We Live Here

One of the things that most impressed me A Bright Shining Lie was the analysis of the tragicomic situation where Pentagon attempts at “Vietnamization” of the occupation by attempting to train and supply a native army and police force merely provided convenient training and supplies for the anti-American Vietnamese who would turn up at police stations and barracks and demand the handover of weapons…

The coalition says it has 70,000 Iraqi police officers and 20,000 members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps equipped and on duty … “We have to live here, so we’re not going to go up against the Mahdi army [the militia loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr],” says a detective at the Habibiya police station in Sadr City, who would only identify himself as Abu Kassem. “We’re in an incredibly dangerous and difficult position.” The Habibya station was one of at least seven in Sadr City that surrendered to the Mahdi army last Sunday, and its stockpile of 80 AK-47 assault rifles was confiscated by Mr. Sadr’s men. Now the Iraqi cops are unarmed, out of uniform, and determined to stay out of harm’s way. “The Americans came here so they’ll have to deal with it.”