Gerard Baker puts a positive gloss on Tony Blair's announcement of troop withdrawals. On the ground in Baghdad, FT reporter Steve Negus follows the progress of an American unit's efforts to bring some sort of order to a lawless suburb:
A nearby vacant lot on the edge of the city partly explains the insurgents’ hold on South Ghazaliya. Nicknamed the "G-spot" by Delta company, it is used as an execution ground. The Americans say they have found 75 bodies there, including those of teenage boys and a 15-year-old girl. Two days before the ambush, they discovered what appeared to be an Iraqi soldier in camouflage pants, his legs bound in tape and his severed head propped on his back. The Americans suspect that many of the victims are brought in from elsewhere to be killed there, so as to send southern Ghazaliya a message.
... If the goal were to end violence, "the easiest way would be to give Ghazaliya to the Shia", [platoon commander Lieutenant Matthew Holtzendorff] says. "They wouldn’t kill everyone right way – they’d give them a warning to evacuate,48 hours, then come in . . . The downside of doing it the easy way is that it goes against everything we stand for. We always believe in the underdog, we always believe in helping the helpless: for that reason it makes sense to stay here and help."
It's worth digesting the whole article just to get a measure of what the troops are up against.
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