Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post Foreign Service on Mistrust Mixes With Misery In Heat of Baghdad Police Post:
To Staff Sgt. Charles Pollard, the working-class suburb of Mashtal is a "very, very, very, very bad neighborhood." And he sees just one solution.
"U.S. officials need to get our [expletive] out of here," said the 43-year-old reservist from Pittsburgh, who arrived in Iraq with the 307th Military Police Company on May 24. "I say that seriously. We have no business being here. We will not change the culture they have in Iraq, in Baghdad. Baghdad is so corrupted. All we are here is potential people to be killed and sitting ducks."
Of course, unlike the chickenhawks and those who scream "racist" at those opposed to the aviation slaughterfest that was the recent war, SSgt Pollard is actually in the military. The staff sergeant is questioning our purpose in Iraq and he wants to go home. So obviously, he's anti-American. Sheesh. But wait, there's more:
To Sgt. Sami Jalil, a 14-year veteran of the local police force, the Americans are to blame. He and his colleagues have no badges, no uniforms. The soldiers don't trust them with weapons. In his eyes, his U.S. counterparts have already lost the people's trust.
"We're facing the danger. We're in the front lines. We're taking all the risks, only us," said the 33-year-old officer. "They're arrogant. They treat all the people as if they're criminals."
Interesting. The cops on the makeshift police force are feuding with their 'liberators' in the U.S. military. Hmm, I thought they were all still dancing and pulling down statues. At least that's what the no comment warbloggers would have us believe.
Link courtesy of Council on American-Islamic Relations.