BAGHDAD, Oct. 21 � When Lt. Col. John Norris led his Stryker battalion to the Baya district of Baghdad last month he planned to work hand in glove with the Iraqi police. But no sooner did he venture onto the streets than he discovered that the police who were to be his partners were part of the problem.
As his Stryker command vehicle drove along a crowded avenue Colonel Norris spied several Shiite women in black abayas wailing over a body sprawled near a mosque as distraught relatives smeared the dead man�s blood on their faces. The American officer tried to wave down an Iraqi National Police truck for help, but the driver gave him an icy stare and kept going.[...]
On Baghdad Streets, a Police Partnership Falters
By MICHAEL R. GORDONBAGHDAD, Oct. 21 � When Lt. Col. John Norris led his Stryker battalion to the Baya district of Baghdad last month he planned to work hand in glove with the Iraqi police. But no sooner did he venture onto the streets than he discovered that the police who were to be his partners were part of the problem.
As his Stryker command vehicle drove along a crowded avenue Colonel Norris spied several Shiite women in black abayas wailing over a body sprawled near a mosque as distraught relatives smeared the dead man�s blood on their faces. The American officer tried to wave down an Iraqi National Police truck for help, but the driver gave him an icy stare and kept going.[...]
