in the long run, the Americans were less of a threat and offered more hope than the fanatical holy warriors from Iraq and abroad.

Families began sending their sons to join the new Iraqi police force and military and fathers ran for municipal offices. They began cooperating with US military officials, turning in bombers and revealing their weapons caches, all while going about their daily lives, running their businesses, working as contractors, shipping agents and garbage collectors. Teachers returned to their classrooms, doctors began treating patients again and store owners restocked their shelves. Iraqis were now building the barbed wire barriers around the city, constructed to force travelers through checkpoints. Iraqis even manned the checkpoints as the Americans—the Iraqis’ former enemies—retreated to the background, watching over as the city made a fresh start.

Since June, Ramadi residents have only known the war from televison. Indeed, US military officials at the Baghdad headquarters of Operation Iraqi Freedom often have trouble believing their eyes when they read the reports coming in from their units in Ramadi these days. Exploded car bombs: zero. Detonated roadside bombs: zero. Rocket fire: zero. Grenade fire: zero. Shots from rifles and pistols: zero. Weapons caches discovered: dozens. Terrorists arrested: many.

Ramadi is an irritating contradiction of almost everything the world thinks it knows about Iraq—it is proof that the US military is more successful than the world wants to believe. Ramadi demonstrates that large parts of Iraq—not just Anbar Province, but also many other rural areas along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers—are essentially pacified today. This is news the world doesn’t hear: Ramadi, long a hotbed of unrest, a city that once formed the southwestern tip of the notorious “Sunni Triangle,” is now telling a different story, a story of Americans who came here as liberators, became hated occupiers and are now the protectors of Iraqi reconstruction.

Great article.  Read the whole thing.

Comments

Posted by on 08/14/07 at 08:09 AM from

...only a few blocks away, men from Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Pakistan, Iran or Saudi Arabia attach sticks of dynamite to their bodies to bomb themselves into paradise on busy city squares.

Everyone keeps talking about the “US led invasion” and the “US occupation”, but very few seem to mention that it’s fucking outsiders like the ones mentioned above causing much of the trouble in Iraq. Why isn’t anybody referring to these people as an invasion force, or as occupiers?

It ain’t all just Iraqi Sunni’s vs. Iraqi Shia, although that is an admittedly large part. But my take is that it’s a lot easier for some damned foreigner Muslim to disrupt things than a native countryman. Sunni or Shia, a countryman must eventually get tired of seeing his country torn apart, as the article seems to be indicating. This wouldn’t be the case for the imports.

Posted by on 08/14/07 at 11:22 AM from

That Ramadi is a bright spot is really saying something.

<< Back to main