[james500]

"The [Iraqi] commandos cultivate a vaguely menacing look. They wear camouflage uniforms, but also irregular clothing, like black leather gloves and balaclavas -- not to hide their identities but to inspire fear among the enemy. It is a look I saw among the Serbian paramilitaries who terrorized Croatia and Bosnia during the Balkan wars in the 90's, and it is the look of the paramilitaries that operated in Latin America a decade earlier."

Or any moderately sized American city's SWAT team. This is just one example of many in the article where the author seems bent on portraying our efforts as less than honorable.

[nathanbedford]

Actually, I thought it was an exceedingly balanced view if one judges it only by its source, THE NEW YORK TIMES. Maas at least takes a practical view of the necessity for indigenous counter insurgency forces. He takes a realistic appraisal of the need for intimidation by those forces and, frankly, does not even try to whip up the leftist subscribers of the Times into indignation at the rough handling of suspected "insurgents." Considering the implacable propagandizing of the Times over the fraternity hijinks at Abu Gharib, this treatment is positively adult.

More importantly, the article gives evidence that at last we are on the right track in Iraq. Perhaps this is the Times' way of getting on the record ahead of the story of our reversal of fortune in Iraq.

Nor do I think the warnings about the factionalization of indigenous counter-insurgency forces are misplaced.