Jeff Andrus
Editor and Writing Coach
A Soldier's Opinion
I am convinced this is about the straightest answer we're gonna get. It comes straight from the horses mouth from a member of the First Cavalry Division on the ground in Iraq who oughtto know. I trust a soldier's opinion long before a politician's any day. "Horse people" is a term the writer uses to identify members of the First Cav who wear what we always affectionally referred to as the "horse blanket" patch on their shoulder whichis a large yellow patch with a black stripe and a horses head on it. Read on and learn the facts.Dick Duerr Lt. Col. (Ret)
Subject: An American Soldier's view of the problems in Iraq
Here's his letter to us:
Subject: My view of Iraq
The Following is an article about Bush's national address and troop increase. I thought it was a good idea to let you all know what the perspective is over here. I'm tired of hearing the media's skewed version, the politicians squabbling over what they read in a report, and the average ill-informed American ranting about things he knows NOTHING about.
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I've been over here a couple of months now, and I've learned more about this country than a year's worth of watching CNN. I've sat in mission briefs with Colonels, talked with village elders, had tea with Shieks, played with the kids. And I agree with the President. We need more troops and we need to take greater action.
There are 3 major factions here. The Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. The Shiites are in the majority, but Saddam was a Sunni, so he kept the Shiites in check. Everyone hates the Kurds, who are Christian and in the vast minority. The Kurds received the brunt of Saddam's murderous tyranny. Now that Saddam is gone, the Shiites have taken control of Baghdad. The largely peaceful Sunnis are now the victims of radical Shiite terrorism. So the young Sunni men, who can no longer go to work and support their families, do what all young men would do. They join the Sunni militia and battle the Shiites. And thus the country sits on the brink of civil war.
But this war is between them. They largely do not concern themselves with the U.S. troops. The insurgents who battle the Coalition Forces are from outside the country. And the biggest problem down here isn't the insurgents. Its the politicians. The local politicians. Even though the country is controlled by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, downtown Baghdad is controlled by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Shiites follow al-Sadr and thus the Prime Minister does what al-Sadr says. Think of it as if a warlord controlled New York and blackmailed the President into diplomatic immunity.
When 1st Cav (mainly 2/5 Cav) came here in 2004, they took downtown Baghdad (known as Sadr City) by force. It cost many lives, but after a year, we held an iron grip on the largest insurgent breeding ground in Iraq. The insurgents were afraid of the Horse People, and rightfully so. But when 1st Cav left, al-Sadr influenced the Prime Minister to kick out the Coalition forces from that area of Baghdad. He said the Iraqi military forces could hold the city. But all that happened was al-Sadr regained control of his cty, and it is now a heavily guarded fortress. A place where insurgents and terrorists can train and stockpile arms. And we cannot go back in becuase the Prime Minister won't let us. Our hands are tied.
So where does al-Sadr get his backing? From Iran and Syria. Iran supplies him with money and Syria supplies the terrorists. The insurgents that battle the Coalition Forces are from Syria, Somalia and dozens of other places outside of Iraq. Iraq is literally a terrorist breeding ground. They have terrorist and sniper schools here. Why not? They train by teaching them to attack the military forces here. And they have an endless supply of these training tools. They have factories in Sadr City to build bombs. Both Iran and Syria have openly proclaimed their number one goal in life is to destroy the great Western Devil and the little Western Devil (America and Britain). Iran wants to control Iraq to further this purpose.
Al-Sadr will get to "run" the country and live like a king, but in reality Iran will pull the puppet strings. Iran will have access to
thousands of radical Shiites who will do whatever a l-Sadr tells them to. And Iraq will be used as a breeding ground for terrorism. Terrorism that will be targeted directly at America and Britain. The Iraq Study Group advised we should let Iran and Syria help with rebuilding? Bravo to President Bush for striking that idea down and vowing to keep those two countries out of Iraq.
So how do the Iraqi people feel about everything? Of course they don't want the Americans here. But they would far rather have us here than the Iranians. My platoon visited an average Sunni village on a patrol a few days ago. Their only source of income was to farm, as they could not go to the city to work for fear of violence. Many of the young men had already run off to join the militia for no other reason than to feed their families. They had no school or hospital near them and the community was dying. The village elder's granddaughter was very sick and I was able to treat her. Afterwards he invited me and my Platoon Leader to sit in his house and have tea with him, and we talked about the situation.
The people want peace. The Shiites kill the Sunnis because al-Sadr tells them to do so. The Sunnis fight back because they have no choice. They are glad Saddam is dead (Sunni or not), but do not want to replace him with another dictator in a politician's clothes (which is what al-Sadr will become). And they especially don't want Iran in charge. Many innocent Iraqis will die if this h appens. These are the words that came out of the elder's mouth:
"We do not want America here, and America does not want to be here. But you cannot leave because the militias controll the country. America must use the might of its giant army and sweep through, root out and destroy the militias. Then Iraq can be free and you can leave."
What appears to have happened within our diplomatic community, is that Prime Minister finally realizes that his days are numbered. If al-Sadr remains, he will be kicked to the curb. So hopefully he is about to allow us to reenter Sadr City, root out and destroy the enemy. A dramatic troop increase will allow us to do this. And the Horse People are back and ready to finish what they started over 2 years ago.
If leave now, it will be a failure for democracy. Iran will control Iraq and the end result will be more terrorist attacks on America.
The American people don't want soldiers dying over here, but its better than American civilians dying over there. Do NOT forget 9/11. They will do it again. The moment we loosen our grip on the noose, they will do it again. And the only way to root out the evil here is to stop beating around the bush, increase troops and destroy the insurgents once and for all. The Iraqi government cannot do this on their own. The Iraqi security forces are inade quate for this task. We are the only ones who can stop al-Sadr.
SPC "Doc" Shurley
2/5 Cav, 1st CB
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-TRUTH is Unchangeable, No Matter What is Politically Correct
The True Meaning of Christmas
The best of the
holiday season for my wife and me was a grandson
coming into the world. Medical complications with
my daughter forced a longer than expected hospital
stay for her, but the insurance company insisted
that my grandson was as healthy as a horse and
should be tossed out of the ward. The result is a
bottle-fed baby. This, as everyone knows, dooms him
for jail or worse.
I conducted the 6 AM feedings, during which I would
contemplate the upbringing of my generation. When
we were in utero, many of our mothers were throwing
back G & Ts before dinner. Our emotionally
distant fathers were off working and having the odd
nightmare about killing Japs and Krauts. Need I say
they were racists?
When we became viable fetuses, we had to suck down
that goby white formula forced on the world by Big
Pharmaceutical Companies, and Horror of Horrors!
this often was in the midst of secondhand smoke
brought on by Big Tobacco.
Sure, we got Roy Rodgers and Captain Midnight on
television, but those weekly shows could hardly
mitigate the daily effects of cigarettes and gin in
our formative years.
Then we went to college, and got thrice weekly- and
sometimes- daily doses of what might be compared to
the anti-depressant Welbutrin, changing the label
to Zoloft and marketing it as a stop-smoking aid.
Call it History, Sociology, Comparative Religions,
Theater Arts, even Engineering, it was all just an
excuse for most of our professors to preach Marxism
mixed with hedonism.
So what did we do? Burned bras and draft cards, and
for a lot of us boys, we looked for what we had
missed as infants--bare Triple D mammaries.
We were victims. It was terrible, just
terrible.