"It ain't pretty"

Christopher Allbritton is a former AP and New York Daily News reporter who is currently in Baghdad.

His recent blogpost at Back To Iraq is very much worth reading.

I think that his feelings with regard to the United States soldiers serving over there are very much the same as mine and many anti-Iraq War activists: that while we are against the invasion (let's call a spade a spade, after all) we appreciate that they are fighting a battle they were ordered to fight and that we are concerned for their well-being.

We hope that while the Bush Administration's purposes for sending them into harm's way are sketchy at best, they are able to find the little victories every day that help to keep them from going insane.

I don’t know if I can really put into words just how bad it is here some days. Yesterday was horrible — just horrible. While most reports show Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra as “no-go” areas, practically the entire Western part of the country is controlled by insurgents, with pockets of U.S. power formed by the garrisons outside the towns. Insurgents move freely throughout the country and the violence continues to grow.

I wish I could point to a solution, but I don’t see one. People continue to email me, telling me to report the “truth” of all the good things that are going on in Iraq. I’m not seeing a one. A buddy of mine is stationed here and they’re fixing up a park on a major street. Gen. Chiarelli was very proud of this accomplishment, and he stressed this to me when I interviewed him for the TIME story. But Baghdadis couldn’t care less. They don’t want city beautification projects; they want electricity, clean water and, most of all, an end to the violence.

[...]

I should expand on some of my thoughts. I’m not blaming the soldiers or think of them as evil bastards. I feel sorry for them, being put in a horrible position, and my anonymous soldier is right: If all they can do is open a park, then I will not begrudge them that. It doesn’t hurt, and if it makes it easier for the soldiers to get through the day, more power to them. It’s better than waiting around for the next attack. And they desperately need to feel they’re doing something. Otherwise, I would think they’d go mad. At least I get to feel that I’m bearing witness or something. And I’m here voluntarily. I can’t begin to imagine how it would feel if you were sent here against your will and then told what you were doing was a big fat waste of time and lives. I feel for the soldiers as deeply as I feel for the Iraqi people. As I said once before, we are all prisoners here.]

Included in the post is a letter from an MP who has returned stateside that recounts the frustrations and the need for such victories.