Letter from Baghdad. So a former (excellent) student of mine who is now serving with US Marines in Iraq sent me this message. I asked his permission to reproduce here. He even told me that I should rip it apart, if I felt like it. I could not; I can not reply to this as fiercely as I otherwise would because...well, he was my student. So people can read and react, in approval or disapproval. I did write Nick privately and tell him what I thought about the message. (I only took out his specific references that would identify him).

"Asad,
How's it going in Turlock. I think the last time I wrote you was when I was deployed to Al Asad, Iraq. There I sat behind a desk for 7 months and did not get an up close personal perspective of the war. Well, currently I have been in Baghdad for the last 11 months and I only have one month left before I come home to S... I've been on a National Police Transition Team (NPTT). We are an 11 man Marine team and out mission is to train these knuckeheads and make them self-sufficient. I can honestly say that our year has been a complete and utter failure. Not because we did not put forth the effort, (we were outside the wire more than most infantry units) but because of the complete Shia curruption in the Ministry of Interior. You most likely read about my INP Brigade in the papers recently. We were the ones who were stood down because of the curruption and complicity in Extra Judicial Killings. Starting in February, after the Samara Mosque bombing, we started finding bodies in the streets every day. Men, women, children; it didn't matter. When we were in the Dora section of Baghdad I was still able to maintain the illusion of good guys and bad guys because it was a Sunni area and they were shooting at our INPs and setting off roadside bombs on our guys every day. However, when we moved to New Baghdad and closer to Sadr City, all of a sudden our INPs stopped suffering casualties. They had averaged at least 5 killed a month in our Battalion alone, but on the East side of the river it went down to zero. At the same time however, Coalition casualties increased. It was at that time that I realized that the Shia militias were ingrained in our own unit. I guess I knew it the whole time, but it was in our face in New Baghdad. We stayed in Eastern Baghdad for a little over a month and I was relieved when our Iraqi Battalion moved to the West of the River where there were more Sunnis. I actually felt safer when we were getting shot at by Sunnis because I knew that our INPs would be on our side if anything happened. For the last several months we've been working in the Jihad/Furat areas of Baghdad. The daily attacks went up just as expected, but I actually felt safer. Now, we have stood down to "train" the INP; in reality they are basically little kids on a "time out" cause they killed too many people while they were off duty. I still support what we are trying to do here, if nothing else because I'd rather they attack American Military abroad then American Civilians at home. Everyone in uniform volunteered; not so of the average American. However, I really have to tell you that Arabs really frustrate me. I know it's not politically correct to group a race of people like that, but it is true that there is a common culture and ideology shared among these people. Please don't take offense to this, but when people ask me what Arabs are like, I tell them they are exactly like children. I have many Iraqi friends, especially among our interpreters, but I see the same childish traits in them as well. These Iraqis are hypocrites as well. They talk about how much they respect women, yet women can't do anything in this country. The news says that the laws give them freedom, but in reality they have to have a male escourt every where they go. They are also the biggest perverts I've ever seen. I thought I liked porn, but they eat the stuff up. Yet when they are done watching porn they will talk about how a woman is a whore if she isn't a virgin when she is married. This whole experience has really made me appreciate what we have at home in the US. I think that we will eventually have a stable government in Iraq, but it will not be the classic democracy that we as Americans want to see. These people need a dictator, they can't handle having too much freedom. One example of this is this fucker Muqtada Sadr. He is my age, uneducated, and a fat pig, yet millions of ignorant, poor Shia almost worship him. It's like they want to pick the biggest douche-bag to lead them, cause they are so used to Saddam. Anyways, this whole experience has made me want to continue my education. I am going to take the GRE in December and I plan on applying to.....I have so much more to rant about, but it's my day to take the Terpsto the chow hall."