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Special Report

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"We need an army here," he declared, "and you are not enough soldiers to keep us safe."

Thompson very quickly explained the ground rules of the Concerned Citizens program, from the allowance for (but not provision of) AK-47s, to the uniform requirement, to the requisite stipulation that the armed guards must submit to the National Police and to coalition forces unquestioningly. The latter caused a bit of consternation on the part of the al Jabouri (a sizable portion of the NP force is believed to be corrupt), but the desire to secure themselves outweighed whatever concerns they might have had.

At the end of the meeting, Thompson agreed to return in the near future with money to purchase uniforms for the 60 promised guards, in exchange for their all being present at a formation so that he could input them into Baker Company's biometric identification database. He also informed them that, in the next week, Baker Co. would be holding a "Med Op," or a clinic for the villagers in the area. All sick and ailing were welcome to come, and coalition medics would treat them.

CONTRARY TO WHAT SOME in America may say, the insurgents -- who target civilians in their homes, burn villages, torture and behead captives, and blow up innocent people on the street -- are not this country's "freedom fighters."

Iraq's real freedom fighters are these people -- simple tribesmen and patriots who care enough about their futures to stand up and risk their lives protecting their homes, their families, and their neighborhoods by fighting against those terrorists.

Like the people in Anbar and, to a lesser degree at this point, in Diyala, more tribes in the Salman Pak area may see what the al Jabouri are doing with their own, coalition-sanctioned self-conducted security, and begin to want that for themselves.

Sometimes it only takes the slightest catalyst to get the ball rolling. If the example is set correctly and the movement, in concert with the myriad other efforts and foci of the coalition in Iraq, gains enough momentum, then it may be possible at some point in the not-too-distant future to speak realistically of a state of affairs in Iraq in which, to paraphrase Captain Thompson, there simply "isn't anywhere for the insurgents to go."

topics:
Islam, Military, Iraq, Israel