$14.7 million of equipment is received by the Iraqi Ministry of Defence (Baghdad)
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq
Public Affairs Office,
Phoenix Base APO AE 09348
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release No. 080327-01
March 25, 2008
Contact: pao@mnstci.iraq.centcom.mil This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
DSN: 318-852-1332
IRAQNA: 0790-194-0270
$14.7 million of equipment is received by the Iraqi Ministry of Defence (Baghdad)
Baghdad, Iraq – The Ministry of Defence is continuing to receive logistical support vehicles it has procured through the Foreign Military Sales program and the Iraqi Security Forces Fund. The latest receipts of equipment took place at the Old al Muthana vehicle storage facility in Baghdad on Mar 26.
The Foreign Military Sales program in Iraq is managed by the Security Assistance Office within the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq. The function of the Security Assistance Office is to help the Iraqi Government build its defense capability through the purchase of defense equipment and services. Foreign Military Sales cases are funded by the requesting government, in this case the Government of Iraq. The major difference between a Foreign Military Sales case and an Iraqi Security Forces Fund case is the funding source. Iraqi Security Forces Fund cases are funded with U.S. appropriated dollars specifically dedicated to procuring equipment and services in support of the Iraqi Security Forces.
This Foreign Military Sales delivery included logistical support equipment such as 4 BREM tracked recovery vehicles, 47 x 2,000 liter water trailers, 66 x 5-ton cargo trucks, and 175 x 1-ton cargo trailers. This equipment is valued in excess of $11.4 million.
The delivery of the 19 x Shop Equipment Contact Maintenance Humvees, procured through the Iraqi Security Forces Fund, are valued in excess of $3.2 million. These vehicles will increase the capacity of the Iraqi army to repair vehicles and equipment.
This equipment and materiel will be issued to Iraqi Army units throughout the country as new units are generated and to replace any losses that have occurred in their efforts to secure the country.
The media right now is thanking the Maker for the artificial 4,000th “milestone” death in Iraq. It gives them something to talk about and the ability to refocus their agenda so that the candidates have something to talk about to win office. What you don’t hear them doing is sickening and appalling.
We here at ASP want to thank those 4,000 brave men and women who have paid a steep price for freedom. We honor them and their families who pay a deeper price for their sacrifices. Because of these 4,000 heroes, millions of Iraqis are enjoying true freedoms for the first times in their life. They no longer need to live in fear that their opinion about their leader will get their tongues cut off, their family killed, or their job lost.
Because of these 4,000 Iraq is more stable and secure with an “audacity of hope”, reconciliation, and optimism. Democracy is taking hold and the surge has allowed unprecedented progress in the government. Iraq has passed more laws in one year than our country has the past three!
We continue to be burdened by the terrorists who are clinging to every ounce of determination they can muster, despite their problems recruiting and staying alive. None of these Soldiers has died in vain, regardless of what the Code Pinkos, IVAWs, and other extreme left-wingers of this country want us to believe. They deserve to be honored, not splashed across our television sets and front page newspapers as lost causes.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as a Soldier I grieve at the loss of even one of my fellow brothers or sisters in arms. But let me tell you something having lost some good friends and people I knew in this war: there is nothing “grim” about these losses. They are the price to be paid for freedom from tyranny and terrorism. I would love nothing more than be able to defeat a violent, ruthless enemy and never lose one Soldier. Never suffer one casualty. Never fire one shot. The “grim” reality is that making peace possible doesn’t happen that way.
The anti-war movement and mainstream media did a good job promoting the “5th anniversary” of the start of the war in Iraq on March 19th. Now, let’s see if they are equally as zealous promoting April 9th as Iraqi Liberation Day and give some of those 4,000 the real credit they deserve!!
“One day people will look back at this moment in history and say, ‘Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come,’” Bush said after a State Department briefing about long-term diplomacy efforts.
“I have vowed in the past, and I will vow so long as I’m president, to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain — that, in fact, there is an outcome that will merit the sacrifice,” Bush said.
Congress, as always, continues to be pessimistic and refuses to see reality for what it is.
“Americans are asking how much longer must our troops continue to sacrifice for the sake of an Iraqi government that is unwilling or unable to secure its own future,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Ms. Pelosi, what is the result, then, of removing troops from a country “unwilling or unable to secure” itself? The answer to that question is why we Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors are so necessary and that our presence be maintained until they are “willing” AND “able”!!
Iraq vets: Let’s stay, win
By WILLIAM PETROSKI
Des Moines REGISTER STAFF WRITER
A group of Iraq war veterans rallied at the Iowa Statehouse on Wednesday to urge that American troops remain in Iraq as long as needed to ensure peace and political stability in the region.
The “National Heroes Tour,” sponsored by the 21,000-member Vets for Freedom, is in the midst of a 14-state bus trip scheduled to end April 8 in Washington, D.C. The veterans participated in a debate Wednesday morning at the University of Northern Iowa before heading to Des Moines, where they addressed about 150 to 200 people and had a barbecue lunch on the steps of the Iowa Capitol.
“Our message basically is that we want to win,” said Brandon Shepherd, 24, of Cedar Falls, a UNI student who served two tours in Iraq with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
Ben Hayden, 24, who graduated from Ankeny High School in 2003, served two tours in Iraq with the Marine Corps. Now he’s a student at the University of Iowa.
“The American people need to give us a chance. They need to give the troops a chance,” Hayden said. While a few soldiers in Iraq may disagree with the war, “the guys who are on the front lines, who are doing it every day, want to keep doing it.”
