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More News from the Front
Instapundit linked up this op-ed from a Marine in Iraq:
[T]here is another Iraq that the media virtually ignore. It is guarded by the First Marine Division, and, unlike Baghdad, it has been a model of success. The streets are safe, petty and violent crime are low, water and electrical services are almost universally available (albeit rationed), and ordinary Iraqis are beginning to clean up and rebuild their neighborhoods and communities. Equally important, a deep level of mutual trust and respect has developed between the Marines and the populace here in central and southern Iraq.
The Marines as a whole seem to be more flexible and responsive in their occupation duties than the army or the civilian administrators. I wonder if that's just an institutional thing, or if there's just not enough communication, or if the Marines got lucky and ended up with an easier area to patrol?
The article seems to support the "lucky" thesis.
"There's more to America than New York, Washington and Los Angeles. The same is true for Iraq; there's a vast country outside Baghdad and the "Sunni triangle" that's now the center of a guerrilla campaign. It's understandable that Western press reports are fixated on attacks that kill American soldiers. But that focus is obscuring what's actually happening in the rest of the country--and it misleads the public into thinking that Iraqis are growing angry and impatient with their liberators."
Posted by: Tatterdemalian on August 20, 2003 06:07 AM