...the main task today for U.S. soldiers in Iraq is political: helping towns get organized, opening schools and managing the simmering tensions between, and within, different ethnic groups. If Bulgarian or Polish troops can help do that, bring 'em on. If not, stay home.
Just ask Col. Ralph Baker, commander of the Second Brigade, who oversees two Baghdad districts. He and his officers have been conducting informal elections for local councils and getting neighborhoods to nominate their own trusted police.
"First we taught them how to run a meeting," he told me in his Baghdad office...
Oh great - now we have to teach them to bring doughnuts and coffee too? Or are Iraqis more the juice and bagels type?