The nonpartisan Vets for Freedom didn’t attract any counter-protests in Des Moines, although on Tuesday a high school principal in Forest Lake, Minn., made national news by canceling the group’s plans to speak to about 150 social studies students. The veterans appeared instead at an American Legion post.
Pete Hegseth, a Minnesota native and executive director of Vets for Freedom, is a Princeton University graduate who served a tour in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. During a visit to The Des Moines Register on Wednesday, he said he came home from Iraq frustrated with the U.S. military’s strategy, believing Americans lacked sufficient forces and were using the wrong tactics.
But Hegseth said that when he returned to Iraq three weeks ago, he saw profound improvements in response to the U.S. troop surge. He described walking through an area of southeast Baghdad where American and Iraqi forces had previously been unable to enter without a sustained gunbattle. Now Americans are walking through the same area without hearing a single shot fired, he said.
“It was literally like day and night from what I had seen” before, Hegseth said. “Markets were not just open; they were absolutely booming.”
Hegseth declined to speculate when American forces can leave Iraq, but said he hopes it won’t be more than two or three years.
He also said it may be necessary to establish a permanent, but much smaller, U.S. military presence in Iraq, similar to postwar Korea and Germany.
“We have the opportunity, despite all the problems and all the violence, to have some level of a moderate Arab government in the Middle East that is allied with us and is taking the fight to our enemies,” Hegseth said.
Several state legislators who attended the Statehouse gathering said they agreed with the veterans’ stance on Iraq.
“I think it’s really great that we could get them here and have them tell the side of the story that we are not usually hearing,” said state Sen. Brad Zaun, an Urbandale Republican.
Reporter William Petroski can be reached at (515) 284-8547 or bpetroski@dmreg.com
JUSTIN HAYWORTH/THE REGISTER
Jim Funk of Ames, right, enjoys a laugh with former Army staff sergeant David Bellavia after getting his copy of Bellavia’s book autographed Wednesday during a stop of the “National Heros Tour” at the Capitol. Funk served in Iraq with the Iowa National Guard from September 2006 through September 2007.
HARRY BAUMERT/THE REGISTER
Jeremiah Workman, left, and David Bellavia leave their bus Wednesday morning for an Iraq war debate at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. Four members of Vets for Freedom participated in the debate on the UNI campus.
Father in Iraq surprises, touches son by giving Guard oath via video link
Peter Pereira / AP
updated 5:38 p.m. CT, Thurs., March. 27, 2008
CHICOPEE, Mass. - Seth Dupont, a 17-year-old high school junior, arrived Thursday at Westover Air Force Base to take the oath of enlistment to the National Guard. But he was not expecting the person who administered it.
Dupont’s father, Lt. Col. Daniel Dupont, appeared via video teleconference from his post in Iraq to induct his son.
“Well, stand up, state your name and raise your right hand,” the elder Dupont told his boy.
Tears welled up as Seth Dupont repeated the oath; then he told his father he loved him.
“Congratulations, son,” his father said. “I’m proud of you, man. I love you, too. You made a good, strong decision.”
After he graduates from New Bedford High School, Seth will go to Fort Rucker in Alabama, where he’ll receive individual advanced training as an air traffic controller, with plans of one day becoming a helicopter pilot.
He said he knew his father would be observing the ceremony but did not know he’d be giving the oath. “Dad inspired me,” he said.
Daniel Dupont, 29-year Guard veteran, is serving in Baghdad as a liaison officer to the multinational corps.
The event included some good-natured ribbing between father and son.
After giving the oath, Daniel Dupont ran his hands through his military-cut cropped hair and joked, “You wish you could look sexy like this.” His son replied, “Don’t worry, Dad, give me a few months.”
A tear courses down the face of Seth Dupont Thursday at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, Mass., as he listens to his father via videoconference from Iraq say how proud he is of him.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday it was “a sober moment” as the U.S. death toll in Iraq climbed to 4,000. President Bush received a lengthy update on the war and aides said he was likely to embrace recommendations for a pause in troop withdrawals beyond those already scheduled.
Bush was to participate in a two-hour conference by secure video hookup with Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Petraeus and Crocker are due to testify on Capitol Hill on April 8-9.
Patraeus is expected recommend no additional troop reductions in Iraq beyond those already scheduled, until at least September. This so-called pause in drawdowns, lasting a month or two, would be designed to assess the impact of this round, with the expectation that the drawdown would resume before Bush leaves office in January.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush sees “some merit” in that idea. “I think that’s not unlikely,” she said. She said Bush is under “no deadline” to make a decision about troop levels before leaving next week for a NATO summit in Romania.
Perino said that Bush spends time every day thinking about those who have lost their lives in battle.
“He bears the responsibility for the decisions that he made,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said. “He also bears the responsibility to continue to focus on succeeding.”
Perino said families of the fallen soldiers often tell the president that they want him to complete the mission in Iraq.
With the war entering its sixth year, Bush makes the argument that defeating extremists in Iraq makes it less likely that Americans will encounter enemies at home. Iraq has taken a heavy toll on his presidency, contributing to Bush’s low poll ratings.
Bush also is to receive briefings Monday at the State Department and on Wednesday at the Pentagon “on what actions his advisers recommend for cementing those gains and taking action that will lay the foundation for further additional troop drawdowns,” Perino added.
Commenting on the 4,000 deaths, Perino said, “President Bush believes that every life is precious, and he spends time every day thinking about those who’ve lost their lives on the battlefield. He grieves for the families who have lost loved ones, and he is constantly concerned about their well-being.”
