by Jamal Hashim, Ali Salih
TIKRIT, Iraq, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Unarmed and unmasked Mohammedal-Jubouri, an Iraqi soldier, was proudly showing off his military uniform he was wearing as waiting for a commuter bus on a main road near his military base in the once Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold of Salahudin province in north of Baghdad.
"You are unarmed and not wearing a mask, are you not afraid anymore or what?" an old man asked just to exchange a good-natured banter with Jubouri, who just rode the commuter bus heading to his home in the town of Sherqat, some 150 km north of the provincial capital of Tikrit.
"The days that we were afraid of insurgents have gone away, I don't need to wear a mask anymore and to hide my job on family, relatives and my hometown neighbors," Jubouri said proudly.
"It's only days and security will be our responsibility, no more Americans," he said. "To me, it is not only a transfer of security control, actually it means that our blood, pride and honor will be in our hands," he said.
Chatting with the passengers in the bus, Jubouri said that his family and the people in his town told him that they want their sons to do the job of security rather than Americans. "Many people want to get rid of the arrogance of American soldiers, and we are close to achieving that goal by June 30."
The early years after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, security members hid their faces by masks and secretly worked with the U.S.-backed government. Their job was so shameful in anti-U.S. Sunni Arab communities.
Security members were target for all insurgent groups in the once feared insurgency zone of what so-called the Sunni Triangle, which is densely populated with Sunni Muslim Arabs and extends to east, west and north of Baghdad.
"Nowadays, Iraqis are looking at us as the only way to get rid of both the American presence and the gangs that killed hundreds of thousands of our people," said Jubouri, who held a bachelor's degree from Salahudin University and joined the new Iraq Army four years ago despite that the job was far from his degree.
For six years, people were suffering from misconduct of U.S. soldiers who are strangers to the local culture, as many Iraqis believe.
"The misconduct itself was behind the deaths of dozens of thousands of Iraqis, who were easily turned into enemies to the Americans because of their (Americans) misunderstanding to the customs of the Iraqi preserved society," he said.
Salahudin is a predominantly Sunni province and is the hometown of former President Saddam Hussein who was ousted from his post bythe U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
However, the province is seen by observers as one of 18 Iraqi provinces that have rarely witnessed sectarian strife between Shiite and Sunni communities as the province is a mainly Sunni Arab area. But as hometown of Saddam Hussein and his loyalists, the province's main suffer for its people was by the misconduct of U.S. soldiers who fiercely fought anti-U.S. insurgency.
The fact that Salahudin is mainly Sunni Arab and the security forces are mainly from its population made it rarely to see friction between local troops and civilians, unlike many mixed Shiite and Sunni provinces where the security forces were accused of being infiltrated by militias who were orchestrating sectarian killings against Iraqi communities.
Kamal al-Qaisi, once an Iraqi Colonel under Saddam's regime, has returned to the Iraqi Army secretly in the early years after the invasion, also to avoid the revenge of insurgents.
"The people in my village have gradually realized that it is important for the former experienced officers to return to the army. They are proud of me now, and always remind me that it is time to take over security from Americans," Qaisi said.
Aiyham Abdul Hameed, a shop owner in central Tikrit, said, "they (security members) deserve respect because they prevent chaos and blind killings, unlike the American soldiers who consider our streets and homes a war zone. They don't care about our life, whereas, those security guys are our brothers and cousins."
Security members in many checkpoints that spread in the city of Tikrit seem relaxed these days and their presence is merely a routine daily job as the city was calm for several months, despite that the partial takeover of security control from U.S. troops is very close.
As part of a security pact signed between Baghdad and Washington last year, U.S. combat troops will withdraw from Iraq's cities, towns and villages by June 30, 2009 to their bases, and will leave the country on Dec. 31, 2011.
