Word: baath
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...this approach so easily. In the second week of the campaign, advancing coalition troops faced up to one of the fundamental miscalculations of the early days of the war: blasting conventional Iraqi forces hasn't been enough. They also have to go into towns and take out Baath Party officials and Fedayeen fighters loyal to Saddam. Only then can one even begin to talk about prospects of local people-circumspect after the U.S. encouraged previous uprisings that were later crushed-partying in the streets. "Only when there is physical presence can people feel safe," says Sergeant Major David Howell, with...
...take Najaf. They said fedayeen irregulars were forcing local members of the al-Quds militia to fight by gathering their families and threatening to shoot them if they did not oppose the Americans. At one point, locals came out to thank the Americans for killing the area's Baath party leader, who they said had been executing civilians. The Baath leader, they said, had been killed in an air strike on a fedayeen stronghold...
...soldiers who collect information, start interviewing locals. A group of Iraqis hanging out in front of a run-down gas station tell the Marines that all is cool, but clearly it is not. "Will this be a place where you Americans will stay, or will the Iraqis, the Baath Party, come back?" one of them asks. "I need to know before I can speak...
...will be safe, the translator tells him. They aren't convinced. "They are scared we will leave them like we did the first time," says the translator, referring to what happened in 1991. Yet they reveal a critical piece of info: the location of the local Baath Party headquarters a few kilometers down the road, near At Tahrir...
...When the troops arrive there, the two-story green-and-lime building housing the Baath Party seems deserted. Then a sniper across the road starts firing on the convoy and is answered. The battalion pours through the streets, grabbing two teens who tell the troops that 250 to 450 armed Baathists have headed east, the last of them having left as the Marines arrived. The teams collect names of party officials and details on their vehicles and weapons. The biggest find: a book listing the names of all local Baath officials...