Reading this story on MSNBC was refreshing. It highlighted a lot of the things I see and feel in my area of operations, one that is similarly away from the big city. Please read:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Here is the big quote for me:
"Commanders in Iraq say they can win any battle against armed insurgents and conduct any military operation successfully, but persuading Iraqis to believe in Iraq could end up being the most difficult battle in this war."
Whenever we make real contact, by that I mean small arms engagements, firefights, we win. We kill more of them than they do us. They have no capability whatsoever to stop us from going anywhere we want, let alone moving us from our positions. There are times our commanders will restrict us from going to some areas, not because we aren't able, but the casualties aren't worth the result.
However, getting Iraqis to cooperate with us is nearly impossible when the insurgents are determined to intimidate the civilian population. Anyone who works with us is threatened and enough of those threats are backed up to make them more than hot air. Those who merely talk to us are harassed. I think of it as though entire towns and neighborhoods (its not the whole country, but a lot) live in the mindset of the rough part of my hometown where people won't tell the police who shot the kid riding his bike down the street. They are afraid (with good reason) that the authorities cannot protect them from reprisals. But instead of being in one isolated neighborhood, the mindset exsists across wide swaths of the country.
The key would be for the Iraqi forces to do their job, especially the police. The police are locally recruited, for the most part, so they know a lot of the insurgents. Unfortunately the police I know are a little too trigger happy for American's tastes. The American military does not like killing civilians and we take an innocent until proven guilty approach to the use of deadly force. The Iraqi security forces do not use as much discretion. That may be the only way to effectively end the violence, but it is not an approach we will sit by and condone. Of course, this approach is essentially the same as Saddam's, but at least the country had stability with him. And he had informants, something we desperately need. I think the Iraqi forces can develop enough sources and cooperation (at least they have friends and family to turn to, unlike us) to bring Iraq back under control, once we leave.