Letters From Baghdad

Our First Dispatch From the Front Line

By Matt Mireles

November 25, 2006

Find Baghdad International Airport on a map, and my unit is in the first built-up areas just to the east and northeast. The area is almost exclusively Sunni. It was once somewhat more mixed, with perhaps as much as 30 percent of the population being Shia. But as a result of the recent sectarian violence you’ve probably heard about, Shias are either leaving the neighborhood voluntarily or departing this world very involuntarily. The stories in the media of sectarian violence are absolutely true, and they probably aren’t overstated.

By far the most common situation we respond to is the discovery of dead bodies in our area. I’ve already come upon three—two had been bound and/or blindfolded and the third had been the victim of an alleged drive-by shooting. Nearly all of the bodies are Shia and most show evidence of having been killed execution-style, with gunshots to the back of the head and neck.

It’s generally about as gruesome as it sounds—thank goodness we’ve been spared the spate of beheadings that ravaged the area not long before our arrival. But the manner of death isn’t as important as the motive, which in almost all cases is reprisal and intimidation, as best we can tell.

Bodies are left in conspicuous areas—in open fields near mosques, on heavily trafficked corners, or simply in sites that are known as places to expect to find bodies. Sometimes they’re there simply as a show of force or power; other times they’re acts of revenge for incidents perpetrated by the other sect. It’s human tragedy of a senseless and—to most of us—a basically incomprehensible kind.

Until next time,

Lieutenant Josh Arthur