Supporting More Than Just Our Troops

Michael Yon writes in the Weekly Standard,

"I then spoke with Major Yayha Rasuruh from the Iraqi army, who is charged with securing the 46th sector of Sadr City. He said he took all 50 of his soldiers to vote, and he showed his purple finger proudly. 'I think this is great time Iraq passes through. Thirty-five years we suffer. There is freedom now.' We talked for about ten minutres, and I asked what it was like to vote. Major Yayha said that the voting worker made him fold his ballet before sticking it in the box. I laughed and said, 'The worker was brave. He told an army major to fold his paper!'

"Major Yayha laughed. 'Yes, no longer afraid to talk with police or army. This is good change.' The moment was warm and fuzzy, but the true situation is not. There is little doubt that the people are getting more confident in their new world, but the undercurrent is still Jungle Law. Major Yayha expressed gratitude to Americans for supporting Iraq, and I did not have the heart to say that many are ready to abandon him powerless and adrift on windswept sands."