Yesterday I took a day trip with Gen. David Petraeus – one of his frequent "battlefield circulations" – to a small farming village near the Iraqi town of Yussefiya, about 30 miles southwest of Baghdad. These kinds of excursions are generally dog-and-pony shows: day-long spin sessions that involve a fair amount of theatrics from American officers going on about how much progress has been made. (Yesterday was no exception; the climax came when the four-star general passed out soccer balls to Iraqi kids as flashbulbs flickered.) Still, I try to tag along for them when they come up; you never know when you might come across some news. And I admit I never miss the chance to ride on a Blackhawk helicopter over Iraq – which, even after dozens of trips, is still the cheapest thrill in the Middle East.

I also happened to be interested in the topic yesterday: the military's new "concerned local citizens" programs. American diplomats and officers love to talk about this new strategy of relying on local strongmen for security – "government from the ground up," as they put it. In the short term the project has produced some noteworthy results in reducing attacks on American troops. Yet in the long term it also presents some significant risks. Two weeks ago I wrote a story for the magazine that looked at the dark side of this phenomenon, which, in practice, includes the rise of dozens of American-supported warlords. Since the story appeared, a couple of things reminded me just how difficult the balancing act will be.

Petraeus meets the troops south of Baghdad. Photo by Larry Kaplow

Soccer leagues are plentiful, and you see men in fluorescent uniform tops scrambling for the ball across bare dirt fields. You're close enough to see a few families still strolling around one of the capital's dilapidated amusement parks. The roads are busy, though not clogged, with motorists heading home at dinnertime. You can see green sewage covering some streets and trash and damaged buildings are apparent but the city--a great metropolis of millions of people and resplendent turquoise mosque domes--looks haggard but alive.

An aide says such flights are a frequent pick-me-up for the general at the end of a day, a chance to remind himself and others of the daily life that goes on despite war. It's a war that Petraeus is remaking according to his doctrine of counterinsurgency, and in the hours before the scenic trip back, he visited two dusty, fairly primitive Army bases where the theory is meeting reality. Close up, it's a more mixed and complicated picture of a hard fight, making some progress but facing shortfalls and the all-too-usual threats.