A Letter from Iraq...

[Zunni]

Great letter home. Some serious parts and some gutbustingly funny parts. A couple of tidbits....
Time Magazine: A Letter from Iraq

Most Surreal Moment — Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels.

Most Profound Man in Iraq — an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied "Yes, you."

[PixelPusher]

Biggest Hassle — High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and "battlefield" tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no effect on their preconceived notions of what's going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they've been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.

...got that Bush/Cheney/Condi/Rummy?

Biggest Outrage — Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest Offender: Bill O'Reilly.

...nuff said.

[PixelPusher]

Biggest Surprise — Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that we'd get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in their homes and on the streets, but the cops won't give up. Absolutely incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far better at finding them than we are — and they are finding them. Now, if we could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp...

most encouraging part of the letter (except for the police brutality part, although that probably doesn't bother some people on this board)

Favorite Iraqi TV Show — Oprah. I have no idea. They all have satellite TV.

Maybe she should promise her Iraqi viewers all a free car if they stop the sectarian violence.

[boutons_]

4,000 Iraqi Police Killed In 2 Years, U.S. Official Says

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 7, 2006; A16

Iraqi police have suffered 4,000 killed and 8,000 wounded over the past two years as the fledgling force grapples with wartime problems including corruption and infiltration by sectarian militia, a U.S. commander said yesterday.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, commander of the Civilian Police Assistance Training Team in Baghdad, described significant headway in building an Iraqi police force, saying that 99 percent of the target force of 188,000 police has been trained and 82 percent have their equipment.

But he said continued efforts will be needed in 2007 to improve the quality of the force, provide training in leadership and basic policing skills, and weed out militia members -- some of whom are known to have carried out sectarian executions.

"It's hard to really ascertain how many individuals within the national police forces . . . still maintain loyalties to militias," Peterson said in a Pentagon teleconference with reporters. "We do ask the question, but obviously the response is always 'no.' So I have no idea what the number is."

This week, Iraq's Interior Ministry had to remove a brigade of hundreds of Iraqi police from duty in Baghdad after it participated in sectarian violence, including one battalion that raided a meat-processing factory and kidnapped more than 20 Sunni workers, seven of whom were later found executed.

( maybe they were just given to dubya's boyz "for interrogation" )
That brigade, as well as other Iraqi police units now being inspected, will undergo three weeks of "police transformational training" to improve policing skills, Peterson said.

Peterson called the sectarian killings by police "an isolated incident" and said the decision to order the police brigade back to its garrison was "very positive."

"The minister has been concerned about two principal issues within the ministry: corruption and sectarianism," said Peterson, whose 1,000-person team is in charge of supporting the training, manning and equipping of Iraq's police force. In addition, about 6,500 U.S. troops and more than 600 police officers are currently acting as embedded advisers to Iraqi police units.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

[AFE7FATMAN]

Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province — Any Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician (EOD Tech). How'd you like a job that required you to defuse bombs in a hole in the middle of the road that very likely are booby-trapped or connected by wire to a bad guy who's just waiting for you to get close to the bomb before he clicks the detonator? Every day. Sanitation workers in New York City get paid more than these guys. Talk about courage and commitment.

Bush just gave the Millitary the lowest pay raise in history. Even the DOD
say's they are 4% behind the civilian sector.

[DarkReign]

That was an excellent letter.