Best Little Cop Shop in Iraq
Totten’s latest, from Anbar:
“Our success in this region is because of you,” Captain Dennison said to Lieutenant Colonel Rahman. His statement was completely sincere. He was not being perfunctory or merely polite.
“And also because of you,” Lieutenant Colonel Rahman said, also sincerely. “Please don’t leave us.”
…
“We see Iraqis smile now,” Sergeant Kitts said to me on our way out. “And seeing Iraqis smile…that’s a big deal. These people haven’t had anything to smile about for a very long time. This is where we are finally earning our money.”
“I agree,” First Sergeant Rodriguez said. “It’s a lot less volatile now, so we can actually move this place forward.”
I walked among the tidy rows of grapes, figs, dates, and olives with Lieutenant Colonel Rahman and an Iraqi interpreter named Jack.
“Now that the fighting is over,” I said, “what kind of work do you focus on?”
“Mainly on gathering intelligence on sleeper cells and support networks,” the colonel said. “It is much easier now. People here are very appreciative and cooperative with what happened and with what is happening now. If Iraqi Police officers or coalition soldiers go to people’s houses they are welcomed with open arms for food and for tea. Before the people here were not allowed to even look at coalition forces or they would be murdered by Al Qaeda.”
“What do you think about the possibility of Americans withdrawing their forces?” I said. He had already said please don’t leave us to Captain Dennison, but I wanted at least a little elaboration.
…
“Are you optimistic?” I said.
“Yes,” he said.
“Why?” I said.
“I’ll tell you why,” he said. “I could not even dream of seeing what has taken place here in Anbar. Couldn’t even dream of it. If in Anbar, why not in Baghdad?”
“Baghdad is hard,” I said. “It is so much more complicated than here.”
“Yes,” he said and nodded. “Here we are strictly anti-terrorist. In Baghdad the police still favor their sectarian militias.”
Anyway, take a look at the whole thing, with art and more reporting. Here’s something different from another police commander in Anbar:
“All your reporters are men,” he said. “Every reporter I have seen in Ramadi is a man. You should send American women so they can talk to our women. Someone needs to find out what they think about what’s happening here.”
Interesting point. As dear old mom used to say about love, the women are the ones who decide who’s going to date who. They just let the guys think they did. There are women reporting for AP and other news orgs in Iraq. Maybe they aren’t getting out enough. Totten has thoughts on reporters getting out, too, and meets some AQ suspects. Take note of tipjar at bottom.
Topics: Iraq
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:28 am on Monday, October 8, 2007
One Response to “Best Little Cop Shop in Iraq”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
October 8th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Once again, Totten outshines anyone in the MSM.