“The president has said the hardest thing a commander in chief will do is send young men and women into combat, and he’s grieved for every lost American life, from the very first several years ago to those lost today,” the press secretary said.
Perino said that the security gains of the past year have been important to stabilizing Iraq.
“The president is extremely proud of the courageous and honorable service displayed by our military and the civilians who are helping the Iraqis rebuild their country to establish democracy in Iraq that will improve the lives of the Iraqis, ensure an ally in the war on terror in the heart of the Middle East, and will help protect our own national security,” Perino said.
The U.S. has about 158,000 troops in Iraq. That number is expected to drop to 140,000 by summer in drawdowns meant to erase all but about 8,000 troops from last year’s increase.
FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — As the Government of Iraq works to build capacity, increasing the number of engineers is essential to design, contract, construct and maintain the country’s infrastructure.
Roberto Bran, the Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team’s engineer development program manager, said engineers are vital to executing projects.
“None of this will occur if there is no one to plan and design the infrastructure,” Bran said.
Wasit’s need for engineers comes in hand with an increase in the provincial government’s budget. While the increase allows the provincial government to expand the number of new projects, it may put a strain on the limited number of engineers. The province currently has close to 1,500 registered engineers of which 200-300 are female.
To address the potential shortage, the PRT, in coordination with the Wasit Resident Engineer Office, the El Salvadoran Cuscatlán Battalion X, the 214th Fires Brigade, and private and public sector Iraqi engineers, developed a program to improve the quality of current projects and boost the number of qualified engineers in the province.
The program’s aim is strengthening the Engineering College of Wasit University and bolstering the Wasit Engineers Union.
Brand said the focus is on professional development programs targeting mid-career professionals and taught by the faculty of the Engineering College.
Six courses have been taught to date and 36 more are planned, said Bran. Topics range from solid waste management, to hydraulic structures to structural analysis and design. The courses accommodate 20 students and are open to GoI and private sector engineers.
The PRT is funding four laboratories and classrooms at the Wasit Engineering College at a cost of about $2.5 million. The laboratories will accommodate 25 students while the classrooms will hold 60 students, said Bran. The new construction will feature a computer lab, a survey lab, a soil lab and an asphalt lab.
For students, a major concern is unemployment. The students say it is hard to find jobs because most jobs require experience, something they don’t have.
Towards that end, an internship program is planned for the engineering college. The program will offer paid and unpaid opportunities with contractors implementing the Commander’s Emergency Response Program and Economic Support Fund construction projects. Students will also work on Civil Military Cooperation and Gulf Regional South Corps of Engineers projects.
Also planned is an exchange program with academic and professional institutions abroad to establish long-term relationships between the engineering college and academic institutions in the United States.
Dr. Mansoor Manas, dean of the engineering college, wants his students to be able to exchange ideas, receive training and gain knowledge.
“I want them to be able to communicate with everyone especially with English,” Manas said. “It is important that they always be encouraged.”
Manas wants to expand the college library to include current engineering textbooks, professional development magazines and an internet center. “I want it to be easy for them.”
Article published Mar 25, 2008 Study’s rankings indicate a more-stable Iraq
March 25, 2008 Washington Times By David R. Sands - Iraq does not even crack the top 20 in an authoritative new ranking of the world’s most unstable places, to be released today by the London-based private intelligence firm Jane’s Information Group.
The survey, an advance copy of which was provided to The Washington Times, rates the Palestinian territories as the world’s most unstable country or territory, with Afghanistan, Haiti and seven African countries filling out the top 10.
Despite an insurgency and sectarian strife dating back to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraq is listed by Jane’s risk analysts at 22nd among the world’s 235 countries, territories and political entities, on par with countries such as Burundi and Nigeria.
“There’s no doubt that Iraq right now has perhaps the world’s most virulent insurgency within its borders, but the country has its strengths as well,” said Christian Le Miere, managing editor of Jane’s Country Risk, the journal that compiles the rankings.
“Despite its problems, the central government enjoys effective control of large sections of its territory, and the economy is doing relatively well in many sectors,” he said. “Contrast that with, say, Afghanistan, where the central government is very weak, the drug trade is undermining the economy and the government cannot assert its will over warlords who run much of the hinterlands.”
The Jane’s survey differs from a number of other recent global rankings on the prospect for instability in Iraq.
The latest annual survey from Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace put Iraq second, behind only Sudan, among the world’s failed states.A ranking by the University of Maryland’s Center for International Development and Conflict Management listed Afghanistan and Iraq as the two countries at the highest risk for political instability.
Iraq’s oil exports have begun to recover just as world prices are setting new records. Despite all its troubles, Iraq is looking at a massive budget surplus in the coming years as its seeks to finance the country’s reconstruction, officials in Baghdad said yesterday.
Jane’s, now owned by Colorado information company IHS Inc., is more than 100 years old and has long provided private intelligence services and risk analysis to clients on a private basis. This is the first time it has made its global instability rankings public.
Mr. Le Miere said his firm’s analysts rate a country’s vulnerability by measuring 24 factors across five broad categories — politics, society, economy, military-security and external threats.
“In some ways, it’s very difficult to define what a ‘failed state’ actually is,” he said. “We try to focus on objective factors that make a country more or less likely to be unstable.”
The Palestinian territories in Gaza and the West Bank are particularly vulnerable for a number of factors, including a lack of border controls, a violent power struggle between rival Palestinian factions, crime and poor levels of public health.
Afghanistan comes in third, behind Somalia, where the central government again has little functional control, borders are unsupervised and public services almost nonexistent.
