Judging An Army: A Quick Primer On Iraqi Troop Readiness (With More Images From Photographer Alan Chin)

BagnewsNotes

Five months ago, photographer Alan Chin made available to BAGnewsNotes a series of photos he took while embedded on a raid in Mahmudiya, Iraq, a town south of Baghdad.

As Alan described:

The raid was conducted by an Iraqi army unit consisting of around 85 soldiers, backed up by a five or six man American advisor team. The Americans planned the operation and the Iraqis carried it out. Iraqi soldiers were the ones "inside the cordon" searching houses and arresting people. The "outer cordon" was made up of American soldiers, a mechanized unit with Bradleys. The idea was that the Americans would seal the area off, and the Iraqis would do the direct contact. If the Iraqis had met resistance (which my unit did not) the Americans would back them up with the Bradleys and the Apache helicopters that provided air cover. Again, the only Americans inside the cordon were the advisor team. >>.cont

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