Iraqis Say the Darnedest Things

...the likes of which you won't hear anywhere else, as it fails to fit the blood for oil, American occupation, Bush-the-terrorist-baby-killer, or civil war script.

Courtesy of the intrepid Michelle and Bryan, Iraqis Speak to America.

Michelle expounds:

Both the troops and Iraqis we met stressed the importance of jobs as a preventive measure against militia and insurgency recruitment. ... The concern, of course, is that you can't put the economic revitalization cart before the security horse--which is why executing the surge and clear-and-hold plans successfully is so key.

And Bryan files a report from their drivealong through Baghdad-area slums.

Officially, these slums don’t exist. Unofficially, they’re a source of recruits for JAM and other militias. That’s one of several reasons they need to be cleaned up, and the best way to do that is for the Iraqi government to stop pretending that they don’t exist and for the adults here to find jobs. The first will help make the second possible. School for the kids can come once these places have security and aren’t breeding grounds for Moqtada al-Sadr to exploit. And once the rockpiles have been replaced by real homes.