By Michael Birmingham
Voices in the Wilderness
Baghdad, Iraq

If you look at Iraqi patrol officers all over Baghdad you see an individual Iraqi soldier standing on his own without any body armor without anyone protecting him. Then you see a load of American soldiers with body armor in humvees, or riding on the back with their fingers on the triggers of heavy submachine guns. The Iraqi soldiers protect all the roads leading up to the location of the American soldiers

The US stations the Iraqis in the Facilities Protection Service outside ministries and benzene stations. They’re the ones assigned to protect these and other public buildings, such as the courts and police stations They’re very vulnerable.