Front-Line View: Iraq Isn’t ‘Worth Another Soldier’s Life’

Posted on Oct 27, 2007

AP photo / Wisam Sami

Wait—is this what “democracy in Iraq” is supposed to look like?  These two girls, whose photo was taken on Sept. 27, are part of a group of displaced Shiite families taking refuge however they can in Baghdad’s Sadiyah district.

Here’s a good way we can all support our troops:  by listening to them when they tell us how the Iraq war is really going.  Take this account from Sgt. Victor Alarcon and others in his battalion, who in Saturday’s Washington Post give their frank, and stark, assessment of the situation in Baghdad’s Sadiyah district.

The Washington Post:

“What we later found out is they weren’t really moving anyone in, it was a cover for the INP to go in and evict what Sunni families were left there,” recalled Bifulco, 23, a West Point graduate from Huntsville, Ala. “We showed up, and there were a bunch of Sunni families just wandering around the streets with their bags, taking up refuge in a couple Sunni mosques in the area.”

As the militiamen and insurgents battled it out, the bodies mounted up. U.S. troops said that earlier this year it was common for them to find at least half a dozen corpses scattered on the pavement during their daily patrols.

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