How do you reclaim a country that’s so dangerous, firefighters are afraid to emerge from their station? Bill considers that question in his new piece for the Examiner. The can’t-miss, though, is the post he’s put up at INDC to complement it, an interview with a local civil servant named “Yusef” about the protection rackets being run by the jihadi mafia to fund the insurgency and what locals can do to stop them. Answer: follow the Patriquin plan.

I’m loath to blockquote any of it because it’s important enough that I want you to read it all. But:

We then discussed my camera, and whether I was going to take his picture. All Iraqis in civil positions shun pictures and cover their faces in public, lest the revelation of their identity cause them and their families to be killed.

Yusef: “Go ahead and take my picture, I’m not afraid, I’ve lost everything in Iraq. (The insurgents) killed my family, they killed my father in one spot, they killed my brother. They chopped my brother’s head off. So there is no more to lose.”

And:

Yusef: “Through my [experience as an enemy], the way I look at Americans, I look at them and feel like they are occupiers, occupying my country when the invasion happened. But when other parties showed up – especially the radicals and the Iranian militias, both who are not Iraqis – now I prefer the Americans. I’ve met [various Americans working for Fallujah]. It is my feeling that [they are] working hard, and (before I knew) you (Americans) I had a different image. Now that I know the Americans, I have a different impression. Now I deal honestly with them and feel they are really working for the benefit of my side.”

“I think the Americans are more for Iraq than the Iraqis themselves.”

Emphasis mine. Proceed.