Soldier's Home : In the Words of an Iraqi National Policeman

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In the Words of an Iraqi National Policeman

David Botti

Ali Mahdi. Photo: David Botti

National Police commander Ali Mahdi leads a platoon of his men partnered with American soldiers from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. The two groups of men live at a spartan police headquarters in the Beladiat section of Baghdad, an area that borders Sadr City to the east. Before the Americans came to Iraq, Mahdi was a special forces soldier in Saddam Hussein’s army. After the regime fell, Mahdi joined Iraq’s National Police in 2005 and has worked with American forces ever since. I spoke last week with Mahdi through the aid of an interpreter.

Are there still militia members in the National Police?

A little bit, yes. Not just in the National Police, but in the Iraqi Army too. Iraq is many things: Sunni, Shiite, Kurdish, and Christian. Everyone sticks together and looks out for themselves. The National Police and Iraqi Army are involved in all of the big operations in Iraq, so everyone knows the Iraqi intelligence agencies are watching them. If I'm working for the National Police, and I'm a terrorist, I know these agencies are watching me. So, I quit and go home.

I'm going to give you an example to help you understand: you are militia, I am militia, and he is militia. [Mahdi points to our translator] Two of us are arrested for being in the militia and you stay free—and, nobody knows about you. Iran is supporting you with guns, money, everything. Iran supports the militia too. When you know we've been arrested do you stay in the same place, or do you leave?

You'd leave because we'd tell the police about you and all of these things. Maybe I am [militia] in Sadr City. There the neighbors know I am in the militia. They'd make a call from the tip card the Americans give out and turn me in. So, instead I would move from Sadr City to another neighborhood where no one would know me.

There is militia, there's still a lot of terrorists, bombs, and everything. They're hiding now because they know that the Americans, the National Police, and the Iraqi Army are all looking for them.

Maybe in the future the Americans, together with the National Police, will arrest all of those sons of ***.

How well do you find yourself working with the American soldiers you’re partnered with?

I have 22 National Police [under my command]. We have a bond with the Americans that is sealed with blood. The American soldiers do the right thing. The American soldiers freed us from Saddam. The American soldiers want to free us from the militias that come from Iran. We'll all take this same right road together, and never go back.

The American soldiers come from very far away to give us security, and make [the Iraqis] happy people. So I'm going to give them my soul for that. The Americans leave their children and their wives to make my country secure. I will give my soul to you [as an American]. If someone tried to kill you, I'd be the first one to stand up and protect you.

If National Police and American soldiers are walking together and one of them is injured or killed, it will be a national policeman. Why? Because this is my country.

I want you to give a message for all of the families, and all of the Americans: the National Police are with the Americans together on one road for the freedom of Iraq.

If the National Police are doing something the wrong way, the Americans soldiers tell them how to do it the correct way. The Americans show them how to be on the correct path.

Will there be a time when you won't need the Americans here anymore?

We don't want the American soldiers to leave right now. Not until Iraq has all new buildings, new technology, new cars—until it's rebuilt. Then we'd tell the Americans to go home, and civilians like you can walk in the streets [of Iraq].

In the future we want it so that the American soldiers don't need body armor, or helmets, or humvees. They can throw the gun away and we can walk together in the street—have fun and have beer.

I don't want them to leave Iraq like it is now, it would break my heart.

Iraq

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