NOTES FROM THE FRONT LINES: JUST WHO IS FIGHTING IN MARJAH? (NEW YORK TIMES)

Just Who Is Fighting in Marjah?

By C.J. CHIVERS
The New York Times
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Last Saturday evening, as the first day of fighting in Marja between the Taliban and the Marines of Kilo Company, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines was ceasing with the approach of darkness, two Marine platoons converged for the night on a small Afghan compound. The platoons took cover behind the mud walls. The company manned its guns for the night and began to plan its missions for the next day.

The compound had several small buildings, some no bigger than sheds. Gunnery Sgt. James McCarver examined each structure, looking for a place to set up the company’s radios. He settled on a one-room mud building about 10 feet wide by 25 feet long, and led the company command group and its radio operators inside.

And there, on an inside wall illuminated by their flashlights, they looked up at a sight out of place: a small poster of battle scenes from Iraq, watched over by the approving face of Saddam Hussein.

The image, a cut-and-paste job, included two American soldiers aiming their rifles from the prone position. Each was bleeding heavily from bullet wounds that had been crudely painted on.
Who had the previous occupants of this room been? Where had they come from? And what about their affinity for the former president of Iraq, and for thoughts of blood-soaked American soldiers, was so strong that the poster was one of the only decorations in the room?

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