Pakistan is listed at No. 28, North Korea at No. 45 and Iran 69th in the Jane’s list, though the company acknowledges that getting reliable data from a closed society such as North Korea makes the analysis more difficult.
Mr. Le Miere said some countries that have caused U.S. policy-makers concern score well on his firm’s analysis. The small Gulf states, including Qatar, Kuwait and Oman, rank high in a number of stability factors in the Jane’s survey, ahead of many central and Eastern European countries.
At the top of the Jane’s spectrum, Vatican City, the papal enclave in Rome, is listed as the most stable place on earth, followed by Sweden and Luxembourg.
The United States rates 22nd from the top, tied with Canada in the survey, with the “porosity” of American borders and the prevalence of guns keeping the United States from a higher score.
Subject:FW: Should be headline news This needs to make headline news…not some of the other junk that makes the news these
days.
It’s a tough, but heartwarming story…with a picture of John Gebhardt in Iraq
John Gebhardt’s wife, Mindy, said that this little girl’s entire family was executed. The insurgents intended to execute the little girl also, and shot her in the head…but they failed to kill her. She was cared for in John’s hospital and is healing up, but continues to cry and moan. The nurses said John is the only one who seems to calm her down, so John has spent the last four nights holding her while they both slept in that chair. The girl is coming along with her healing.
He is a real Star of the war, and represents what the Western world is trying to do.
This, my friends, is worth sharing with the WORLD! Go for it!!
You’ll never see things like this in the news. Please keep this going. Nothing will happen if you don’t, but the public needs to see pictures like this and needs to realize that we’re making a difference. Even if it is just one little girl at a time.
KARMAH, IRAQ – Just beyond the outskirts of Fallujah lies the terror-wracked city of Karmah. While you may not have heard of this small city of 35,000 people, American soldiers and Marines who served in Anbar Province know it as a terrifying place of oppression, death, and destruction. “It was much worse than Fallujah” said more than a dozen Marines who were themselves based in Fallujah.
“Karmah was so important to the insurgency because we’ve got Baghdad right there,” Lieutenant Andrew Macak told me. “This is part of the periphery of Baghdad. At the same time, it is part of the periphery of Fallujah.”
Karmah, Iraq
Lieutenant Macak is not a veteran of Karmah, but Sergeant Jason Howell is. He was deployed in the city from March through October in 2006. “People weren’t out in the streets,” he said. “They were very reserved. They were afraid to talk to us. They had the feeling that, especially in the smaller towns, they were constantly being watched. They were in real jeopardy if they interacted with coalition forces and, especially, the Iraqi Police.”
Lieutenant Macak arrived in Karmah in the middle of July 2007 when the city was still a war zone. “It was moving in the right direction, but it was still active,” he said. “2/5 [Second Battalion, Fifth Regiment], who we relieved, was part of the surge effort. Karmah was still a very dangerous place. The lollipop over here was a big deal.”
“You mean the traffic circle?” I said. The Marines refer to a large traffic circle down the street from the police station at the entrance to the market as the “lollipop.”
“Yeah,” he said. “It was basically IED Alley. The whole road out here in front of the station was just covered in IEDs. No one even went down the roads leading to the north of here. It was an insurgent stronghold. Before 2/5 came in there weren’t many patrols. They didn’t do a whole lot. The Iraqi Police didn’t have any confidence. Their numbers weren’t big and there wasn’t a whole lot of organization. 2/5 came in and started patrolling, started doing what Marines do. They identified local leaders and started engaging them. Sheikh Mishan came back at about the same time from Syria.”
Sheikh Mishan Abbas, like many other sheikhs in Anbar Province, fled to Syria shortly after the U.S. invaded. He heads up the Jamaeli tribe, the largest in the area.
“Did he switch sides?” I said.
“Nah,” Lieutenant Macak said. “He’s never switched sides. You mean did he work for the enemy? No, he never did that. He took off to Syria because he didn’t want to get killed and he didn’t want to be pressured into supporting Al Qaeda. He’s basically the ’sheikh of sheikhs.’ He’s been known as the sheikh of sheikhs since the British were here in the 1920s.”
Fallujah was a minefield of IEDs, but Karmah was even worse.
“They hit a lot of IEDs out there,” he said. “One of the route clearance teams was reacting to one and got hit by a secondary. It took their Cougar, spun it over, and threw it so high in the air it flipped over the power lines before coming back down. Fortunately the men weren’t hurt. The vehicle remained intact. The armor protected the Marines inside like it was supposed to. This was in the first week of September.”
Corporal Caleb Hayes wanted to know who I was. He wasn’t expecting to see a journalist. Reporters hardly ever visit Karmah, which is the reason you probably have never heard of it.
“I personally was hit with seven IEDs in the traffic circle alone,” he said. “It didn’t start quieting down until September.”
“Why did it take longer in Karmah than in the rest of the province?” I said.
“It was easier in Fallujah because that city has a hard perimeter,” he said. “There is no definite edge to defend in Karmah. Insurgents just kept coming in. They were pushed into Karmah by surge forces in Baghdad. We always knew we would be shot at when we rolled out of the station in Karmah.”
Anbar Province – which also includes the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Hit, and Haditha – is the heartland of Sunni Iraq. These places were the backbone of the Baath Party during the regime of Saddam Hussein. I was surprised, then, to hear so little about Baathists. What happened? Are they just gone?
“Here?” Lieutenant Macak said. “The primary threat was Al Qaeda. After the initial invasion Karmah wasn’t exactly an afterthought, but it isn’t the primary population center. The Marines went in and occupied Fallujah, and progressively moved out from that core.”
