posted
IN RAMADI, A RAGTAG SOLUTION WITH REAL RESULTS Adapting to changing conditions, the U.S. trains and arms an auxiliary police unit, which has helped turn the tide against violence.
By Chris Kraul, Times Staff Writer May 7, 2007
As recently as two months ago, U.S. forces didn't dare stake out the Al Tash neighborhood of this insurgent stronghold in Al Anbar province. Enter 22-year-old Saif Sahed, a go-getter recruit for the Provincial Security Force, a new auxiliary police unit that offers hope for at least a bit of stability in the mean streets of Ramadi.
Sahed lives in Al Tash, the kind of neighborhood where everyone knows everyone and newcomers are immediately noticed — and in recent years often have been insurgents.
"If I find strangers or strange cars, I go to tell my officer. Last week we found some who were insurgents and they were detained," Sahed said matter-of-factly. "The important thing is to make my neighborhood safe."
Because Sahed is young and illiterate, he ordinarily would not qualify for the Iraqi army or police. But for the last several weeks, he and his ragtag cohorts, wearing castoff army fatigues and numbering about 2,200, have filled crucial intelligence-gathering, patrol and checkpoint functions in the new provincial force.
And some of them, including Sahed, are even going without pay, in hopes of someday getting the chance to join the police force and make $400 a month.
The provincial force is an example of how the United States is adapting its military strategy to changing conditions. It is difficult to imagine U.S. forces earlier in the war arming and training a force made up mainly of unschooled rural Sunni Arab youths and Iraqi army veterans, groups once considered unsuitable for the post-Saddam Hussein security forces.
Today, Sahed and other members of the force are helping staff "joint security stations." The new inner-city military outposts, made up of U.S. and Iraqi forces, give the coalition a presence in areas such as Al Tash that just weeks ago were conceded to the insurgents.
-------------------- One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example. Posts: 2430 | From: CA | Registered: Jun 2005
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A rose or two is found growing in the waste of hundreds of acres destroyed by industrial pollution so bad the State and the Federal Governments and their courts are still working to find ways to handle the disaster that it caused. It is deadly, bringing slow agonizing death to children from ingestion of the pollution. An isolated bloom of serenity is not a measure of the value of the lives and homes lost there by thoughtless industrial irresponsibility and does not indicate the place is livable or even pleasant. And, suggesting that a flower growing in a cesspool, that was first intended to be a parkland and santuary, is an indication of success, is simple.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
In all honesty Bdgee, I posted this for Bigfoot, and because I didn't want to ruin your "Wildlife" thread anymore with off-topic discussion. The truth is, I really have no interest in your thoughts or opinions on this particular topic for the time being... but thanks anyway for sharing.
I say good-day Sir.
-------------------- One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example. Posts: 2430 | From: CA | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
Oh, gee, you posted in the open rather than sending a pm and just seem to have neglected telling ANYONE that it was private and they had no right to an opinion.....and now you are hollering "foul".
I have news for you. Many many times, "The truth is, I really have no interest in your thoughts or opinions on this particular topic (or any other) for the time being or forever, but you have seen fit to impose your radical far rightwing hatred of whatever you think you don't know anyway.
Thanks for your contriburtions, though.
....lol.....
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I didn't say you don't have a right to your opinion nor did I suggest you cannot post on this thread. Additionally, my comments were not directed any ANYONE, they were directed at you, which is why I used your screen name.
This thread is indeed posted in a public forum so, by all means, go ahead and post whatever you want. I was simply stating I could care less about what you do decide to post on this particular topic, so don't expect to get a response from me.
Make sense? Good.
-------------------- One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example. Posts: 2430 | From: CA | Registered: Jun 2005
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-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues. Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote: MacFarland says he soon realized the key was to win over the tribal leaders, or sheiks.
"The prize in the counterinsurgency fight is not terrain," he says. "It's the people. When you've secured the people, you have won the war. The sheiks lead the people."
Thi is my favorite quote that tells me this guy has his head on straight.
Let the politico's suck up to the big dogs in Jordan. Let the Iraqi government worry about how to merge the police forces. It's the Army's job to quell the fighting. If working with the second tier tribal leaders and telling them they can stay in their own neighborhoods roots out the insurgents then for now that is what we have to do.
BF
-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues. Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005
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Sounds like progress, however small it might be at this particular point in time, is being made by Army Col. Sean MacFarland. I hope that he gets the recognition he deserves. Hopefully others will catch on and this kind of approach will become more and more commonplace, as it seems to be working.
IMO, progress of this type will help return stability to Iraq so that we can start bringing the troops home. If the Iraqi's can maintain their own security, there is no need for the US to be there any more.
I also agree with you that it is good to work with the "second tier leaders". They are the ones that are there, "in the $#!t", if you will, dealing with the day to day issues, and IMO have more of a chance of having influence and making positive changes than the higher ups hiding out in Jordan.
-------------------- One is never completely useless. One can always serve as a bad example. Posts: 2430 | From: CA | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
There is no such thing a "progress" in Iraq.
In order to "progress" it is necessary to have a predefined direction and a meaning for "improvement" and there has never been (and never will be) any that is even feasible for the U.S. in Iraq, let along reasonable or honest.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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