American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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that there were more than twenty insurgent attacks against Iraqis
every day. The easiest way to be killed in the city was to join the police
force. Meanwhile, corruption was rife.
The Army analyzed the terrorist groups in the city and decided
there were three different categories: hard-core Islamist fanatics, associated
with al-Qaeda and similar groups; locals who were a little less
fanatic though they still wanted to kill Americans; and opportunistic
criminal gangs who were basically trying to make a living off the
chaos.
The first group had to be eliminated because they would never
give up; they would be our main focus in the coming campaign. The
other two groups, though, might be persuaded to either leave, quit
killing people, or work with the local tribal leadership. So, part of the
Army plan would be to work with the tribal leadership to bring peace
to the area. By all accounts, they had grown tired of the insurgents and
the chaos they had brought, and wanted them gone.
The situation and plan were a lot more complicated than I can
sum up. But to us on the ground, all of this was irrelevant. We didn’t
give a damn about the nuances. What we saw, what we knew, was that
many people wanted to kill us. And we fought back.
THE JUNDIS
There was one way the overall plan did affect us, and not for the
better.
The Ramadi offensive wasn’t supposed to be just about American
troops. On the contrary, the new Iraqi army was supposed to be front
and center in the effort to retake the city and make it safe.