At the din of an approaching helicopter, Sergeant Ken Brown drags $750,000, crammed into three white sacks, onto a dark Baghdad landing strip. He is bound for Qaim, the westernmost town of Anbar province, to pay 1,900 unhappy Iraqi soldiers. Some have not been paid for four months and are threatening mutiny. In Anbar's recent history, this is progress. Six months ago, Qaim, and half a dozen other towns along the western Euphrates valley, were ruled by head-chopping al-Qaeda fanatics. They had no Iraqi security forces (ISF), and saw only occasional, very violent, appearances from the American marine division in Anbar.
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