Visit to Kirkush

I spent a couple of hours last night talking to Col R., the Iraqi LNO that we have supporting us. We had him all day for our trip and had some time to kill waiting for our flight out of Kirkush. It turns out that Col R knows quite a bit of English, much more than my pathetic Arabic. We have a terp with us but I didn’t need him for this. We talked about a lot of subjects, the first one being women. Sign language is SO universal.

He wants an American or British wife next. He already has two wives and fourteen children between them and is ready for another. This was confirmed by Ben the interpreter (terp) and I guess it’s OK by the Koran to have multiple wives, so there you go. We started talking about western woman and how he may have difficulty treating them as Middle Eastern woman are treated, being a more “enlightened” sect than he’s used to. He admitted that they’re much more of a challenge but was infatuated by them. I asked him about the Koran and about woman and why it was ok for Muslims to have 4 wives (that’s the max ok? Absolutely, NO more) and why woman couldn’t have 4 husbands? He smiled; he knows there are incongruities in his religion.

He’s a veteran of the Iraq-Iran war that ran for 8 years. He eats in our DFAC and told me he laughs anytime the “incoming” warning comes over the loudspeakers here and everyone dives under the table. He said that while he was in Iran, it rained missiles and bombs and the only way to stay alive was to keep fighting. He said Saddam would give victorious fighters new cars or land for the family in order to keep them fighting or in case they died in battle. Their families were taken care of. He didn’t say what happened to those that lost battles but neither side took many prisoners. There were over a million casualties from that war. He was a young Captain then.

He was recently selected for promotion to General but turned it down because he’d have to relocate to Ramadi or Fallujah or Baghdad. He says he’s very happy to stay in the relative safety of Balad and besides, he calls the Headquarters in Baghdad corrupt and full of thieves. It is an old boy’s network and you’re either in or you’re not. He doesn’t have any relatives in high places but achieved his status thru service.

We’re taking him out more and more because he opens doors for us. We visited the support center up in Kirkush and met the IA Brig Gen that runs the base for the ISF as well as the U.S. Commander on the coalition side. The Iraqi’s jump to their feet when Col R. comes in. He tells us all the time how much good we’re doing for the country, but I just think he wants us to line him up with a wife. Maybe I’m getting jaded.

We’re seeing the results come thru of the fighting in Samarra, it was a well kept secret from even the 101st LNO’s embedded with us here. That’s amazing since the Iraqi’s involved knew about it, but we didn’t. Every time the ISF wins, we get closer to moving out. It’s a good thing.
- - - - - - - - -
Different subject -

I have to be really careful, or put up the appropriate disclaimers when I make suggestions that affect people’s lives.

I made a statement to someone very dear to me back home about jobs here in Iraq (or it could be Kuwait, Saudi, Afghanistan, Djibouti, you pick) that I made in good faith and then was taken to task by another who was concerned (rightly) that I was making risky career recommendations. Fair enough. However, I think I need to elaborate on what’s happening to the U.S. Military as we “transform” and about world-wide opportunities and then let people decide if the risk outweighs the reward.

Many of the tasks traditionally done by the military are being given over to contractors. Early on in this war, there were stories about civilian truck drivers making 6 figures driving up and down the roads of Iraq. Those were true, but short lived. Just like contracting back home, the military is looking for the best value and those positions are now going to TCN’s (third country nationals) where they pay only a fraction of the cost that an ex-pat would demand. It’s still a fortune to the TCN, but a pittance to anyone from a western country that wants to come here and make some money, hence supply and demand wins out again.

The U.S. has always maintained an expeditionary mentality during the last century or two meaning we brought our own cooks with us, our own mechanics, vehicle drivers, repairmen, trucks, everything in order to be self sufficient and mobile on the battlefield. The formula I grew up with was seven “services” people to support one war fighter. It’s a huge overhead but has served us well.

We’re changing history for a number of reasons but mostly because the American public doesn’t want to see so many people in uniform mobilized, or killed/maimed/injured, so DoD is working on the formula for exactly how many people we can turn over to contracting and get out of uniform. We’ll maintain the same size of the military, but increase the percentage of people that actual pull a trigger. It’s a shell game. We still lose contractors, don't get me wrong, but they don't make the front page of the paper.

So, if you want to make the big bucks here as an ex-pat, you need to bring a skill with you that the military can use, i.e. security services, nursing, doctors, dentists, project managers, technicians, communications professionals, etc. Contracting has become big business in DoD. Then, to attract the good people, you have to provide a safe environment and not just money. It doesn't have to be a perfect environment because then you’d be talking about Richmond, Virginia but at least it has to be a relatively safe. There are jobs here and they need people that can fill them that are willing to accept a modicum of risk.

