 |
|
ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq -- If Iraq slips toward civil war, this town along the Sunni-Shiite fault line will be one of the flash points. Talking to U.S. troops at a base near here, you come away with a idea of what the war looks like out in the killing zone -- and how hard it is to mesh U.S. strategy with the nightmarish reality of the Iraqi insurgency.
This war is in many ways a series of disconnects, and you sense them during a visit to Forward Operating Base Kalsu, as the Army calls its garrison here. It's a war in which U.S. troops remain upbeat, even as support deteriorates back home; in which the appearance of stability in much of Iraq is shattered by spasms of hideous violence; in which U.S. military strategy is confounded by Iraq's political disarray. [...]
The soldiers at Kalsu Base are buying time. As long as they guard the fault line, a full-scale civil war is unlikely in this region, says Lt. Jennifer Bowen, the deputy intelligence chief. But if they leave, a sectarian conflict is likely. Before the Mississippi Rifles go back home at year-end, the Iraqis will hold another election. If the new government doesn't reflect a Sunni-Shiite alliance that can begin to restore order, sending a new team of Americans to Kalsu Base won't make much sense.