What it is ain’t exactly clear.
There’s a man with a gun over there, tellin’ me I got to beware…
BAGHDAD, Jan. 4 –Nearly 50,000 Iraqi refugees returned home from Syria in the final 3 1/2 months of 2007, the latest sign of diminishing violence in this war-pocked country, according to new data from relief workers.
“Security has definitely improved, and improved by far,” said Said I. Hakki, president of the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization, the aid group that compiled the statistics. “And yet the return is really not that dramatic, when you consider that there are almost 2 million Iraqi refugees out of the country.”
There’s battle lines being drawn, nobody’s right if everbody’s wrong…
CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Dec. 27, 2007 – When the senior leadership and soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division’s 1st “Ironhorse” Brigade Combat Team arrived in Iraq nearly 15 months ago, the security situation here was quite different from the one they now experience as they patrol the streets throughout their area of operations.
According to Maj. Patrick Michaelis, the Ironhorse brigade’s operations officer, the brigade has seen a “phenomenal change” from having 150 enemy attacks per week for the first seven to 10 weeks in theater to having only about 10 significant events per week, now mostly involving the finding of weapons caches and improvised explosive devices, with only isolated incidents of coordinated enemy attacks.
“The shift in atmosphere of our operational environment has moved away from individual security and safety to normalcy, which has manifested itself in a concern for governance,” Michaelis said. “Spectacular attacks are now the exception and not the rule.
Young people speaking their minds, gettin’ so much resistance from behind…
BAGHDAD (AFP) A controversial surge in US troop numbers has cut the death toll in Iraq but prospects for reconciliation between its divided communities remain a distant dream as the conflict enters a New Year.
If 2006 saw a bloody insurgency escalate into a vicious sectarian war, 2007 saw the bloodletting peak in January and then recede each month on policy shifts by Washington and changes on the ground.
The vicious circle of tit-for-tat sectarian killings began to ease once the extra troops became fully operational in June, although the first signs of improved security had already become evident in Anbar province, west of the capital earlier.
Sunni Arabs who once fought the Americans alongside Al-Qaeda began to turn against the militant group.
By September, Al-Qaeda was pushed out of Anbar, the success spawning many other anti-Qaeda fronts, known as Al-Sahwa, or “the Awakening”, across Iraq.
It’s time we stop, hey what’s that sound, everbody look what’s going down…
Meanwhile, the 70,000 members of Iraqi concerned citizens’ groups that have sworn to fight al Qaeda have proven to be powerful allies, Maj. Gen. Bergner said, as the capabilities and numbers of Iraqi soldiers and police continue to grow.
“The emergence of concerned local citizens has been driven by and focused on providing security at the local level in places where other forces were not capable of doing it,” Maj. Gen. Bergner explained. “At the same time that that’s happening, the capability of other forces to provide security, particularly Iraqi security forces, is growing.”
Iraqi security capabilities will be further augmented when some members of the concerned citizens groups join Iraqi army or police units, Maj. Gen. Bergner said.
A thousand people in the street, singing songs and carrying signs, mostly say hooray for our side…
“When we meet and talk, we speak about how we must hold together in the future, and if we don’t the future wont be so good,” said Thayia Aziz Kudam, a muhalla (neighborhood) leader in the East Rashid area of southeastern Baghdad. “All together. We must all help together to make the security for this area. Gangs, militias, al-Qaida: All of us, we want them to go away. We don’t want them.”
Kudam’s neighborhood was known from 2006 until this autumn for sectarian violence and al-Qaida’s campaign of terror. It’s a long-standing mixed community, with Sunni Muslims in the majority but with Shiites and Christians as well.
“Welcome back,” a banner in the neighborhood reads. “We are all one,” says another.
We better stop, hey, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s going down…
One Iraqi man described being forced from his home and land by al Qaeda, which now uses his property as a safehouse.
He pleaded with both leaders to help him get his property back. Col. Ferrell replied, “That’s what I’m here to do.”
He went on to tell the sheiks that he hoped they were serious about their commitment to the area.
The sheiks told Col. Ferrell information they had on the whereabouts and strength of al Qaeda forces.
There is indeed something happening here. I recently had the opportunity to talk with the leadership of a ground unit that operates in battlespace just north of Baghdad. I was impressed with hearing of the numerous successes their squads and platoons have been experiencing throughout their AO. They have discovered hundreds of weapons caches, detained several insurgents and al-Qaeda IED makers, and even uncovered what appeared to be an al-Qaeda training camp and more often than not, they were able to do so because of help from Iraqi citizens.
While visiting a nearby town that was once a haven for al-Qaeda, it was explained to me that for the first time in several months the streets are again safe for children to walk to school on largely because of one man. He was not a sheik, an elder, nor community leader previously; in fact he often cowered and hid his family from everyone and everything.
Today he stands tall in the middle of the street and encourages his neighbors to stay involved with keeping al-Qaeda out of their town. When asked why he had a change of heart he spoke about a day 3-months earlier when he witnessed a parked car explode outside of his home. The blast blew out the windows of his house and shrapnel tore into the walls of his daughter’s bedroom.
His eyes welled with tears as he recalled the day two American soldiers were killed protecting his streets, and though the car bomb killed their comrades, the soldiers returned and continued to partol his neighborhood day after day. It was then he concluded that the time had come for him and his fellow Iraqis to do more for their homes, their families and their future.
For what it’s worth. Sgt Hook out.
Special thanks to The Buffalo Springfield.
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