My Hot Air colleague Bryan Preston and I have been in Iraq, embedded with an incredibly dedicated Army unit in Baghdad tasked with training Iraqi security forces (both Shia and Sunni) conducting counterinsurgency operations, and carrying out civil affairs work. Yes, there is danger and chaos and unspeakable bloodshed in parts of Baghdad. Sectarian violence–compounded by everyday street crime and tribal conflict–is rampant. Corruption, incompetence, and apathy infect the Iraqi government. You’ve gotten endless news coverage of all that. But there are also pockets of success and signs of hope amid utter despair. I’ll give you more details of our embed unit after we get home. We have much to report and will be publishing a multi-part video and audio series, blog posts, and op-eds on security conditions, media malpractice, and the big picture on the war next week. Having met, watched, and interviewed a broad cross-section of our troops during our brief but fruitful travels, my faith in the U.S. military has never been stronger– but I will not sugarcoat my skepticism and doubts about decisions being made in Washington. For now, I’m posting a few pictures I took from one of our recent trips on patrol through the slums of Baghdad.

Iraqi children in a western Baghdad homeless encampment welcome American troops

In another impoverished section of western Baghdad, children beg for candy, soccer balls, and photographs.

Our embed unit on a mission delivering blankets to the poor.

American troops meet with displaced families.

Slum dwellers have pirated satellite dishes, illegally siphoned electricity, and illegally diverted water. The Maliki government does not recognize the existence of the camps.

The man in the above photo is 30-year-old Shiite Rasul Karim, carrying his one-year-old daughter. Rasul told me he and his family left the al-Thawra district of Sadr City for Baghdad in search of work and have lived in the slums with hundreds of other displaced refugees for two months. “I am against all terrorists,” he said, and criticized the Iraqi government for not doing enough to make the city secure from militia members and street thugs. Asked whether American troops should withdraw, Rasul shook his head: “No, no, you can’t leave.”

As an Army convoy prepared to depart after dropping off blankets, an Iraqi boy came out to say goodbye clutching a stuffed toy–and an American flag. [Update (from Allahpundit): The subject was backlit in the original photo so I used Photoshop to adjust the lighting and remove a small amount of grain.]