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Bread for Baqubah
When you have a few minutes you should read and watch the latest dispatch from the amazing Michael Yon:Â Bread and a Circus Part I and Part II.
It is the story of our guys going to great lengths to deliver food to Baqubah after they have driven Al Qaeda out. They risked their lives to rid the city of terrorists and then risk their lives again to fill the city with food: 94 trucks worth of food capable of feeding a city of 200,000 for 30 days. 
The great “fight” in delivering the food was in getting through the bureaucratic nightmare. Our guys had to convince the bureaucrats at the warehouse near Sadr City that Al Qaeda had been vanquished in Baqubah. They could hardly believe it–they, themselves, had been living under the fear of Al Qaeda for so long they dared not risk their lives by doing something that Al Qaeda could retaliate against them for. Sort of a Battered Iraqi Syndrome.
By driving a wedge between the bureaucracy and the people of Baqubah, AQI had also stoked sectarian strife. The food was controlled by Shia and Baqubah is predominately Sunni. Â
Once the officials understood that Al Qaeda had been defeated, they were emboldened to release the food that Al Qaeda had previously been using as a weapon against the innocent men, women, and children of Baqubah.
Michael Yon writes, “I recalled one of the bureaucrat’s comments, upon hearing that al Qaeda had scattered like rabbits out of Baqubah. He seemed at first not to believe that news, but once he got confirmation, he made a point to tell us what that news actually meant: if al Qaeda was done in Baqubah, al Qaeda was done in Iraq.”
He may have overstated it a bit but one thing is sure:Â this is the beginning of the end for Al Qaeda in Iraq.
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