Some of the more adventurous types do quite well here and I’ve met people in their 60’s. It’s a chance for people to see parts of the world they wouldn’t normally be able to see. I don’t want to sound like a tour operator by any stretch because after you see it and realize what a hole it really is, you quickly surmise that if weren’t for the money, or the short duration, or the friends you make here, or the work, or something else you'd be so out of here so fast it’d make their head spin. But for a year or maybe a bit longer and making a lot of money? Sure, I can do that. It’s an opportunity. Risk v. reward and then it's a personal decision.

We are so different from other parts of the world; we’re such a foreign concept to non-western nations. I talk to Iraqi’s like Col R about why we’re here, or how I got here and he just shakes his head. We’re a very giving country and we’ll jump enthusiastically into a new business or help someone clean out their garage or shovel their walk or give to a charity or our time or a hundred other things. Other people around the globe won’t do this, or can’t. You should be proud of yourselves for your giving, we're unique in the world. But you can't appreciate the United States or what you have until you leave it and see how other people treat their neighbors and how they live, it is very sad. I'm convinced we're doing good things here and I don't care what CNN says.

If you want to feel proud about your soldiers, read the letter we got from Paul's commander below. It really outlines what good people have done in a very difficult situation.

Best wishes from Iraq.

Welcome home, 3rd ACR

I'm posting this in its entirety. My brother received it from the Commander of the ACR Unit that his son Paul was attached to in Iraq. They were up in the northwest corner, the wild, wild west near Tal Afar. It's a tremendous account of Iraq from last year to about 2 weeks ago. Paul was assigned to Sabre Squadron.

March 13, 2006
Dear Squadron Families,

Our last plane load of Sabre Troopers landed in Colorado Springs last week. It was my privilege and honor to lead one of the best combat units in the world in one of the most complex, dangerous, and challenging missions possible. In the fall of 2004, anti-Iraqi forces, primarily groups associated with Al Qaida in Iraq, launched a major offensive in the land between two rivers, the Tigres and the Euphrates. Most of the Iraqi police stations were destroyed and the police forces dissolved. The rule of government, law, and order was gone. Today, as we board the planes to fly home, the rule of the Iraqi government in Tal Afar is restored. A victory of freedom over fear.

We began combat operations in May, 2005 and immediately conducted reconnaissance operations to develop the situation. You must be able to see, to understand, in order to act decisively. What we quickly learned was how incredibly complex this city of 250,000 was. It is a microcosm of Iraq in one city. The city had religious, tribal, and ethnic fault lines. The combinations of these fault lines varied from street to street, block to block. At the same time, we introduced an Iraqi Army brigade to the city for the first time. When we would ask Iraqi soldiers what they thought of the people of Tal Afar, a common response was, “They are all terrorists!” When we asked local citizens their view of the new Iraqi Army they would say, “They are all terrorists!” When the Iraqi Army got in direct fire contact, they would respond with a “death blossom”, shooting everywhere in an indiscriminate manner. The police force was in worse shape. We found about 200 Shia police held up at the castle, too intimidated to conduct patrols. They were led by a ruthless Shia chief of police who only widened the religious divide in the city. There was no operating court system. No contractors would dare operate to improve the infrastructure of the city. The mayor was a corrupt, divisive figure. Tal Afar was the support base for terrorists operations. We knew we had our work cut out for us. If it was easy, then they wouldn’t have brought in the cavalry.

We immediately got into intense urban fights in the early days of May. Grim Troop performed heroically in intense fights in the Sarai district at the south eastern portion of the city. Sarai is some of the most complex urban terrain in the world. Sarai is characterized by centuries-old architecture, multiple story buildings, very narrow alley ways, and mostly restricted to vehicle traffic. Grim saw combat from 360 degrees. They saw women handing rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) to men, children using flags to signal as enemy scouts and standing in front of men shooting machine guns. Speakers blared religious messages to enflame the people to attack us. Grenades were thrown over walls and rained on our patrols. The enemy had not experienced the power of the armored cavalry operating with air cavalry and consequently the terrorists suffered severe losses. Fox and Eagle Troops and Heavy Company developed the situation in their areas as well and responded remarkably. And of course, Rattler Troop and Lion Battery performed superbly as did the Sappers in their area operating out west with Tiger Squadron.