He is describing the oil spot counterinsurgency strategy, though he did not use that phrase. Andrew Krepinevich advocated this very thing in Foreign Affairs in 2005. “U.S. and Iraqi forces should adopt an ‘oil-spot strategy’ in Iraq,” he wrote. “Rather than focusing on killing insurgents, they should concentrate on providing security and opportunity to the Iraqi people, thereby denying insurgents the popular support they need. Since the U.S. and Iraqi armies cannot guarantee security to all of Iraq simultaneously, they should start by focusing on certain key areas and then, over time, broadening the effort — hence the image of an expanding oil spot. Such a strategy would have a good chance of success.”
“I call it the snowball effect,” Lieutenant Macak said. “Anyway, there was a gap here that wasn’t well covered at first. So Al Qaeda came in and started their murder and intimidation campaign. I don’t know how many people liked Al Qaeda or fully supported them. Some people probably did. But other people didn’t have their own AK-47s, armor, or tanks or anything, so they had no choice but to submit to them. Otherwise they would end up like their family members with their heads chopped off. If you didn’t support Al Qaeda they would blow up your house.”
Al Qaeda in Iraq waged a vicious murder and intimidation campaign all across Anbar Province as though they were an army of arsonists and serial killers.
“In June when Sheikh Mishan came back,” the lieutenant said, “and this was after two years of Al Qaeda forcing their will on the population – within one week of Sheikh Mishan coming back, three of his family members’ houses were blown up. And a fourth family member’s house was blown up while Al Qaeda kept the family members inside.”
Today Karmah is no more violent than Fallujah – which is to say, hardly violent at all.
“A lot has changed since just before we arrived,” Lieutenant Macak said. “I arrived in July just when the checkpoints were starting up. We expanded what 2/5 started. We took that snowball and made it bigger. As soon as they put that checkpoint up near the lollipop, the IEDs on IED Alley disappeared.
“That’s all it took?” I said.
“Yes,” he said. “But within a couple of weeks of them putting the checkpoint up, they had a suicide car bomb attack. They assumed that no one would want to be out manning that checkpoint if it was just going to get blown up again. So the Marines went out there and fortified it. They maintained a squad-sized Marine element out there for about a month and a half. The Iraqi Police and Provincial Security Forces were out there manning it, as well. We slowly phased the Marines out of it, and now it’s exclusively run by Iraqis. No one would ever go past that point. They had kill lines set up. If they saw any vehicle coming down that road, it would be engaged. They knew anything past that line was Al Qaeda. No vehicles were allowed to move from the east to the west toward that checkpoint.”
Heavy fortification in Karmah
Implementing basic security measures wouldn’t work in a counterinsurgency if a significant number of local civilians supported the radicals. But the locals were terrified and savagely murdered and tortured by the radicals on a regular basis. Al Qaeda in Iraq is the self-declared enemy of every human being outside its own members and loyal supporters. Nothing could possibly discredit jihad more completely than the jihadists themselves.
“Insurgent activity was a lot worse,” Sergeant Howell said. “Attacks with small arms fire were constant. IEDs were daily. The difference between this place now and when I first got here is day and night. There was no way kids would be playing soccer in the streets. When we patrolled last time we had a much more aggressive posture. It was a combat patrol.”
I’m accustomed to being in Iraq during the new normal. Sergeant Howell reminded me that it is indeed new in this town, as did so many others.
“Some civilians supported the insurgents,” I said to Lieutenant Macak. “Could you tell them apart from those who were intimidated?”
“No,” he said. “They were all really reserved. They stayed in their houses. But now they’re everywhere. They come up to us and greet us, talk to us. The women aren’t so scared and so guarded. Last year you would never see a woman outside the house. Now everybody is in the streets. Kids are playing, people are walking around. People are starting to live like it’s a somewhat normal environment. You can tell just by looking that the environment is a lot safer than it was last year.”
Very few insurgents remain in the city. The remnants are thought to be exclusively locals. The Marines believe the foreign leadership cadre has been driven out.
“I had a good conversation with Iraqi Police Lieutenant Colonel Sattar about this last night,” Lieutenant Macak said. “I said Why are your family members the ones kidnapping you, beating you up, and killing your people?”
“It was his family members?” I said.
“Lieutenant Colonel Sattar was captured and held by Al Qaeda for over a year,” he said. “He was beaten and thrashed before they eventually let him go. And the guy who captured him was his cousin. The culture here – they lie, they deceive, they steal, they don’t trust each other. In order to survive. That’s what Saddam Hussein’s era bred in them. If they wanted to survive and do well, they had to go behind everyone’s back. After 20 or 30 years of Saddam, they can’t break away over night.”
A crucial aspect of General Petraeus’ counterinsurgency strategy is an alliance with local authorities as well as civilians. The Army desperately needed to transform itself from a bureaucratic occupation force to a locally integrated security force, but it’s the kind of thing Marines do instinctively when they arrive from abroad in a war zone.
“A lot of the security efforts are locally driven,” Lieutenant Macak said. “The Iraqi Security Forces [which includes the Iraqi Police, Iraqi Army, Provincial Security Forces, and the Iraqi Civilian Watch] go out there and find weapons caches. They dig up IEDs from the road even though we tell them not to. They go capture bad guys and bring them right to our doorstep. They’re not looking for any kind of reward, they just want to do a good job.”
The counterinsurgency doctrines of the Army and Marine Corps are more similar now than they were. Sergeant Joseph Perusich told me how the Marines acquire local intelligence, but I had already seen the Army use the same tactics in Baghdad.
