Another Sad Reality

One of the things I swore to myself when my brother left was I would learn as much as I could about the situation over there. So occasionally, when I get the chance to talk to my brother on IM in between teasing our mother and talking about the Cubs, I find a chance to ask him about what he's seeing. This is an exchange we had today where I asked him, in so many words, who he was fighting:

Phil: Let me ask you something. The guys who plant the IEDs, are they like hardcore guys, or are they more chickenshits who do that because they can't fight any other way?

Andrew: Everyone here is a chickenshit

Phil: Well, that answers that question.

Andrew: there are only small groups, Terrorists, Shia extremeists, Wahabbis, the Badr Corps or the Madhi army that would actually fight us

Phil: Damn. Now I'm gonna have to go look up all of those words.

Andrew: but most of them prefer to do things the easy way and just take cheapshots and run like little bitches. I went to a town called Narwhan. it's a 100% SHIA town and my experiences there were completely different from my previous towns

Phil: How was the Shia town different?

Andrew: They hated us and want us out

Phil: So, you give them the power, and now they want you guys to bail?

Andrew: No we're taking power from them and giving the Sunni's more

Phil: But weren't the Sunnis in power under Saddam?

Andrew: yet the sunnis think the opposite, but they're afraid of Iran coming in when we leave

Phil: So you're actually trying to create a situation of equality, but both sides think you're screwing them.

Andrew: Basically

Phil: So do you trust anyone there? CAN you trust anyone there?

Andrew: No

I don't know if this is what the experts mean when they use the word "quagmire," but we are undoubtedly caught in a centuries old Catch-22. Groups who hate us need us to stay to protect them from even greater dangers. There don't seem to be any allies for the United States, but merely groups protecting their own self-interests by playing both sides. Nobody trusts us, and in turn, we don't trust them. A complete lack of trust -- the perfect foundation for a sparkling democracy.