Category: Dispatches

Whiz-bang technology alone won’t make people feel safe enough to invest big money into a place like Iraq. The lack of political stability leads to a security vacuum, which leads to car bombs, which leads to further capital flight. “The situation right now in Iraq is not stable. There are many challenges for the stock exchange,” says Salam gloomily. “The investors are all waiting for things to happen to the economy, the services. I believe everyone here is waiting for good things to happen.”

“Saed’s capture is a lucky break, and maybe it will help. Because these days, Fox Company has been catching hell from insurgents who have been pushed out of the city of Fallujah and into the surrounding countryside since U.S. forces wrested the city from insurgent control last November….”

Signs warning “Complacency kills” dot the bases of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment in Ramadi. The Marines stationed in this provincial capital in the treacherous Sunni triangle are bored. Bored of patrols, tired of manning outposts and frustrated by an enemy they can’t meet face-to-face. The signs attest to the tedium of their days.