Word: vansandt
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...Vansandt and his men are risking a nighttime foot patrol through Musayyib to gauge local support of a recent program enlisting volunteers from the town and surrounding villages into ad hoc militias supported and paid by the U.S. military. When he asks the Iraqi men how security is in town, they all smile and nod and chat among themselves excitedly. "Good. Good. Already we to go to the peace," says Salih Ibrahim, 50, an art teacher who speaks rough English and who tries to translate questions from his friends. Ibrahim says one region to the east of town still swarms...
...That's Vansandt's cue. The American bombs are the bad cop to his good cop routine. He tells them that the Americans shell the region because the JAM use it to launch rockets at the nearby U.S. Forward Operating Base Kalsu outside the nearby city of Iskandariyah. Only the Iraqis in the area can make it go away. "When the [local] sheiks get a [volunteer] program for Abu Jassim [the eastern zone uncontrolled by the U.S.], then we can stop the bombing," he says. "Tell the sheiks what you want...
...Part of Vansandt's challenge as he threads through Musayyib's busy market sector is to out-sell a particularly tough JAM cell in a sector where he needs the citizen's patrols. His superiors say JAM has been threatening residents, and have even killed the entire family of a man who had worked with the Americans in the area. Braving that kind of intimidation is a lot to ask of volunteers, leaders say, but any gains made will be Iraqi gains that only they can win and hold...
...Basically, we're paying people to stop shooting at us," Vansandt mutters as his patrol finishes the trek through busy market stalls, past a troublemaking mosque and the local offices of Moqtada al Sadr's organization. Over several hours he's talked to dozens of men who all agreed that the local volunteer groups are working. And none has mentioned the killing of the three volunteers. But Vansandt says has no idea how many would participate in the fourth and final group he's trying to organize, one that would patrol a sensitive supply route. Nor does he know...
...dust along the river bank toward their base, the soldiers pass through several Iraqi police checkpoints and then through one more where three young men had earlier stood wearing civilian clothes and carrying Kalashnikovs - the newest local squad of concerned citizens. "Wave and smile if you see 'em, guys," Vansandt tells his men. "They're on our side...