“Last time I was out here,” Sergeant Perusich said, “everything was real kinetic. It has calmed down a lot. We don’t go around kicking in doors and throwing in flashbangs anymore. We used to to that a lot, go and bust doors in and run everything over.”
“Now we’re more like FBI agents,” Lieutenant Macak said.
“It helps if you ask the neighbors,” Sergeant Perusich said. “Everybody is really close. So if you ask somebody next door about someone and they say something different, it helps us in our tactical questioning.”
“How cooperative are locals when you ask about other people?” I said.
“You mean as far as them not letting us in the house?” Sergeant Perusich said.
“I mean,” I said, “how much information can you actually get out of the neighbors?”
“They aren’t going to just throw all the information out there until they feel comfortable,” Sergeant Perusich said. “If you bust in the house and knock everything over, they’re going to be afraid of you. It all depends on how you conduct yourself. If you talk to them normally, they’ll eventually open up.”
“They have to feel safe,” Lieutenant Macak said. “They don’t want to say something and get themselves hurt. Sometimes they’ll say yeah, go arrest that guy over there, he’s an insurgent and no one has said anything about it. But you have to develop a relationship.”
“What is it that you get out of building a relationship?” I said. “Is it that they trust that you won’t hurt them, or that they trust you’ll protect them from the insurgents?”
“Both,” Sergeant Perusich said. “We have to convince them that we’re here to protect them and their family. But we also have to convince them that we’re not just blowing smoke. They need to know we aren’t here to take anything, steal anything. We’re here to find out who the bad guys are so it’s safe here for us and their families.”
“I think a lot of it is that if they’re going to say something, they want you to do something about it,” Lieutenant Macak said. “If they don’t have the confidence that you’re going to act on something, they’re not going to put themselves at risk. Counterinsurgency is a broad term. If you go out there, get intelligence, and you don’t act on it, you are not going to earn the trust of the people. It works partly because of the efforts of the previous units here, but also because they lived under the murder and intimidation of Al Qaeda for so long.”
Sergeant Perusich had seen fighting in Karmah before, and also in southern Iraq. He fought Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia in Najaf and told me the exact same dynamic works there as well as it does in Anbar.
*
American troops are not only given medals and recognition for killing the enemy and saving each other’s lives. They are also given medals and recognition for saving Iraqi lives.
Just around the corner from IED Alley, at the main station in town, four Marines – including Sergeant Perusich – were given the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for saving Iraqis who were wounded by an insurgent-laid IED on November 7, 2007.
The first man recognized was Hospitalman Joshua L. Flagg who works as a medic.
While conducting a security patrol in Al Anbar Province,” his senior officer said to all in attendance, “Hospitalman Flagg responded to an improvised explosive device strike that caused severe casualties. Upon arrival at the site, Hospitalman Flagg immediately set up a triage site and began prioritizing patients according to their injuries. He identified deteriorating conditions in two of the patients. Hospitalman Flagg was able to stabilize them both with intravenous fluids and pressure dressings in preparation for an air evacuation. Hospitalman Flagg’s ability to perform under pressure, confidence, and knowledge of medical procedures were the key factors in the stabilization of casualties and the saving of two Iraqi nationals’ lives.”The lives of two others also were saved. Lance Corporal Joshua S. Varney, Sergeant Joseph M. Perusich, and Lance Corporal Jonathan L. Arden also were awarded and recognized.
Lance Corporal Joshua S. Varney and Captain Quintin Jones
Sergeant Joseph M. Perusich and Captain Quintin Jones
Lance Corporal Johnathan L. Arden and Captain Quintin Jones
“At ease,” Captain Quintin Jones said after each man was given his medal. “This is exactly the type of thing you need to be doing for our Iraqi brethren when they are in need. You couldn’t save four of them, but you did save four others.”
On the same day just a few blocks away, local Iraqi leaders held a ceremony where they officially re-opened the market on the main street. Until very recently, almost every business in Karmah was closed. For years they had no security, no economy, and no city utilities. All now are recovering.
Every Iraqi leader in the city showed up, as did hundreds of civilians, Iraqi Police officers, and Iraqi Army soldiers. The Marines were there, too, providing security. Americans did not, however, have anything to do with organizing or sponsoring the event. “We’re just here in the background,” Captain Jones told me.
They wouldn’t remain in the background, however, if they were attacked. The Marines were ordered to place themselves as up-armored human shields around Sheikh Mishan.
“If shots are fired,” an officer said to his men, “collapse around the sheikh.”
Because the ceremony was so close to the station, we walked. I walked with Captain Jones and spoke to him on the way. Lieutenant Macak, the captain’s executive officer (XO), joined us.
“We’re having a grand re-opening for Karmah,” Captain Jones said. “We’re trying to start the governance process and the economic process. A lot of this stuff has been closed for a year or two due to the insurgency coming back in. They kept targeting the Iraqi Police station and blowing it up. Every time they brought in a car bomb, things shut down. They used a lot of these buildings to shoot at the Iraqi Police station.”
“We brought relative security to the region,” he continued. “We’re trying to re-do these buildings here. A lot of these buildings were shot up. You can see some bullet holes in some of these doors. These buildings were all shot to hell.”
Just around the corner was the traffic circle.
“This is the entrance to the market?” I said.
“It is,” he said. “This is the gateway to Karmah.”
“As Captain Jones explained, we’re in the background,” Lieutenant Macak said. “We’ve been supporting them, but they have an Iraqi face on everything. They set the conditions and do the legwork. We allow them to take the credit for it, basically, which is a lot of what counterinsurgency is. We provide them the legs to let them stand up and do it themselves.”
