Charlie Company -- Side By Side With Iraqi Forces

A soldier from Charlie Company on patrol. Photo: David Botti

From Newsweek:

After spending time with a platoon of soldiers in Charlie Company 2-30, it’s clear that one of the main aspects of U.S. policy in Iraq, to train Iraqi security forces, may ultimately be affected not by generals and diplomats, but by how well a twenty-something soldier gets along with his or her Iraqi counterpart.

This particular platoon is nicknamed “Team ISF”–the “ISF” standing for Iraqi Security Forces, with whom the soldiers are tasked with running joint operations in the Beladiat area of eastern Baghdad. Unlike the rest of Charlie Company living in the relative comfort of a nearby forward operating base, Team ISF resides in two medium-sized rooms of an Iraqi National Police headquarters.

Charlie Company saw a good deal of fighting in late March when Iraqi Army incursions into Basra and Sadr City lead to an intense round of violence that the soldiers here called “March Madness.”

“We really had to take a deep breath,” First Sergeant Brian Disque said of the time when the violence died down. “It was like turning off a switch. It stopped, it just stopped.”

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My Comment: Quoting from the article .... "When the violence died down .... it was like turning off a switch .... it stopped, it just stopped".

Most wars end like this. They just stop. We can only hope and pray that no one puts the switch back on.