"In Baghdad, a Push to Alter Perceptions," by Sudarsan Raghavan (in Baghdad) - the Washington Post, 18 August 2006, p. A17 (registration required)
BAGHDAD, Aug. 17 -- Hamid Ayad could not forget the last time U.S. soldiers came to his door two years ago. They tossed smoke bombs and burst into his home, then arrested his four brothers, he said. They were later jailed at Abu Ghraib prison.
Three days ago, another group of U.S. soldiers came to his home in the volatile western Baghdad neighborhood of Amiriyah, this time accompanied by Iraqi troops. The U.S. soldiers politely asked if they could enter his large home. They asked to register his family's eight cars, and they did not confiscate the family's AK-47 rifle, their only means of protection.
That made Ayad, 24, feel more confident about the Iraqi soldiers. Only two months ago, Shiite Iraqi soldiers on patrols in Amiriyah taunted Sunnis like him, he said. They did little to shield residents from the sectarian clashes strangling their lives. But on this day, the Iraqi soldiers he met were courteous and seemed genuinely concerned.
"Their image has changed," said Ayad, who holds a business degree but is unemployed. "Now, you feel like they are there to protect you. They are not acting or faking. The Americans have them on a tight leash."
In their struggle to quell the sectarian violence gripping the capital, thousands of U.S. troops and their Iraqi counterparts are fanning out into Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods, a mission that is part security sweep, part public relations.
Even as they hunt for insurgents and weapons, they are cleaning streets, reopening shops, medical clinics and gas stations, and fixing electricity lines. In areas like Amiriyah, where insurgents melt easily into the population and sectarian distrust runs deep, success is measured not in arrests or arms confiscated, but in perceptions....
In the U.S. military's calculus of when to depart Iraq, that trust is vital. The more Iraqis there are who believe that Iraq's security forces can protect them, the sooner American troops can leave, U.S. military officials have often said. And nowhere is building such trust more crucial than in Baghdad, where sectarian violence poses the biggest threat to Iraq's stability....
"US Troops Patrol Baghdad on Foot," by Ross Colvin - Reuters (Baghdad), 17 August 2006
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops are patrolling the streets in some Baghdad neighborhoods on foot in a new bid to win the trust of Iraqis, an unusual sight for many residents more used to seeing them travel in armored vehicle convoys.
Taking a more personal approach to Iraqis long critical of heavy handed tactics is part of the strategy aimed at reclaiming Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods from insurgents and easing communal strife....
Mindful of the three-year-old Sunni insurgency fighting to expel them from Iraqi soil, U.S. commanders explain to residents that they aim to restore security in support of Iraqi police.
"I want to get this job done so I can go home and live with my family and you can live with your family," Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Peterson, commander of the First Squadron, 14th U.S. Cavalry, told one man through his interpreter in al-Hadar, an area of the notoriously violent southern Dora district.
Peterson, whose unit usually travels in Stryker armored vehicles, had dismounted to talk to residents while his men and Iraqi police swept the neighborhood for illegal weapons.
"Certainly there is a renewed emphasis on troops interacting with the people," he said when asked whether the U.S. military was adopting a new tactic with the foot patrols.
Since arriving two weeks ago, two Strykers have been hit by roadside bombs, causing no major damage, and several others have been shot at, soldiers said. The unit's base has also been rocketed and mortared. Foot patrols are far more risky.
Still, Peterson's walkabout appeared to pay off -- residents he spoke to seemed happy to see U.S. soldiers back on the streets in force after months of sectarian violence that has killed thousands and driven thousands more from their homes.
"We feel safe when we see Americans," one man said to him, before pushing Peterson to improve the poor electricity supply, and fix broken sewerage pipes, a list of complaints repeated often and one Peterson promised to take to the district council.
In many of his conversations, he stressed the role of Iraqi police in helping to restore security, a bid to boost the reputation of a force viewed by most Sunnis as an extension of the Shi'ite militias they blame for much of the recent violence.
"I am hoping this mission with the national police will stop people being killed in future," he assured one man who told him his father had been killed in a drive-by shooting this week....
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