The ceremony was held at the so-called “lollipop.”
“This was IED Alley, right here,” Lieutenant Macak said as we arrived. “But not any more because of the efforts of coalition forces, the Iraqi Police, the Provincial Security Forces, the Iraqi Civilian Watch, and the sheikhs. For two or three years now we’ve been saying them, hey, if you’re tired of Al Qaeda, stand up and get rid of them. And they’re actually doing that now. The Iraqi Police now call IED Alley their Victory Circle. It’s a physical representation of what they have accomplished.”
Hundreds of chairs were set up in front of a stage that had been erected on the circle itself. Local sheikhs, city officials, and business leaders sat beneath an awning in case of rain. They drank water poured into tall glasses from bottles. Regular citizens and mid-level leaders sat in plastic chairs exposed to the elements, but there was no rain.
The community leaders dressed sharply, some in traditional Arab dress and others with Western coats and ties. Iraqi Police officers, Iraqi Army soldiers, and plainclothes Neighborhood Watch guys milled about. All carried AK-47s and pistols. Brand new Iraqi flags snapped in the wind.
A live band took the stage and belted out powerful Iraqi folk music indigenous to the province. A group of armed Iraqi men danced to the music in a circle. Some brandished rifles and knives. The passion and intensity of the music was startling.
Twenty or so minutes later, Sheikh Mishan stood at the podium and addressed the people of Karmah in poetic, perfectly pronounced, thunderous Arabic. His speech celebrating the end of the insurgency and the awakening of the city of Karmah would knock you back on your heels even if you could not understand one single word. The man was an obvious leader, and he packed a punch.
Everyone listened intently. No one applauded. This was a serious affair, not a party. The Marines kept their heads on swivels. This would be the perfect time for any Al Qaeda remnants to execute a devastating act of mass casualty terrorism.
An Arabic-speaking journalist interviews Sheikh Mishan Abbas
Mayor Abu Abdullah took the podium as Sheikh Mishan stood down.
“Everything I do, I do with him,” Captain Jones whispered to me.
Captin Quintin Jones and Mayor Abu Abdullah
After the ceremony I joined Navy Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll and Navy Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Summers on a tour of the market.
“Sorry about the dog and pony show,” Lieutenant Macak said to me quietly. “Later we’ll get you out on the streets for real.”
The tour of the market did feel a bit like a dog and pony show, but the re-opened business district is real. Karmah isn’t a fake potemkin city erected by the Marines to impress visitors. Iraqi shopkeepers and their customers aren’t actors hired by the CIA.
I was a little bit bored. I’ve walked so many re-opened business districts in Iraq that I won’t be impressed again until I see a Starbucks, night clubs, or bohemian hangouts. Beirut is full of such places, but Iraq isn’t Lebanon. Admiral Driscoll and Commander Summers, though, were thunderstruck by the ordinariness of it all. They had never seen anything like it in this country. Admiral Driscoll works at Stratcom. Both he and Commander Summers are based in the Green Zone bubble in Baghdad, which is technically Iraq but so unlike everywhere else that seeing it hardly counts. Everyone who is marooned there knows that, or at least should.
Read Admiral Patrick Driscoll (left) and Captain Quintin Jones (right)
“Can you believe this place?” Admiral Driscoll said to me. He sounded like a bit like a kid on Christmas morning. I felt weirdly like a jaded old man who had seen it all even though he is older and more accomplished. I understood then what some American soldiers and Marines mean when they say the top brass lives and works at “echelons above reality.” I’m not blaming the admiral. His job requires him to be isolated from nuts, bolts, and the street most of the time.
The market looked ordinary enough to me, but the top officers weren’t alone in their amazement. I had to remind myself of the ceremony I had just seen. The market was just now re-opening. The opening ceremony had concluded less than an hour before. Karmah recovered later than other cities in this part of Iraq, after all. When I covered the awakening in Ramadi last summer, Karmah was still a hell of insurgent warfare, though I did not know it.
The locals were ecstatic. Dozens of cars and minivans packed with young Iraqi men brandishing rifles and flags roared down the street. They honked horns, cheered as though they had just won a soccer game, and waved in thanks to the Marines and Iraqi Police. Others paraded on foot.
The market area improved as we kept walking. The lower portion of the street was made up of simple places like generator repair workshops, butcher shops, and simple vegetable stands. The upper half of the neighborhood was a bit more upscale. A larger number of buildings had been refurbished. Clothing, cell phones, big screen TVs, and refrigerators all were for sale. This portion of the market was actually bustling for Iraq.
Children ran up to me and the Marines, as they always do.
“This is a real education,” Commander Summers said. “There are no kids in the Green Zone.”
“We couldn’t have done this a few months ago,” one Marine said to Commander Summers.
Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Summers poses with an Iraqi boy who borrowed his helmet
The Middle East beyond Israel strikingly lacks anything resembling political correctness. I hear much more severe denunciations of radical Islam there than I do in the U.S., and I don’t mean from Americans. I hear it from Arabs, and from Persians and Kurds. I hear it in Lebanon all the time, and in Iraq too.
Sabah Danou walked with Commander Summers and Admiral Driscoll. He’s an Iraqi who works for the multinational forces as a cultural and political advisor in Baghdad. “Look,” he said to me and gestured toward a local man with a long beard and a short dishdasha that left his ankles exposed. “He’s a Wahhabi,” Danou hissed. “He is linked to Al Qaeda. That’s their uniform, you know, that beard and that high-cut dishdasha. God, what pieces of shit those fuckers are.”
