That's why we're better than the terrorists. We keep the moral high ground. It's expensive real estate, but worth it. The Iraqis in Haditha apparently recognize this.
There’s an interesting article by Bing West, Streetwise, in the January/February issue of The Atlantic. It’s about the Iraqi police and Lieutenant Colonel James Donnellan shows up in that article as well. Here’s a bit of the piece:
“Right now I have to deal with an angry police chief,” [said Captain Matt Tracy] “We’ve been asking him how his prisoner died, and he doesn’t like it.”
Tracy walked outside and escorted the compact and unsmiling police chief, Colonel Farouq, into his office.
“Every American is asking how one terrorist died,” he said angrily. “We questioned him, and he died. That’s all I say. He betrayed my police. [My police officers’] heads were tossed in the dirt in Baiji. And all you ask is how a terrorist died.”
“We go by the law,” Tracy said. “We have rules we follow.”
“Rules? What about nine bodies without heads? What about my brother’s body?” Farouq raged. “My mother complains I have lost the family because I help Americans.” Farouq’s younger brother had been killed in the ambush, his body mutilated.
“Baiji’s a hundred kilometers from here,” the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel James Donnellan, said. “I’ll take a force there. You can come with me.”
“When?” Farouq demanded to know.
“Higher has to coordinate,” Donnellan said. “Two or three days.”
“The bodies will be gone by then. You investigate a dead terrorist right away. But my brother has to wait,” Farouq said. “Your rules? You won’t see strong Iraqi police the American way for a hundred years.”