Monday, January 25, 2010

Iraqi Shia welcomed US Marines in 2003

Another fact that many Sunnis still deny, or now use to disparage Iraqi Shia. I wonder if the Arabs ever ask WHY most Iraqi Shia and Kurds were happy to see the end of Saddam's regime.

'Conway had a colorful way of illustrating the welcoming atmosphere in which his Marines were operating.

"Little kids run a quarter mile on a hot pavement with bare feet to wave," he said.

In his account of the war, titled "The Strongest Tribe," author and former Marine Bing West wrote that the south-central part of Iraq was so hospitable to the Marines in the summer of 2003 that the Karbala city council tried to elect a Marine lieutenant colonel its mayor.

But in Anbar, the province that stretches west from Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, trouble was brewing - even as the top Army commander in that area was insisting he'd found the key to success.'

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