Parties, and not the government, rule Iraq now
One line that tells you more than most articles, out of an excellent piece of journalism by Lara Logan. It’s also a perfect example of how compelling human interest journalism
can
be, when it’s done on the basis of a lot of facts, not just telling the story of the first native you meet.
Lara has framed what seem like two of the most important issues in Iraq. The first is the role of parties, mentioned above. The other is this picture of befuddled GIs surrounded by two conflicts they don’t understand:
…American soldiers are bearing the burden of a failed strategy and being forced to fight with one hand tied behind their backs, suddenly caught in the midst of two distinct wars: a counter-insurgency and a rapidly escalating sectarian conflict.
And their partners in the counter-insurgency war are participating in the sectarian conflict they’re being asked to stop.
I’d not heard of Lara Logan before, but from here on in I’m reading everything she writes.