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Originally Posted by mrnoodle
The "insurgents" (a misnomer, as they are not from Iraq, nor are they fighting on behalf of Iraq -- they target civilians) are failing. Iraqis are not joining insurgent forces -- in fact, they're working with us, fighting alongside us, and refusing to give in to terrorism.
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Did you read the blog of Michael Yon, which UT linked to in the Image of the Day on the IED? In that blog, Yon writes about his experience with our troops as they caught a terrorist red handed, trying to blow up a bomb buried under a road in Mosul. They take the terrorist back to his house to search it. His mom is very proud of her boy:
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She smiled the whole time, as if to say, That's my boy! The translator heard her say to her son, "Don't worry. You will be released soon." She smiled at me.
The most serious terrorists do not fear prison here. Captain Jeff VanAntwerp, who commands Alpha Company, recently told me that Iraqis joke among themselves that they would pay 5,000 dinar per night to stay at Abu Ghraib prison. It's air-conditioned, the showers are good, the food is good, and the water is good. The mother seemed to know this and it curled in contempt behind her smile.
Our guys back at the Yarmuk traffic circle called saying they were in a little firefight and were taking mortar fire. But on the block where the terrorist lived, with his proud smiling mother, soldiers knocked on the neighbors' doors. The children clearly recognized the man, but everyone disavowed knowledge of him, despite that his mother encouraged him in front of us.
When the soldiers talked with other neighbors, they showed the transmitter and the terrorist. But clearly this was not diminishing his stature: We were making a local hero. And his neighbors were coalescing to shield him. This wasn't getting us anywhere useful, so we changed course...
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Sure, there are some foreign terrorists in Iraq. But there are native Iraqi terrorists too. And they enjoy the support of many of their fellow Iraqis.