We had a break through in intelligence about terrorist cells in Sarai in early June which led to a massive squadron raid on the early morning of 7 June. Along with the Iraqi Army, Sabre Squadron attacked with its full combat power coming from multiple directions and took the enemy by surprise. We captured 26 of 30 of our targets within the first hour. As we exploited the objectives we got in a 360 degree fire fight with all of our troops in contact. We conducted further squadron-level operations in the western side of the city and in the near by town of Afgani on subsequent days. The enemy quickly learned that challenging an armored cavalry squadron in a direct fire fight was not a good idea, so they switched tactics.

Our strength was our ability to mass overwhelming firepower. The enemy could not defeat this strength directly, so they attempted to indirectly. The enemy’s strength was the ability to hide in plain site. If we didn’t have information as to who they were, they could operate right in front of us. Their vulnerability was the local population, so they initiated a campaign of intimidation against the good people of Tal Afar to prevent them from telling us who the terrorists were. The enemy launched multiple suicide operations in Shia neighborhoods, mortar attacks on families, and assassinations. Terrorists told school children that if they continued to go to school they would be killed. One of our city councilmen was assassinated in front of his wife and young son. The terrorists would dump bodies in the middle of the road and plant IEDs underneath them. Schools quickly began to close, markets shutdown, people began to move out of city. Tal Afar became a ghost town with poor people with no place to go left in fear.

Our reconnaissance operations were not only in the physical sense focused on the terrain and the enemy, but they were conducted in the intellectual sense as well. We talked to thousands of people to listen to their grievances and to convey our intent. Through the hot summer months, while under near continuous contact through out the city, we deliberately explained our mission to the people. A typical example, repeated hundreds of times, occurred in early July in the old mayor’s office in Hassen Qoi, a volatile Sunni section of the city. The Iraqi Brigade Commander, the new Tal Afar Chief of Police (BG Najim who later became the mayor in August), and I met with hundreds of Sunni Turkmen in an old auditorium. We explained that our mission was to ensure they had the ability to safely vote in the upcoming national elections. As Sunni Turkmen, the majority of the population in Tal Afar, they should do very well in an election. We told them we want to invest millions of dollars into the city to improve the power and water systems, the schools, the hospital and public health clinics, and the roads. We want to restore the Sunni-Shia balance to the police force to reflect the demographics of the city. We asked them, “What do we disagree on?” The answer we got was, “Nothing, but we are scared.” We asked them, “Why are you scared of?” They responded, “Takferian.”

Takferian was the term they used to refer to the terrorists. The Takferian were radical Islamic terrorists associated with Al Qaida in Iraq whose objectives were to keep Iraq from becoming a free and democratic country. They wanted Iraq to be like Afganistan was under the Taliban. The problem was Takferian lived among the people and the people were too frightened to tell us where they were. Takferian was attempting to define the conflict as Sunni versus Shia since that would destabilize the city. Our strategy was to turn this on them and define the conflict as the Iraqis versus the terrorists. We knew we were not going to get the level of information needed to precisely go after the terrorists so we spent the rest of the summer conducting operations to shape the decisive fight in September.

By September we understood the city extremely well. We were experts in the intricacies of the urban terrain and understood all the players involved. The people had grown to respect us and, more importantly, the Iraqi Army. Through first-rate training with the American Special Forces and conducting hundreds of combat operations with Sabre Squadron, the Iraqi Army transformed. They were now a disciplined and effective force. The regiment massed the combat power of Sabre and Tiger Squadrons, Longknife (the Aviation Squadron), and Muelskinner (the Support Squadron), along with over 5,000 Iraqi Soldiers in Operation Restoring Rights. The end result was hundreds of terrorists were killed and hundreds more were captured. At the conclusion of the operation, the Coalition reinforced the effort with a great airborne infantry battalion from the 82nd, the White Falcons. Sabre Squadron and the White Falcons took up residence inside the city. The balance had been tipped from fear to one of hope.

