Unit finds peace by immersing itself daily in Iraqi village

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Unit finds peace by immersing itself daily in Iraqi village
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, May 6, 2008

TESAH NISSAN, Iraq — Capt. Chas Cannon has been the guest at village weddings. He’s cut the throat of the ceremonial lamb, shoveled his right hand into mounds of rice and gorged on meats of uncertain origin.

During his regular visits to the villages of Tesah Nissan, Cannon also makes a point to compliment the cooks in Arabic after eating. When he mingles in the crowd, he seems to know everyone by name.

“You’ve got to get out of your vehicle. Face-to-face interaction is everything,” said Cannon, who is wrapping up his third deployment to Iraq with the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Benning, Ga.

Since his battery of soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment took over the area in December, the unit has immersed itself in the daily lives of villagers, who live about 20 miles east of the Green Zone. The result: a cascade of tips leading to the seizure of weapons caches. In five months not a single roadside bomb has exploded in Tesah Nissan, which sits along a thoroughfare leading straight to Baghdad.

“Before, our security was real bad,” said Quissin Yassim, the leader of the local and newly formed “Sons of Iraq” group. “Before, IEDs (improvised explosive devices) were in streets, and they (the extremists) were taking money by force. They were taking people’s cars.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54572