BAGHDAD -- A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias.
The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing.
- New York Times April 16, 2008
The tired old stretch 707 full of GI's on the way home from Vietnam took off to the south, over Cam Ranh Bay, then banked east, out over the South China Sea, and gained altitude. We all cheered, then the captain turned off the "no smoking" sign, and we adjusted our seat backs and lit up (cigarettes were $1.80 a carton at the PX - why not smoke?).
If they'd served beer on that flight, we would have been happily drunk by the time we stopped to refuel in Japan. They did not serve beer, though, and we all settled in, and tried to contain the eagerness and anticipation. I struck up a conversation with the guy sitting next to me. He was a junior officer and he had spent his tour in Vietnam training South Vietnamese pilots to fly helicopters.
There were certain jobs in the Army that seem to imply a death wish. I knew a man who was an instructor on the hand grenade range. One college buddy worked out his issues with his mother by volunteering as a forward observer and calling in fire missions for the South Vietnamese artillery. Another guy I knew spent his days defusing dud artillery rounds.
The helicopter instructor training South Vietnamese pilots struck me as such a fellow. If he didn't have a death wish, he sure had a fatalistic approach to life.
We shared war stories and observations and eventually, we agreed the situation was pretty much FUBAR, and that it was only a matter of time. The problem was that the South Vietnamese didn't think America would ever leave. They were comfortable with -- and confident in -- all things American.
The instructor told an amusing anecdote about a point in flight training -- actually up in the air -- where he would simulate an engine failure.
"Engine Quit! Engine Quit!" he yelled over the headset to one student pilot.
"Engine no quit!" the student yelled back. He patted the instrument console. "This good American helicopter."
The Iraqi military seem to have developed a similar, "Engine no quit," trust in American military personnel and equipment. They seem only too happy to let our soldiers defend their regime. When the going gets tough, the Iraqis get Americans to do the fighting and dying -- and who can blame them?
It's safer, and less messy -- important points when you're fighting door to door in Sadr City. And there's no sign the Americans will ever really leave. Besides, if the Americans ever do leave, you probably won't want to have been seen fighting beside them.
Back here in America, our leaders -- most of whom have never heard a shot fired in anger -- keep saying the surge is working.
Sadr City looks FUBAR, though.
And judging from the fighting spirit of the Iraqi soldiers who abandoned their positions in Sadr City yesterday, they can't bring themselves to believe the American engine will ever quit -- or that America will ever leave.