| |
PART 2
Why we are here
"It's
not difficult to understand why somebody might
pick
up an AK 47 against us. Maybe we killed his father in the first Gulf War,
maybe in this Gulf War, maybe he's just a dick." -
Sergeant Reginald Abram |
AL-QAIM, western Iraq - Lieutenant-Colonel Gregg Reilly, the SCO, or squadron
commander, of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment's Tiger Base in western Iraq, is
relaxed and comfortable answering tough questions, but he gets visibly tense
for the first time when asked why the US is in Iraq.
He removes his legs from the desk and, placing an elbow on the table, he leans
his forehead in his palm, pondering intensely on the
|
"I'm not after WMDs. I think
when they realized we were coming in they got rid
of it. I definitely think al-Qaeda is alive and
well in Iraq. Our soldiers don't have
a clouded vision of why they’re here."
- Staff Sergeant Michael Adair
|
best way to articulate his position without crossing the line. He speaks
deliberately, "We're here for the right reasons. In order to
enable this region of the world to progress. And America has always had to be
there to stand up for the basic human rights of people. We believe that people
should be able to govern themselves and that human rights are important to the
long term support of progress in the region. This idea is embedded in the
progress of humanity."
He avoids the political debates about how the US ended up occupying Iraq. That
is not in his purview. "The reputation of the United States is on the line," he
says. "We're here," he repeats emphatically, "We're here. And we're here for
the right reasons. There is nobody else who had the will or the ability to do
this."
Reilly's men are clear about their missions, even if they state purposes, like
his, that are often not the official ones cited prior to the war. Specialist
Ray Winters, originally from California, is here "to help the people of Iraq,
that's the overall reason. I'm not worried about what's going on back home
outside my family. My family is proud of me and I'm proud of myself. We're
fighting terrorists and guerrilla warfare. These are bad people and we've got
to get rid of them so the people of Iraq can move on."
Captain Chris Alfeiri, of the 1st Squadron of the 3rd ACR, says his men believe
they are active in the fight against terrorists, though he admits, "This is not
directly connected to 9/11."
Immediately after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the 1st Squadron was
sent to Egypt for exercises called Operation Bright Star. "We were expecting
and hoping to go to Afghanistan," Alfeiri says, "and we
|
"I wonder how I would feel if
someone was breaking down my door, or if it was my grandfather who didn’t
understand instructions at a checkpoint and panicked and was shot by the
foreign force."
- Captain Chris Alfeiri
|
were frustrated we didn't have a role there. We
don't want to leave Iraq until the job is done." First Sergeant Clinton Reiss,
a veteran of the first Gulf War in 1991, says, "The more we're attacked the
longer we're going to be here. We get these people on their feet, we
go home. That's the way I look at it."
Similar sentiments can be heard from a young enlisted soldier relating his
experiences to his wife on the morale phone. "If they would be peaceful and be
nice we would be out of here in no time," he tells her. "We're trying to help
them. They don't understand and they're trying to prolong our stay by butting
heads with us."
Known as the "anti-morale phone" by soldiers because it is often impossible to
find a connection, this phone and the Internet access they have are their life
line, allowing them to tell family members they love them, to ask for supplies,
to arrange their finances, and from time to time to argue with girlfriends and
wives, to the increased interest of all those within listening range. They do
not discuss politics over the phone.
Captain Bill Ray, a 30-year-old intelligence officer from a small town called
Ordway, near Pueblo, Colorado, asserts that the war in Iraq was a "continuation
of the war on terrorism. Even though we haven't been able to put our hands on
WMD [weapons of mass destruction] I believe it was here and a lot went to
Syria. We needed to come here before Saddam [Hussein] started letting those
weapons out of
|
"If they would be peaceful
and be nice we would be out of here in no
time. We're trying to help them. They don't
understand and they're trying to prolong our stay
by
butting heads with us."
- Soldier on the phone to his wife
|
this country. And there were training camps for
international terrorist organizations in Iraq. We came here for just reasons
and there were a lot of people here who were in bad shape." He adds that unlike
most men on the base, "I'm not married, so being here this long doesn't bother
me."
Captain Justin Brown, the commander of Apache Troop, states his mission in Iraq
in clipped military simplicity, "To get the area safe in order to provide a
secure environment to bring international organizations in and provide
normalcy."
Staff Sergeant Michael Adair, a 30-year-old non-commissioned officer under
Brown's command from Junction City, Kansas, believes that "we're here to
liberate the people of Iraq, to help restore a government, more at the local
level for us, to restore infrastructure and to stop illegal trafficking and
border crossing."
His colleague from Apache Troop and first Gulf War veteran Staff Sergeant
Christopher Joseph, 31, from Moya, North Carolina, agrees, adding that "the
only concern that soldiers here have is the same thing the government is
finding out, and that is it's going to take longer than we thought. We're
disappointed that we haven't found any weapons of mass destruction yet, but
that keeps us motivated to search for them."
