Bill at InFallujah Journal

Bill InDC is embedded in Iraq again, and while he's just gotten there, his first report is pretty positive.

Polished commentary will be a few days out. But a quick teaser: the positive change in Fallujah since my January visit is astounding.

...

Through a local interpreter, we talked about their changing opinion of Americans, Iraq's prospects, the misery of living under al Qaeda, the joys of kabob and favorite soccer teams. Their open and friendly nature is hard to reconcile with the negative history of American-Iraqi interaction in Fallujah, and most of them chalk it up to a "misunderstanding."

Towards the end of a long conversation with one group, I said, "Well, I wish you luck. And I want you to know, besides the marines and soldiers that you meet here in the city, there are many civilians back in America who hope for Fallujah's success."

The afternoon's joking died down as the interpreter translated and each of them earnestly told me "shukran" ("thank you"). And one young guy blurted out in halting English, "We like you!"

Bill InDC, goodwill emissary to Fallujah. The mind boggles.

Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald just dashed off a brief 9,000 page critique arguing that Bill is not in Fallujah at all, but rather Muncie, Indiana, and is even lying about the conditions in Muncie, where Americans are despised and we are doomed to fail in our efforts to make Muncie a functioning democracy.

posted by Ace at 11:21 AM

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