Quick Note:

I've been out living among the Iraqi Police.  Some people would say I was living among the Jaysh al Mahdi  but I don't think the police are 100% JAM, maybe 10% JAM and 90% display the usual arab work ethic which is, uh, somewhere below the French work ethic.

After spending 2 weeks looking for the civil war raging in Baghdad I've decided that Arabs must do civil wars the way they do everything else--lackadaisically.

In most neighborhoods I saw Sunni living next to Shia living next to Catholic.  Yes, Sunnis, living next door to Shias who live next door to Catholics.

And they weren't shooting at each other all day and only the Catholic had any religious/sectarian symbols visible--statue of the Virgin in the dining room.

The JAM and AQIZ equally despised your average Dora, Rasheed or Abu Bashir resident and almost seem to work in collusion to profit from  their shake down schemes.  Without AQIZ, there is no need for JAM.  Without JAM there is no need for AQIZ protection from JAM.

I got to meet some of the JAM mid-level management and was not impressed. When confronted with a few soldiers he looked like a deer in the headlights and then started crying.

One minute he was the big tough JAM Boss full of the wasta getting ready to EJK a guy but when team of soldiers showed up he turned into, well, jelly.

The Baghdad Security Plan is working and can achieve an endstate.  It took the Brits 12 years in Maylaya.  We are following their plan.

The biggest enemy we have is an over active media and spineless Host Nation government which is intimidated by the JAM and has the JAM as key constituent group.

Shortly after I arrived in Baghdad the big news was of some residents protesting the Army putting in check points and walling off entry and exit routs in certain Mahalas.

But, after spending two weeks rolling around the Mahalas I've noticed that both Sunni and Shia areas are surrounded by homemade barriers blocking roads and serpentine blockades to slow traffic in and out of the neighborhoods.

I get a funny feeling those protests may have been astroturfed by JAM to get the government to be less agressive with the safe neighborhood program.

The Brits created safe villages and towns and cities during the Maylayan Emergency.  The concept works.  When the bad guys can't move, they get caught very quickly.  The bad guys don't like walled in neighborhoods and
check points.  They want Baghdad pourous.

So, they astroturf up a protest.  The government buys into it and the security plan gets watered down.

The texture of the situation on the ground is too complex for limited internet access I have right now and I have a few more stops to make as I continue my quest to find the civil war.

Baghdad is a violent and dangerous place now.  There are people who kill without reason.  JAM kills plenty of Shia and AQIZ kills plenty of Sunni and they both kill coalition members.

As a High Value Target being hunted by a platoon I rolled around with last week said over the Iraqna phone to the company commander---the killing has gotten out of control, it must end, I don't even know why I do it anymore.

Freedom isn't free...and neither is reporting from Iraq.  To help offset the costs of independent reporting and filmmaking of our military, please...

BUY A DVD
 
OR, make a donation by clicking on the button below.

---