Veteran foreign correspondent Tina Susman hands in a fine bit of reporting in this morning’s Los Angeles Times, writing from Iraq.
Susman is reporting from near the town of Yousifiya, in an area south of Baghdad sometimes referred to as the “triangle of death,” and her story about what the American soldiers are facing in the area is nuanced, thoroughly-reported, smart and incisive–in short, it’s a damn fine bit of embedded reporting.
She explains the successes and setbacks a unit with the 10th Mountain Division has experienced in the region over the last year, writing that the troops she spoke with say that moving out from big bases to smaller combat outposts that dot the countryside–a big part of the “surge” strategy”–has shown real results.
Roads once booby-trapped with bombs are mostly quiet, and locals armed with clubs patrol some stretches to chase off outsiders. Soldiers on overnight guard duty at lonely battle positions might spend an entire shift behind their .50-caliber machine guns without hearing a shot. Locals line up for free checkups and medicine when U.S. forces bring mobile medical units to their villages.
“We used to take a collective breath, because you knew you were going to get blown up,” said [Major Rob] Griggs, describing what patrols used to be like in the region.
But this fragile peace hasn’t come without cost: twenty-one U.S. troops along with three Iraqi interpreters have died since last September, Susman reports. Unlike much of the reporting we see out of Iraq and Afghanistan, Susman also manages to provide a revealing snapshot of the conflicting scenes American troops encounter on a day-to-day basis, telling the story of Staff Sgt. Clark Merlin, who “recalled playing soccer with local kids one day along with other U.S. troops. As soon as some Iraqi army soldiers came to join in, women took their children home, Merlin said. “There is definitely a lot of distrust,” said Merlin, who says most of the Iraqi soldiers he has seen lack the discipline to hold onto the security U.S. troops have achieved.”
Susman manages a rare trifecta in Iraq reporting, conveying in a single piece the good, the bad and the mundane–it’s well worth a read.
Paul McLeary is a former CJR staff writer. Since 2008, he has covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News, Breaking Defense, and other outlets. He is currently a defense reporter for Politico.