US | Iraq Army's Role in Iraq Turning Personal Troops 'all but qualify for Iraqi citizenship,' for better or worse By Nick McMaster Posted Apr 1, 2008 11:21 PM CDT Copied A US soldier eats freshly baked bread and looks on at the cooking pot at a family compound outside Youssifiyah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, March 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Loay Hameed) After five years of war, the US military is enmeshed in virtually all aspects of Iraqi life—a common development in such engagements but one that can prove to be a double-edged sword for military efficiency, writes Lawrence Kaplan in the policy forum Bitter Lemons. "American units slowly melt into the landscape, becoming in effect the most powerful of their area's tribes," Kaplan writes. Like soldiers in Vietnam and the Philippines, Kaplan observes, field units in Iraq have adopted local flavor, dining with tribal elders and even peppering their private conversations with Iraqi phrases. The phenomenon occurs because it works: Kaplan notes that the surge showed results after regiments had “gone native.” But there's a flip side: Having given so much in Iraq, will officers be reticent to leave if the country is still broken? Read These Next RFK Jr. suggests antidepressants to blame after shooting. Isolated tribe members show up in an unexpected place. Details trickle out on 2 more victims of the Minneapolis shooting. Trump just used a spending maneuver last seen nearly 50 years ago. Report an error