That Won't Buff Out

In my last post I mentioned something along the lines of people in Afghanistan not being very forthcoming or straightforward with information. The same could be said of Iraqis and getting information from them. I suspect it's across the board with every people and nation when you are occupying their country.


Anyway, the statement reminded me of a story from my days in Iraq. Some time during my third deployment an IED went off against a police SUV, as IEDs tend to do. What was unusual about it was that the attack occurred in the city of Khanaqin, an extremely safe, Kurdish controlled town. So safe that 1-14 Cav actually played a football game in the soccer stadium. Now and again something would explode in the area but rarely against the local security forces.


Shortly after the attack the squadron commander went to Khanaqin to meet with various leaders including the police chief. I decided to tag along on this visit. During the meeting the commander asked about the IED attack. The police chief brushed it off and blamed Al Qaida as everyone in the area always blamed Al Qaida for these things (it was probably AQ, but it could also have been other Kurds). He also said it was a small IED that did little damage, we shouldn't worry about it. This was a bit odd since the report we got stated the police SUV was destroyed.


The police chief was likely trying to save face and was a bit embarrassed by the IED attack in his safe city. We didn't press the issue.


As we left the chief's office we got a look at the back courtyard area. What was sitting out there? A completely destroyed police SUV. The commander glanced at me and the operations officer and said something to the effect of, "that looks like more than light damage."


Back at our base at the nightly update brief the commander brought up the meeting and the SUV. We were all a bit amused that the police chief lied right to our faces when the clearly blown to hell SUV was in plain site. But that's the nature of this kind of fight. The police chief was attempting to preserve his honor and the reputation of his town. I also think he didn't want the Americans believing we needed to have more of a presence in his area. He was happy to have us stop by for a visit, or even do the occasional night patrol with his officers; but better the Americans be out of site as much as possible.