Laying the foundation for success

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First Lt. Eric Lobdell, 24, of Houston (left, foreground), and Sgt. Robert Lane, 31, of Lakewood, Calif., (right) meet with a local sheik in the village of Ganus, in northern Iraq. They urged him and his people to cooperate with U.S. and Iraqi forces to help root out insurgents in the area.The soldiers are with Troop B, 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.


Laying the foundation for success
By Drew Brown , Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, February 18, 2008

GANUS, Iraq — First Lt. Eric Lobdell and his platoon had come to this village in northern Iraq’s Ninevah province to gauge the reaction of its inhabitants to an operation by the Iraqi police a few days earlier.

By all accounts from the villagers, the police hadn’t done much. They’d ridden through town and announced over a loudspeaker that curfew was at 6 p.m., and then left.

Still, the villagers expressed support for the police. Nearly every family in Ganus had one or two men who worked for either the police or the local tribal militia, formerly known as “Concerned Local Citizens,” but now known as “Sons of Iraq.”

Lobdell, 24, of Houston, and Sgt. Robert Lane, 31, of Lakewood, Calif., finally met with the village sheik, Ghanem Nasser, who said insurgents were a problem. They had killed 12 villagers over the years. The village needed more militia, more weapons, and a watchtower at their checkpoint to combat the militants, all of which the Americans could provide.

Lobdell and Lane disagreed.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52575