By James Kitfield, National Journal
BAGHDAD -- The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Blood is thicker than mortar. Tribe and sect trump nation. Look for enemies and you will find them everywhere.
Army Lt. Col. Steve Miska knew all of those maxims for negotiating the byzantine maze of Baghdad politics as he interrupted a late-night meeting between a prominent Shiite politician and a senior Iraqi army commander. Miska's troops were engaged in a deadly firefight nearby with the Shiite militia, Jaish al-Mahdi, and he wasn't getting the help he wanted from Iraqi army units in the neighborhood. He also knew that he, an uninvited presence at the meeting, represented the most timeworn cliche of all: the proverbial stranger in a strange land.
Seeing Iraqi legislator Baha al-Araji, an influential spokesman for anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr and his Jaish al-Mahdi militia -- which people here call JAM, or the Mahdi Army -- Miska immediately understood why the Iraqi had so far ignored urgent U.S. requests for backup.
Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=37493&dcn=e_gvet
