No way out?
This entry was posted on 7/14/2006 10:58 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
I'm embedded out at the airport with the 4th Infantry Division. I don't have a lot of time to blog tonight; I spent a lot of the day traveling, did a few interviews and had to write up a few things for Time. The end of the week is crunch time for the magazine, since they have to finish everything in time for it to hit newsstands Monday (I think).
I spoke this afternoon with Col. Mike Beech, who commands the 4ID's 4th Brigade Combat Team. He echoed something a western diplomat told me earlier in the day-that in many Sunni communities the Americans are a more welcome sight than the Iraqi security forces. I heard the same thing, though less strongly, from Col. Marano out in al Qaim. He said Iraqi civilians would approach him to say that the Marines could be trusted but the Iraqi Army was made up of “Ali Babas”-Iraqi slang for thieves.
This underlines the American dilemma. Whether it was right or wrong to come to Iraq is an academic point now. It might have been dangerous to come here, but now it's dangerous to leave.
