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U.S. Unit Patrolling Baghdad Sees Flaws in Bush Strategy
U.S. soldiers at Camp Ramadi in Iraq's Anbar province fill sandbags for use in defensive positions at combat outposts in the violent city of Ramadi.
(By John Moore -- Getty Images)
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"Okay," barked Hill, looking at the Iraqis. "You guys will lead out."
They walked around the corner, onto a narrow, unpaved street with two-story houses. Residents watched from their walled yards as the Iraqi soldiers politely knocked on the doors of the targeted houses. They went in, followed by the Apache Company troops.
Inside one house, an Iraqi soldier walked up to Reynoso. He had found two AK-47 magazine clips. By law, the family can own only one. The Iraqi soldier asked Reynoso what he should do.
"I am not going to tell you what to do," Reynoso said, clearly trying to wean the soldier from depending on him. "It is against the law, but it is up to you to decide."
The Iraqi soldier smiled. Then, he handed back the magazine clip to a member of the family.
In another house, an Iraqi soldier asked whom he should take orders from, the Americans or his Iraqi squad leader.
"I'll tell your squad leader what to do, and he will tell his squad what to do," replied Sgt. Justin Mongol, 25, of New Market, Va., as Joey translated.
After nearly a half-hour, the soldiers had not unearthed a single weapon. Futrell asked Joey to see whether they were near Mahanara School, as the informant had told them. They weren't. They were near Imam Ali School.
The houses they were meant to search were in another section of Hurriyah.
Some of the American soldiers were angry. They had wasted their time and put their lives at risk.
"Are we even in Hurriyah?" Mongol demanded.
"We're chasing a ghost," Hill said.
They returned to the mosque and asked Fetlawi for a map of Hurriyah.
"I have no map of the place. I came here two days ago," he said.
Still, Fetlawi made a call and was able to find the correct school. He dispatched a pickup truck with his men to guide the U.S. soldiers.
Inside the Stryker, Lake fumed: "A debacle," he declared.
"Same old bull. . . ," Caldwell said, using an expletive.
No Help Without Orders
The Stryker stopped along a main street in Hurriyah.
The soldiers walked into a compound, the base of the Iraqi army unit in charge of a nearby checkpoint. The targeted house was across the street. And Futrell needed the help of Sgt. Ahmed Faisal. He needed some of his men to help raid the house.
Faisal refused.
"Our duty is only at this checkpoint, not inside the sector," Faisal said. "We can't send any men with you. I can't work without orders."
So the Americans crossed the street and searched the two-story house. They examined a red trunk on the roof and dug through a pile of sand. No weapons. "I think it's a dry hole," Mongol said, with disappointment.
Inside the Stryker, as it headed back to the base, the soldiers of Apache Company wondered whether they had been given false information by their Iraqi army contact. "They know things we don't," Lake said, repeating what he had said on the way to Hurriyah.
"That's why we're still here. That's why we will be here for years."
