BUT THEN THERE IS THIS STORY WHICH DOES SEEM TO BE GOOD NEWS.

At the Liberation Gasoline Station in the southern part of the city, people were arguing in the shimmering heat.

Police and Ministry of Oil officials were jumping to the front of the long, slow-moving lines, or demanding extra rations of gasoline or propane, enraging drivers who had waited impatiently for hours.

There was shouting, pushing, shoving and slapping.

Then an Abrams tank from the 1st Armored Division's 135th Battalion rolled in, trailing clouds of brown dust and coughing diesel exhaust.

Not a shot was fired. The Americans took no one prisoner. No one was hurt. But the lines became shorter and moved faster.

Even more important, the scarce fuel was more fairly distributed, and a couple of weeks after the 1st Armored Division left, the station remains a more or less orderly place, customers and workers say, despite continuing shortages.

Several workers said the Americans made the difference. "We are thankful that they came," said Abbas Fallah, a 27-year-old worker at the station's propane distribution center. "They gave us a little freedom, and hope for the future.

"They gave equality for each citizen."

They managed to accomplish on one Baghdad street corner what the Americans hope - and need - to achieve throughout the country. Without violence, a platoon of the 135th Battalion restored security, prompted fair play and won the trust and gratitude of Iraqi civilians...

Instead of just guarding the station, the soldiers decided to make it run more fairly and efficiently. "We were trying to guide them in the direction of the light," said Staff Sgt. Thomas Revette, 32.

Early on, they confronted Iraqi officials who tried to pull rank and take more than their ration of fuel. "It's tough to explain to a 70-year-old woman who has been standing in line all day that the Ministry of Oil guy who just drove to the front of the line is entitled to 10 propane cylinders, and everyone else got only one," Franklin said.

Outraged, the officials would stand nose to nose with the soldiers and scream at them. The soldiers stood their ground. "We never did slug a guy from the Ministry of Oil, as much as I would have liked to," Franklin said.

HEH.

Read the rest of this excellent article here.