Once the population felt secured, the city changed immediately. Where people stayed held up in a state of fear in their houses, now they were out on the streets. We began to see soccer games through out the city. We were immediately supported with millions of dollars to repair the dilapidated municipal infrastructure that suffered decades of neglect. We had contractors tripping over each other for work. The markets began to open again. By October, the schools re-opened. Power was improved in the city to about 20 to 24 hours a day, about twice the Iraqi national average. Dozens of projects were initiated to repair schools and health clinics. This summer the hospital did not deliver babies because the female doctors fled, did not perform surgery, and was under constant small arms, RPG, and mortar fire. The hospital went from seeing less to hundred patients a day in the summer to over 700 a day today. All the doctors are back, including the female doctors, babies are delivered and surgery is again conducted. Sunnis were now joining the police force and we sent hundreds to a police academy in Jordan. From a 200 man Shia police force held up the castle last Spring, the Tal Afar Police now has over 1,700 police, demographically balanced between Sunni and Shia, operating out of six neighborhood police stations. A Joint Operations Center (JOC), manned by Sabre, the Iraqi Army and Police, has been operating 24/7 in the castle since early October. The security forces pass out “Tips Cards” by the thousands through out the city listing phone numbers to the JOC. The majority of the IEDs the terrorists attempt to emplace are called into us by the people. The terrorists can no longer hide in plain site. The conditions had been set for safe national elections.

The national referendum on the constitution of 15 October and the national election of 15 December were historic days. The Iraqi people went to the polls in huge numbers. The polling places were protected by their own security forces, the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Police. All over the city the people of Tal Afar proudly displayed their purple finger to show that they had voted. They voted in record numbers, both Sunni and Shia. By the December poll, the people figured out there is strength in numbers and the women came out to vote as well.

On February 13, Sabre Squadron was replaced in Tal Afar by a battalion task force out of the 1st Armored Division. I left the castle for the last time on that day.

If you ask me how I think Iraq is going to turn out, I see that the Iraqis have had a taste of freedom and will not give it up. In Tal Afar, good, honorable people are in charge of the city government and the power of the executive (the mayor), the legislative (the city council), and the judicial (the court system) are restored. At the local level there will be challenges as they conduct their first Provincial and Local elections and further develop their institutions of government. There will be challenges at the strategic level as they form their national government, but that is true with any country in the forming stage, including ours a couple of hundred years ago.

I reflect how far we have come since Sabre Squadron operations in Ramadi and Fallujah in the summer of 2003 and out to the Saudi, Jordan, and Syrian borders up to March of 2004. We left Iraq last time having recruited, trained, and organized two Iraqi Border Patrol Brigades and greatly improved the security at the border crossing points into Saudi, Jordan, and Syria. We helped the Iraqis, by the tens of thousands, organize and safely secure their passage into Saudi Arabia on their annual religious pilgrimage. Under Saddam, non-Bath party members were not allowed to go. It was heart fulfilling to see regular Iraqis proudly fulfill one of their five pillars of Islam as the crossed into Saudi Arabia. Over 60% of the squadron stayed together through both deployments. I realize this was not without much personal sacrifice by our great Soldiers and their families. Through two deployments Sabre Squadron has had 16 heroes who gave their life, 130 wounded in action, and over a hundred medals of valor. As a commander, part of me will always be in Iraq as I will never forget my Soldiers who will not come back. Iraqis talked to us about the past and about fear under Saddam and fear of terrorism. What we brought to Iraq was a vision of a hopeful future, freedom over fear.

I can not begin to express my gratitude over the tremendous support we received by our families and friends. Through many tough times, you all stuck by us and strengthened our resolve to get the mission done. I am especially thankful for an incredible group of ladies who selflessly volunteered thousands of hours to ensure our families stayed well informed and supported. The Sabre Squadron Family Readiness Group has been wonderful. Please pass on your thanks to your FRG leaders.

This concludes the ride of a magnificent group of young Americans who rode with the Cavalry in a far off land to bring freedom to the Iraqi people.

//originally signed//
Christopher M. H.
Lieutenant Colonel, US Army
Commanding

Notes on Anaconda and butt kicking Col's

One of the biggest complaints here in LSA Anaconda is the new rules popping up all the time. The lengthy duration of this war has turned our beloved post into a garrison with all the rules of a garrison. It’s not really “in” the war zone anymore, even though we still get mortared. We’ve become more civilized and hence more rules like a garrison post.

Now we wear reflective belts when we walk at night so we don’t get run over by bezerk truck drivers. But they can’t drive too fast anymore because the Air Force is pulling people over for speeding, just like in a garrison unit. The wild, wild, west drivers who are used to the open road are not used to this more agressively ruled post. I guess the insurgents have stopped throwing themselves at the front gate and freed up some MP’s. At least now the snipers in the woods can see us better.

I got pulled over two nights ago by the new and improved Air Force MP’s, much to the laughter of my team mates here and the three other people in the truck that scrambled to fasten their seat belts which should have been buckled anyway if I’d been paying attention to them. I don’t know why they pulled me over (I was going 29 in a 15mph zone, must’ve been a new sign) but they gave me a warning, so that was nice. We’re maturing as a theater when we don’t have to kick in doors any more; we have to worry about reflective belts and fast driving LTC’s, it's a good sign.

