[Promoted by DHinMI: only the stupid or the naive fail to recogonize the difference between supposed good intentions and good results, and how the first so often doesn't lead to the second. This is an great case where everything was done right, and the result was disastrous.]
No, this isn't an April Fool's diary. This is a short, but I think important, diary whose main purpose is to get you to read this article from the New York Times:
Iraqi Widow Saves Her Home, but Victory Is Brief
By EDWARD WONG
Published: March 30, 2007
It is a personal story that illustrates some very important-- yet unspoken-- considerations about the surge. It's a story in which everyone does what they should: the US Army, the Iraqi Army, the neighbors, and the Baghdad citizen-- soon to be the Baghdad victim. I don't know how long it will be available before disappearing into subscription land, so please click. (Link changed to a permanent one - MissLaura)
I am not going to directly quote the article because it's short and I think it is worth reading in its entirety. But, in case it becomes unavailable, here is a barebones recap:
• Suaada Saadoun, a 49 year old Sunni widow and mother of seven, left Baghdad in 2006 for Syria because of sectarian violence.
• She returned with some of her family, including grandchildren, in February after hearing the US Army established a base in her former neighborhood (now almost entirely Shiite).
• After receiving death threats earlier this month, she called the US and Kurdish army units to complain.
• Earlier this week, two men, one armed, showed up at her house claiming to be from the (Badr-run) Ministry of Finance. They presented some bogus documents and told her she was being evicted by the government and must leave her house.
• Ms. Saadoun was not fooled. With the two men in her house, she called the US and Kurdish army units. Soldiers were immediately sent to arrest the pair.
• Shortly after, the two men received a call on their cell phone informing them the soldiers were on their way. They fled the house.
• The soldiers caught up with the two men at a checkpoint and arrested them. The US commander ordered a search for a third man believed to be involved in the intimidation scheme. The two men were lead away to the applause of Suaada Saadoun's Shiite neighbors.
• The next morning, Suaad Saadoun was shot in the head on the way to the local market. Her family has fled the neighborhood.
The "surge" plan, as authored by the American Enterprise Instutute, is basically this: we station troops in neighborhoods, patrol, fix the sewers, then the citizens "trust us" and reject the militias. But, for being such a large part of the plan, the author never really examines what trust is.
First, there are different types of trust: short-term, transactional trust, such as the trust you have in a store cashier to handle your money, and long-term, institutional trust, such as trusting a bank with your retirement. They are not interchangeable, no matter how many times the cashier makes correct change, you are not going to hand over your IRA to him or her. Trust is also very non-linear, it can be built over decades and lost in an instant.
Ms. Saadoun did exactly what we would want her to do. She reported the incident and trusted us to take care of the problem. I don't know if she also naively trusted us to protect her in the long-term from retribution. Maybe she was simply sick of living in fear of swine who threaten grandmothers. I suspect the latter, but have no proof.
The army responded exactly as they should. Still, Ms. Saadoun is dead, her killer is free, and sectarian violence has claimed another home.
Make no mistake, even developing short-term trust is an accomplishment. And preventing people from getting holes drilled in their heads for a small time is something. But how can that limited success be transformed into long-term institutional trust? Even the nuttiest Neocon knows we won't be there at this strength for long. Certainly, the residents of Baghdad know that. After we are gone, they will still be dealing with sectarian militias and terrorists of all kinds.