Adair adds, "I'm not after WMDs. I think when they realized we were coming in
they got rid of it. I definitely think al-Qaeda is alive and well in Iraq. Our
soldiers don't have a clouded vision of why they're here." They agree that
keeping track of the debates back home about the US occupation was
difficult. "We're behind the times news-wise," says Joseph, "we're focused on
the here and now."
Soldiers get most of their news watching Armed Forces Network television or
reading Stars and Stripes newspaper. Both are sanctioned by the military. Reilly believes
his men are as informed as the general US public, adding that "it's very
representative of the population back
home. On your city block back home, how many people are interested in the
issues? It has to do with interest, not rank. They spend most of their time
focused on the day-to-day, either recovering from an operation, preparing for
an operation or doing an operation."
Joseph adds that the copies of Stars and Stripes they do get are usually about
two weeks old and are only from one or two days of the week. Despite that, and
even though his troop of 100 men only get six copies, he says, "It gets passed
around like porno." Adair agrees. "What news we get they devour," he says of
his men.
But they are not well informed about the growing recriminations over possible
administration deception by the administration of President George W
Bush and subterfuge regarding the evidence provided to justify the war.
They do not have time to follow these debates, and the official military
sources do not delve into such matters. "I have to believe, and hope, that our
leaders sent us here for the right reasons," says Reiss, and leaves it at that.
Of course not all the men are thrilled to be in Iraq. Enlisted men say their
officers have to be positive, because dissent can ruin a career. When asked how
long he has been in Iraq, one enlisted 21-year-old snaps, "Way too long." He
explains that "when we first got here it felt like we were doing something
good, now it feels like a waste. We were making progress for a while and now
things are slower. When we first got here we were getting Ba'ath Party members
left and right. We've been away from our families a long time."
Another 21-year-old says, "If we find weapons of mass destruction it was worth
it, but if we don't and we're just here because Bush wanted to finish what his
daddy started, then a lot of boys died for nothing, and that's fucked up."
A very senior officer expresses his hopes that retired General Wesley Clark, a
Democrat, will become the next president, believing that the positive
ramifications would extend to the army as well. A chief warrant officer wonders
aloud whether it was a mistake to isolate the international community and
attempt the daunting challenge of reconstructing Iraq alone.
It is common to hear the men state that they are just a conventional force,
untrained for "these kinds of operations". Fortunately for the regiment, many
of its soldiers have experience from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo setting up
tactical checkpoints, dealing with foreign cultures and navigating complex
ethnic, tribal and religious rivalries. Sergeant Joseph explains, "This isn't
from a textbook. It's all battlefield training. Tank commanders aren't trained
for kicking down doors. We're adapting as we go."
According to Alfeiri, "All my soldiers are between 18 and 23. The hardest thing
for them is to transition from combat to stability operations, using deadly
force in the morning and in the same day fixing the air conditioners in a
hospital." Alfeiri wonders how he and his men will adjust to the life back home
they all long to return to. "We're in an environment where there is no law," he
says, "nobody can stop us." He believes the transition to regular life in
the United States will be difficult, comparing it to the experiences faced
by veterans of Vietnam.
Sergeant Scott Blow, a 27-year-old from Denver, is confounded by the same
problems all the men of the 3rd ACR face. "Nobody knows who the enemy is here
until they shoot at you. Any time you kick down a door you don't know what to
expect." For a conventional force accustomed to expect to fight an obvious
enemy, the challenges are not merely intellectual.
On June 7, Bandit Troop's Sergeant Michael Dooley was standing at a checkpoint
when a car approached containing three men. Two of them called out that their
friend was injured and needed attention. When Dooley approached the vehicle to
assist, he was shot in the face and killed immediately. The car sped off, but
soldiers shot at it and later found it abandoned containing rocket-propelled
grenades (RPGs), hand grenades, flares and C4 explosive.
The men on Tiger Base are curious what the Iraqis think of them, and baffled by
the hostility the daily attacks make so obvious. "They hate us," soldiers often
say of their new neighbors in Iraq. Sergeant Reginald Abram, 24, from San
Diego, exclaims, "These people are pretty persistent. If they killed three of
my buddies for shooting at them I'd be like, damn, maybe it's time to find a
new hobby. But it's not difficult to understand why somebody might pick up an
AK-47 against us. Maybe we killed his father in the first Gulf War, maybe in
this Gulf War, maybe he's just a dick."
Alfeiri also expresses sympathy. "I wonder how I would feel if someone was
breaking down my door," he says, "or if it was my grandfather who didn't
understand instructions at a checkpoint and panicked and was shot by the
foreign force."
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact
content@atimes.com
for information on our sales and syndication
policies.)
Part 1 -
This is the wild, wild west
Monday: Part 3 - The locals
Tuesday: Part 4 - Operation
Decapitation
Wednesday: Part 5 (final)
- The wrong Ayoub
|
| |
|
THE SERIES
Part 1 -
This is the wild, wild west
Monday: Part 3 - The locals
Tuesday: Part 4 - Operation Decapitation
Wednesday: Part 5 (final) -
The wrong Ayoub
|
|
|
 |
|
;)
;)
;)
