Baghdad, Iraq
By Richard Engel, NBC News' Chief Foreign Correspondent
Over a meal this weekend at a Green Zone chow hall (chicken salad and Baskin-Robbins pralines and cream ice cream, a KBR delight), I had a revealing conversation with two senior U.S. military officials.
"We've pretty much defeated al-Qaida here," one of the military officers said. "If Iran stopped doing what it's doing, things would dramatically change."
"You think that would be it, a turning point? If Iran stopped backing militias, you think things would get much better?" I asked.
"No doubt. It would be dramatic," replied the officer.
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By Ned Colt, NBC News Correspondent
BAGHDAD – For Um Wissam, a small office packed with food aid in Shiite-dominated Sadr City is a lifeline. With her son killed two years ago, the widow has nowhere else to turn for support.
"They're really great," she said. "They give us whatever they possibly can."
"They" are fervent anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army.
A new report from Washington-based Refugees International says that Muqtada and his Mahdi Army are the largest "unofficial" aid agency in the country. And they're not alone. In the patchwork quilt of sectarian neighborhoods that make-up Baghdad, almost all aid is delivered through political and religious groups, according to report co-author Kristele Younes.
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By Carla Marcus, NBC News Producer
The warning to his family was explicit. "Do not befriend or talk to any Iraqis."
Sound like words likely to be spoken in ethnically-torn Iraq? The advice was actually given to the wife and children of an Iraqi colleague lucky enough to get his family to Europe. The family is presently applying for asylum, as well as learning a new language and skills which may lead to work.
Similar words were expressed by another workmate who moved his family to Syria. While he remains here in Baghdad to work so he can support his wife and children, the potential danger to his family abroad is high. Why? In each case, there's fear that if word gets out that the families have ties to Iraqis working for Western organizations, trouble could arise in the form of retaliation – the same fears each family lived with while in Iraq.
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By NBC local journalist in Iraq*
BAGHDAD, Iraq - I remember vividly the moment when the bombing started five years ago. The sound of the air raids and the sirens still echo inside me.
Within minutes of the first siren, columns of smoke climbed the sky and thunderous explosions could be heard everywhere. It brought mixed feelings for many Iraqis; feelings of delight and anxiety, which were overwhelming to me and my family.
On the one hand, there was a strong sense of hope and expectation that this war would lead us to a better future and away from a life that had witnessed many wars and much destruction. On the other hand, there was anxiety that it could all end in disappointment.
On April 9, 2003, our neighbor came running to our house like an excited child, saying that U.S. forces were on the main road of our neighborhood. We did not believe her.
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By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent
Five years ago today I was standing in a large, recently built UN refugee camp inside Jordan, on its desert border with Iraq. With my NBC news team of cameraman Maurice Roper, soundman Stan Ouse, producer Paul Hijaz, and engineer Lenny Venezia , we were filing live shots on the hour from our, well, more modest version of David Bloom’s ‘Bloom-mobile’ – a customized white KIA pick-up truck-turned-satellite link we named ‘Odd Job’.
The story here was obvious, at least to us: when ‘Shock & Awe’ rained down on Iraq, Iraqis would flee to Jordan, perhaps by the hundreds of thousands. The international aid community certainly knew it – that’s why it built Camp A – for Iraqi refugees – and Camp B for non-Iraqis – in record time. But there were no long lines of Iraqis. In fact, there were no Iraqis coming over at all.
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By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News' Chief Pentagon Correspondent
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq – Long after sundown, Gen. David Petraeus sat down with a handful of us Pentagon reporters in an otherwise empty dining room at Camp Victory in Baghdad to talk about ending the surge operation that began about a year ago and bringing those U.S. surge forces home.
Appearing as tired and weary as I've ever seen him, Petraeus appeared to regain some of his trademark energy as he talked about the reduction in overall violence in Iraq to its lowest levels in three years and expressed confidence that all five of the additional combat brigades sent to Iraq for the surge, some 21,000 U.S. forces, would be going home by the end of July. But typically cautious, Petraeues warned, "It will not be easy."
The general calls them "storm clouds," major problems that could reverse the security gains made during the surge and says he'll lay out all those potential pitfalls when he briefs Congress on the status of the surge in early April.
Among the "clouds" on the horizon: a spike in violence as U.S. forces decrease or an inability of Iraqi forces to takeover security operations, along with the lack of political and economic progress.
It's because of all those potential problems that Petraeus is resisting pressure, both political and from within his own military, to continue to drawdown the numbers of American troops in Iraq once the surge has ended. Meanwhile there's a tug-of-war developing within the military for what U.S. troops will remain.
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By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief
Nearly half a decade since the big bangs of "Shock and Awe," the United States and the Iraqi government are about to start writing a plan for U.S. forces to exit the war in Iraq, but not the country.
Senior U.S. and Iraqi officials will soon begin negotiating a strategic agreement to answer critical questions about the future role and commitment of U.S. forces in Iraq.
The agreement, being tentatively called the U.S.-Iraq Friendship and Cooperation Agreement, could be the most important bilateral arrangement since the war, setting up U.S.-Iraqi relations for years, if not decades, to come.
American and Iraqi negotiators so far seem to have similar visions for the agreement. Both sides see a long-term U.S. military commitment to support, equip and train Iraqi forces.
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By Richard Engel, Middle East bureau chief
UNICEF released its annual report on the state of the world's children on Tuesday. NBC's Richard Engel takes a look at how children in Iraq are coping with the effects of violence and poverty.
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By NBC local journalist in Iraq*
"Wake up, it's snowing! Don't miss the view!" Those were my 13-year-old niece's words when she called me early this morning.
I felt pleasure and joy in her words, jumped out of my bed and ran to the window. It was much more beautiful than can be described; a scene I have not seen before in my lifetime in Baghdad.
My family used to call my niece Snow White because she has pale skin, very blue eyes, and dark hair – plus she was a fan of the cartoon. So today she was especially pleased, because for the first time she felt what the taste of snow was really like.
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| AP |
| An Iraqi man and his child enjoy light snow fall in Baghdad on Friday. |
Then one of my colleagues called and said, "It's snowing, dear." I answered, "Yes, it’s awesome."
We started our day at work on the balcony holding a hot cup of tea in one hand and stretching the other hand into the air to catch snowflakes. My colleagues and I were breathing in the cold air while chatting. In Baghdad, it rains, it hails, it storms, but it almost never snows.
I thanked God for granting Iraqis the chance to watch the snow falling and I prayed that God will bring peace, happiness, success, and love in each white pure piece of snow.
* The names of local journalists are not used to protect their identity.
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By Stephanie Gosk, NBC News Correspondent
Maj. Andrew Olmsted was shot and killed by a sniper in Diyala province on Jan.3. His was a dangerous job in a still-dangerous place in Iraq.
Before he left for this tour, Olmsted knew he might not make it home. As an avid blogger for the "Rocky Mountain News" paper, he prepared for his own possible death by writing a final entry to be posthumously posted on his own Web site should he be killed.
He wrote, "This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published…"
The 3,000-word blog thanks his friends and family, quotes Plato and the sci-fi show "Babylon 5," and urged his readers not to politicize his death.
"If you think the U.S. should stay in Iraq, don't drag me into it by claiming that somehow my death demands us staying in Iraq. If you think the U.S. ought to get out tomorrow, don't cite my name as an example of someone's life who was wasted by our mission in Iraq," he wrote.
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