I never hear soldiers and Marines talk about Iraqis like that, but no one objected to what Sabah Danou said.
Iraq’s Window of Opportunity A picture of what the long-elusive victory in Iraq might look like.
By Pete Hegseth
One year ago, the neighborhood of Doura in southeast Baghdad was al-Qaeda’s headquarters in the capital city, and the daily dumping ground for dozens of victims of sectarian violence. Public association with Americans or Iraqi leaders, in any form, meant death for its residents. If Americans entered a neighborhood, Iraqis slowly slipped away and refused to talk — even behind closed doors, let alone on a busy market street.
Today, the streets of Doura are safe and bustling, as I witnessed firsthand during a trip three weeks ago. I can still smell the briny scent of fish on sale in busy markets, my boots sliding over the dust, and the muezzin’s afternoon call to prayer echoing in the distance. I saw Baghdad alive again.
However, during my time on the street, it was difficult to shake memories of the past — after all, 4,000 Americans have been killed in action in Iraq. The violence of 2006 and early 2007 is still fresh in America’s mind — helped in no small part by a public debate fixated on past failure instead of current success.
On a street in Doura three weeks ago, it seemed I was about to relive those bad memories, as I spotted a black sedan speeding toward our foot patrol. The vehicle was driving much faster than other traffic, and occupied by a single male. My heart raced faster when I realized it was an Opel, the car bomb of choice during my time in Iraq as a platoon leader. My anxiety clashed with the calm of the soldiers around me; they lowered their weapons as the car barreled toward us.
The vehicle screeched to a halt five feet away, and out popped a middle-aged Iraqi man, dressed casually and wearing a jovial grin. Omar is a Doura resident and a member of the neighborhood council. Following eager pleasantries, Omar spoke with the unit commander about a range of issues, from small-business grants and the local vocational school, to the newly opened farmers’ market down the road. The two sparred like old friends, discussing the nuances of political bargaining and reconciliation.
When their conversation ended, I asked Omar about the security situation. “Thanks to the Americans, we are finally free to live our lives.” he said, “You have made very many mistakes, but now you are making security better.” His words mirrored my experience — in five days on the streets of formerly violent neighborhoods, I heard not a single shot fired or a single explosion.
That day, local young men still brandished weapons on street corners, but now they wore tan uniforms bearing the Iraqi flag. Many of these “Sons of Iraq” used to fight American and Iraqi forces; but an extensive American and Iraqi vetting process ensures their ranks are purged of hard-core fighters, foreign fighters, and insurgent leaders. These young Iraqis — Sunni and Shia alike — are not extremists: The ones I met were realists, who covet safe streets and a paycheck.
Al-Qaeda’s sheer brutality, and America’s shift to a counterinsurgency strategy, caused the sympathies of local leaders and legions of young men to shift. As one Son of Iraq told me, “A few of my friends joined al-Qaeda, and now they are dead or captured. I never did, and this gives me a chance to keep al-Qaeda from coming back.” Young men like this — over 91,000 of them throughout Iraq — guard their own neighborhoods, and are not involved in offensive operations. They’re beat cops.
Omar acknowledges the importance of these local forces, but speaks candidly, “The national government will not allow them all to become police, and some have already quit because they know this. We need to ensure that those who don’t become police have jobs.” His comments frame the tenuous opportunity facing Iraq today.
The streets of Baghdad — and throughout most of Iraq — have been transformed, providing a significant window of opportunity to national and local Iraqi leaders. Local citizens protect neighborhoods on the U.S. dime, but won’t indefinitely. The Iraqi parliament has passed important legislation, but Baghdad’s Sunnis have yet to benefit. Muqtada al Sadr’s ceasefire continues, but it may not forever. While the gains are real, they remain fragile.
As our conversation shifts to next steps, Omar emphasizes that “we need to keep the young men busy, and can’t allow their minds to wander in bad directions.” Pushed for specifics, he responds: “Jobs, jobs, jobs.” Public jobs, private jobs, security jobs, and construction jobs; the young men have stopped fighting, and now must find an honorable way to earn a living.
Last year, al-Qaeda fighters exploited young men like these, paying them large sums of money to plant roadside bombs or transport munitions. For local young men, the choice was stark: Resist and face execution, or feed your family. The Americans, rarely in the neighborhood except when speeding through in humvees, offered no alternative.
Today, U.S. military units in southeast Baghdad are working with Iraqi leaders to create jobs in stable vocations, sometimes through business grants to stimulate private enterprise. And for the first time in years, the streets are quiet enough for the State Department and NGOs to work alongside Iraqis to rebuild war-torn neighborhoods.
The months ahead will significantly shape the fate of the Iraq war. Al-Qaeda remains potent, but is in retreat, with the sea of tacit Sunni support drying up. But every infantryman knows that determined enemies will always counterattack. The question is: When they do, will jobless masses be ripe for recruitment — or will al-Qaeda’s appeals fall on deaf ears?
We have expended much blood and treasure in Iraq. But neighborhoods in Al Anbar, Baghdad, and throughout Iraq today provide a glimpse of what the long-elusive victory in Iraq might look like. A Muslim world in which al-Qaeda’s ideology of submission and suicide has been heaved onto the ash heap of history — not through U.S. force of arms alone, but through a genuine partnership between Iraq’s Muslims and America’s men and women in uniform.
— Captain Pete Hegseth, executive director of Vets for Freedom, recently made a return trip to Baghdad, where he served with the 101st Airborne in 2005.
