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| Iraq |
| Michael Totten: The Liberation of Karmah |
| 2008-03-24 |
| Go read the whole thing. Some excerpts: “This was IED Alley, right here,” Lieutenant Macak said as we arrived. “But not any more because of the efforts of coalition forces, the Iraqi Police, the Provincial Security Forces, the Iraqi Civilian Watch, and the sheikhs. For two or three years now we've been saying them, hey, if you're tired of Al Qaeda, stand up and get rid of them. And they're actually doing that now. The Iraqi Police now call IED Alley their Victory Circle. It's a physical representation of what they have accomplished.” Hundreds of chairs were set up in front of a stage that had been erected on the circle itself. Local sheikhs, city officials, and business leaders sat beneath an awning in case of rain. They drank water poured into tall glasses from bottles. Regular citizens and mid-level leaders sat in plastic chairs exposed to the elements, but there was no rain. The community leaders dressed sharply, some in traditional Arab dress and others with Western coats and ties. Iraqi Police officers, Iraqi Army soldiers, and plainclothes Neighborhood Watch guys milled about. All carried AK-47s and pistols. Brand new Iraqi flags snapped in the wind. A live band took the stage and belted out powerful Iraqi folk music indigenous to the province. A group of armed Iraqi men danced to the music in a circle. Some brandished rifles and knives. The passion and intensity of the music was startling. Twenty or so minutes later, Sheikh Mishan stood at the podium and addressed the people of Karmah in poetic, perfectly pronounced, thunderous Arabic. His speech celebrating the end of the insurgency and the awakening of the city of Karmah would knock you back on your heels even if you could not understand one single word. The man was an obvious leader, and he packed a punch. . . . There's also this charming little vignette: Sabah Danou walked with Commander Summers and Admiral Driscoll. He’s an Iraqi who works for the multinational forces as a cultural and political advisor in Baghdad. “Look,” he said to me and gestured toward a local man with a long beard and a short dishdasha that left his ankles exposed. “He’s a Wahhabi,” Danou hissed. “He is linked to Al Qaeda. That’s their uniform, you know, that beard and that high-cut dishdasha. God, what pieces of shit those fuckers are.” I never hear soldiers and Marines talk about Iraqis like that, but no one objected to what Sabah Danou said. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #4 Heh, highwater dishdashas. Sounds like classic nerd style. Maybe the Wahhabis just need to move out of their parent's basements and get laid more. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-03-24 21:47 |
| #3 I remember .com describing exactly that fashion in Saudi Arabia. It was what all the Morality Police cowards wear there to show their superior piety. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-24 16:39 |
| #2 The first photo in this article is a great antidote to the "Quagmire" stories that are going to come out. Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2008-03-24 13:46 |
| #1 saudi and wahhabism is the major terrorism threat outside of iran |
| Posted by: George Angavinter5564 2008-03-24 12:39 |