Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Diego Union-Tribune
March 18, 2008 By Patrick Quinn, Associated Press
ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq – The top U.S. commander south of Baghdad stepped across a pile of trash to talk to an Iraqi man. “What do you need?” asked Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch.
Mohammed Ahmed smiled back and gave his wish list: better public services, smoother streets, more electricity.
“And security?” Lynch asked.
“Security is good,” the man said, noting that he got his chickens from Hillah, about 30 miles to the south along a highway that was prowled by bandits and killers a year ago.
Lynch's stroll last week through Iskandariyah – once part of the notorious “triangle of death” south of Baghdad – was most noticeable for its nonchalance.
At the top of the triangle is Mahmudiyah, a town of low-slung, ocher-colored buildings. To the west is Yusufiyah. At the southern end is Iskandariyah, about 30 miles south of Baghdad. In between is Latifiyah.
While in Iskandariyah, Lynch took off his helmet, smoked a cigar and meandered through a marketplace on a visit intended to showcase the dramatic drop in violence in the former Sunni insurgent belt.
His trip sought to tap into the same upbeat tone expressed in Baghdad yesterday by Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee. Both cited the drop in attacks – in areas such as Lynch's zone – as evidence that the insurgency is weakened and internal rivalries are being worked out.
“The enemy is still out there. We never said they left. ... But it's not the same,” Lynch said. “I'm very comfortable walking down the street. That is how you get a sense of what is going on. You need to get on your feet and you need to move.”
Children ran around their legs as a chicken vendor waved at Lynch – who lost five soldiers to a suicide bomber last week on a Baghdad street corner within a couple of miles from where Cheney and McCain met with the Iraqi leadership.
“We have a lot less problems than we had even three or four months ago,” Iraqi police Col. Ali al-Zahami said.
As recently as Christmas Day, one of the U.S. Army captains accompanying Lynch last week was sitting in a ring of Bradley fighting vehicles in a nearby field still smoldering from a fight with insurgents.
For a visiting reporter familiar with the area's violent days, the easygoing market scene had a surreal tinge to it – something that would have seemed an impossibility.
“It's not OK yet, but it is improving,” Lynch said of the security as he examined some cherry red tomatoes.
Earlier, he walked by an intersection where a suicide bomber on Feb. 25 killed at least 40 Shiite pilgrims heading to Karbala.
“We still had almost 9 million people walk on that pilgrimage. What does that tell you?” Lynch said.
Violence has dropped nearly 80 percent from a year ago in the area Lynch controls, about the size of West Virginia. Many of the former insurgents and militiamen are now part of U.S.-funded Sunni and Shiite groups – called the Sons of Iraq or Awakening Councils.
Also on Saturday, Lynch walked unannounced into the meeting comprising both Shiite and Sunni leaders. Their main topic of discussion: repairing a local Sunni mosque.
March 18, 2008 By Patrick Quinn, Associated Press
ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq – The top U.S. commander south of Baghdad stepped across a pile of trash to talk to an Iraqi man. “What do you need?” asked Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch.
Mohammed Ahmed smiled back and gave his wish list: better public services, smoother streets, more electricity.
“And security?” Lynch asked.
“Security is good,” the man said, noting that he got his chickens from Hillah, about 30 miles to the south along a highway that was prowled by bandits and killers a year ago.
Lynch's stroll last week through Iskandariyah – once part of the notorious “triangle of death” south of Baghdad – was most noticeable for its nonchalance.
At the top of the triangle is Mahmudiyah, a town of low-slung, ocher-colored buildings. To the west is Yusufiyah. At the southern end is Iskandariyah, about 30 miles south of Baghdad. In between is Latifiyah.
While in Iskandariyah, Lynch took off his helmet, smoked a cigar and meandered through a marketplace on a visit intended to showcase the dramatic drop in violence in the former Sunni insurgent belt.
His trip sought to tap into the same upbeat tone expressed in Baghdad yesterday by Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee. Both cited the drop in attacks – in areas such as Lynch's zone – as evidence that the insurgency is weakened and internal rivalries are being worked out.
“The enemy is still out there. We never said they left. ... But it's not the same,” Lynch said. “I'm very comfortable walking down the street. That is how you get a sense of what is going on. You need to get on your feet and you need to move.”
Children ran around their legs as a chicken vendor waved at Lynch – who lost five soldiers to a suicide bomber last week on a Baghdad street corner within a couple of miles from where Cheney and McCain met with the Iraqi leadership.
“We have a lot less problems than we had even three or four months ago,” Iraqi police Col. Ali al-Zahami said.
As recently as Christmas Day, one of the U.S. Army captains accompanying Lynch last week was sitting in a ring of Bradley fighting vehicles in a nearby field still smoldering from a fight with insurgents.
For a visiting reporter familiar with the area's violent days, the easygoing market scene had a surreal tinge to it – something that would have seemed an impossibility.
“It's not OK yet, but it is improving,” Lynch said of the security as he examined some cherry red tomatoes.
Earlier, he walked by an intersection where a suicide bomber on Feb. 25 killed at least 40 Shiite pilgrims heading to Karbala.
“We still had almost 9 million people walk on that pilgrimage. What does that tell you?” Lynch said.
Violence has dropped nearly 80 percent from a year ago in the area Lynch controls, about the size of West Virginia. Many of the former insurgents and militiamen are now part of U.S.-funded Sunni and Shiite groups – called the Sons of Iraq or Awakening Councils.
Also on Saturday, Lynch walked unannounced into the meeting comprising both Shiite and Sunni leaders. Their main topic of discussion: repairing a local Sunni mosque.