The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

At Large

(Page 2 of 2)

The convoy winds its way back to Mosul proper. For obvious reasons the Stryker has no windows, but there are screens with a video feed revealing our path in black and white pixilated relief. The wide-open nature of the mountains slowly cedes to more densely populated buildings and shops. Mosul is congested with traffic during the day. After 10 p.m., however, there is a curfew in effect and so the Strykers hum along the eerily empty streets unmolested, unchallenged, and with a greatly reduced fear of the suicide car bombers who still make occasionally grisly appearances.

Then, of course, I tear my pants, we jog and enter the breach.

ULTIMATELY, NOTHING IS FOUND. Later that night, the informant points out another, similar home where two of the target's associates are holed up. The next night the target is captured at another residence.

At this first stop of the night, however, suspicion may remain, but there is no proof of any wrongdoing or contraband. The Americans pay restitution for the door. Twenty dollars goes a long way in Iraq and the man of the house seems much less agitated after he receives the cash. Which isn't to say that he doesn't still seem livid and wouldn't you be? What with the explosions, soldiers swarming your house, your children crying?

Considering the current security situation in Iraq, it's tough not to concede there's little choice but to follow up on most informants' leads, even if their motivation is not that clear or pure in some cases. Too many lives depend on it. Still, we cannot lose sight of the fact that if Iraq is to become a functioning democratic society one day soon then the apparatus of the police state must fade away with the insurgency. This, American soldiers will no doubt gladly welcome, but it is something our friends in the Iraqi Security Forces must be reminded of as the coalition hands them authority over civilians lives -- be they Kurd, Sunni or Shiite. Brutality, primitivistic tribal conflict and the allure of state power are all far too ingrained in Iraqi culture to leave that question hanging in the air as we draw down forces.

topics:
Television, Iraq