12 Hours in a Humvee

I spent all but 1.5 hours of daylight today in a Humvee with the MPs. We got out to attend a senior level police and paramilitary meeting. It was great to see the senior leadership of the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior police/military in action. They were talking to each other and to the Amercian military in plain terms about their issues and progress.

One guage of the effectiveness of terrorist tactics is the ’ski mask metric’. I’ve seen plenty of terps wearing ski masks. I’ve seen cops and pilots afraid to show their names or give their names to photographers or reporters.

Well, at this meeting today, one of the terps was wearing a skimask. The General in charge of the meeting told him to take off the mask or leave. It’s seems like a small thing, but while Iraqis are scared to show their faces, and their support for the ‘New Iraq’, I can’t see it working. When the general made this statement, I was excited… until the terp just chose to leave.

As serious as these guys take their jobs, though, it’s hard to ignore the fact that there are about 2 murders everyday in most police precincts around Baghdad. That doesn’t include the IPs killed in the line of duty, the US service members killed in action, or the civillians killed by large scale bombings.