There are a lot of people out at night around here, people stay out pretty late when the weather is nice and they chat in small groups or go to the 24-hour PX or gym for something to do. There are only 3 channels on the local TV and its all Armed Forces Network propaganda from the mother ship, so we’ve reverted back to the 40’s and 50’s mentality and talk to people or read books. I know, novel idea. I’ve been getting thru my fair share of books and wanted to thank Sara from SoldiersAngels.org for all the books she’s sent us. I’ve dutifully distributed them out to the libraries but have kept a couple of the more interesting ones for myself. Visit their site if you would, please, they do wonderful work supporting the troops in the field around the world.

For the most part it’s safe here, but we’ve had a couple of assaults on post, maybe 3 or 4 per month, so it happens. At one point, someone had the idea of issuing women whistles in case of an attack, but since everyone’s trained to use a weapon that idea didn’t float too long. We’re all armed here, everyone carries a gun with ammunition and that’s also one of the reasons they don’t have any ATM’s in country for us to use, at all.

We have Iraqi officers assigned with us now and they fly on some of our missions, accompanied by interpreters. One of them is a Colonel (P) who lit into some Jundee at one of the depots we visited last week. The Colonel started barking orders in Arabic as they walked into the depot and everyone jumped to their feet. He grabbed one of the Jundee’s (private) rifle and field stripped it in front them, ran his hand along the inner parts which came away black and he lit into them a whole bunch more. Our Major K was with them, one of the guys on our team and he was dumbfounded about how upset the Col was, he just stood out of the way while he ranted at them. They obeyed him immediately and then he complained to Major K that we were being too soft on them.

I don’t think we’re going to slip into a civil war here, there’s a lot of Iraqi’s standing up now like this Colonel and taking responsibility and those are very positive steps. Many good Iraqi’s have died standing up to be counted or taking a leadership position and they are truly heroes to us over here. It’s a tough country when everyone’s armed. We often find some of those leaders in a ditch along the side of the road, killed, and a lot of those names don’t make it into our hometown newspapers. But they’re just as much a hero to their families here as we hopefully are to ours back home. Most of these people just want to go to work, raise a family and get on with their lives.

Our liaison Col wanted to get home last week but they can’t just walk off our bases in uniform, they’d be identified and killed. It’s OK to be in the Iraqi Army, but not collaborating directly with the “occupiers” of the country. That’s why a lot of Jundee are recruited at one end of the country and assigned to the other end. Our Colonel lived in Baghdad, but the roads have been shut down and a curfew implemented. Major K escorted him to a city he felt safe in just south of Baghdad and then got him out to the Entry Control Point at the FOB and worked with our guards to get him off post. You can’t just drive in and off post, you have to have authorization and he was in civilian clothes carrying a handgun and cell phone. Usually when we find people like that on the roads and without the right papers they’re arrested, or worse. FYI, cell phones are the preferred method to detonate IED's.

This country is different from ours in many ways. We’ve learned the value of hard work to gain end results, but sometimes people need discipline to get the work done. It’s tough on us as Coalition soldiers, because we pull our hair out trying to show them how to get ahead, when they sometimes could really use a boot up their ass like the Colonel demonstrated. It wasn’t too long ago that the U.S. military use to take care of its problem soldiers by taking them behind the woodshed and kicking the snot out of them. The Marines only stopped hitting their recruits back in the 70’s, or so they say. It’s an interesting situation building an Army from scratch with our western values.

There are a lot of stories floating around about the MiTT’s we have embedded with the Iraqi’s, out in the Iraqi Army Divisions, Brigades and Battalion. The MiTT’s (Military Transition Team) are regular U.S. forces assigned to IA units. It could be a team of 10 embedded in a battalion of 250 Iraqi’s. Much like the storied Green Beret, they’re mentors, coaches, technical assistants who live, eat, sleep, drive, train and work with the Iraqi’s 24X7. They have HMMWV’s and radio’s to keep in contact with their U.S. home base, somewhere over that hill. That’s dedication and it takes a certain kind of soldier to make it work. The stories coming out of there will make a great movie some day. The good news is that the Iraqi’s adopt them; they take care of them and have even protected them in many cases.

Lots of work going on supporting the Iraqi’s and there are voices of moderation coming from high level Iraqi positions now. That's good news for all of us.

Best wishes from Iraq