A Chat with David Petraeus March 29, 2007 Richard S. Lowry There has been a dramatic change in America’s strategy in Iraq. The new priority has become security of the people of Baghdad. America’s fortress mentality is gone and there is a whole new feeling of partnership in the Multi-National Force-Iraq. While the situation in Iraq remains dire, we have finally adopted a strategy that has a chance of returning sanity to the people of Baghdad. It is still too early to determine if Fardh al-Qanoon (enforcing the law) will work. All the odds are against General David Petraeus, but if anyone can bring peace and stability to Iraq, it is he. We are involved in a worldwide conflict and the front lines are in Iraq. We are involved in a conflict our military was not prepared to fight in 2003. We are involved in a modern-day counterinsurgent war – a netwar. General Petraeus knows the seriousness of this assault on the free world and he knows how to win against these 21st Century insurgents. Before taking command of the Multi-National Force, he was the Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division; the commander of the Multi-National Security Transition command where he helped build the new Iraqi Army; and most recently the commanding general at the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, where he oversaw the revamping of the Counterinsurgency Field Manual FM3-24. Last Thursday, I had the privilege of speaking with him on the telephone. We started by talking about the Iraqi people. The General spent several minutes talking of the sheer horror Iraqis have suffered most of their lives. They have lived through the Iran-Iraq war, Desert Storm, a decade of sanctions and the Invasion of 2003. Then, instead of freedom, they have suffered through the chaos of the last several years. He said, that they have endured “serious, brutal, horrific, barbaric terrorism carried out by Al-Qaeda” only to be followed by senseless sectarian violence. The general went on to say that the, “various sectarian militia, shia militia, got way out of control. [They] hijacked governmental ministries and certain security force elements…particular[ly] in the wake of the violence following the Askari Mosque bombing in late Feb of 2006.” The bombing stoked sectarian violence on both sides. General Petraeus voiced empathy for the people. He said, “They have endured a lot. They are a resilient people; it’s a nation of survivors. It’s a nation of people that in many respects have endured enormous oppression.” The combination of oppression and sectarian violence has taken a toll on the Iraqi society. Petraeus continued. “With a lot of those that had an option overseas leaving, Iraq has suffered a brain drain of varying proportions. A lot of the Technocrats just couldn’t hang in there.” With the people who administered Iraq on a day-to-day basis no longer sitting behind the desks in government, “You have people governing who, by in large, have had little experience in running large organizations [or] strategic level institutions.” “There are just an awful lot of challenges.” Petraeus said. GOOD NEWS Petraeus continued with his assessment. “You have to then say that every place in the country is different and that there are certainly nine provinces in the south that are relatively calm. Certainly there are challenges in various places at various times but they are ones that the Iraqis generally can solve if they have too. And, then of course there are the three Kurdish provinces that are very calm [and are] relatively progressive in the sense of free market economics within a still somewhat central governmentally run economy, but there is a lot of private investment.” I interrupted with the comment that there seemed to be a large number of disparate groups all competing for their own piece of the pie. General Petraeus agreed. “It’s a big competition right now among a variety of groups; and, again in an environment, in Baghdad in particular, [that is] very heavily colored by an influence of the sectarian violence.” Neighborhoods have been depopulated and General Petraeus believes that “hundreds of thousands, maybe millions” of Iraqis have been displaced. “Most damaging of all,” General Petraeus contends that the situation “has reinforced suspicions or created suspicions where there weren’t any between Sunni and Shia in a country in which there is a fair amount intermarriage between the sects in the past and where sectarian violence was not a huge issue, perhaps partly because Saddam ruled with an iron hand and put down the Shia all the time.” I moved on to ask him about the current plan to secure Baghdad and he proudly pointed out that the “Clear and Hold” strategy has already been used with good effect in Mosul in 2004 and Tal’Afar in 2005. What General Petraeus modestly forgot to mention was that it was he who adopted the counterinsurgent strategy in Mosul when he was commanding the 101st Airborne and Colonel H.R. McMaster who architected the Tal’Afar success. (Colonel McMaster is now a trusted advisor to General Petraeus.) The general was quick to point out that “If you’re going to secure the population, if that’s job one, then you have to live with the population you are going to secure.” He then reflected on the past strategy. “For a variety of reasons, some pretty good reasons, we were gradually consolidating in larger bases and handing off to the Iraqis. The transition to Iraqi Security Forces, Iraqi control and local control was emphasized heavily. That was sort of moving along reasonably well until it was really undone by the bombing of that mosque and the resulting sectarian violence. Al Qaeda in Iraq had been dealt a crushing defeat in the second battle of Fallujah. Without a dramatic event to ignite sectarian violence, the insurgency could have failed. Abu Musab al-Sargawi and his henchmen plotted an attack so heinous that every Shia in Iraq would be rallied to violence against the Sunni minority who had dominated the country for generations. The bombing ignited sectarian violence and derailed American plans for transition to Iraqi control. THE WILD WEST Then there is Al Anbar province, an area which not long ago a Marine Colonel described as a cross between the Wild West and Mad Max. But, now the people of Anbar Province have finally had enough of Al-Qaeda and the violence and chaos they have brought to their homes. Tribal leaders are working with the Multi-National Forces to rid the area of these foreign fighters and military-age men are swarming into towns to join the Iraqi Police force. General Petraeus agrees that for the moment, things are going well in Al Anbar. “In Anbar Province an encouraging development is the rise of Sheiks and tribes who want to fight against Al-Qaeda and to secure their own areas to contribute to the Iraqi Security Forces, in particular in there own areas.” I commented to the general that I thought that Nouri al-Maliki’s visit to Ramadi was very significant. He agreed. “That was a very important visit. That was of strategic significance. [That was] the first time he had been in Ramadi since the 1970s. BIG DEAL! That area continues to progress. Interesting, what you don’t have there is sectarian violence. What you have there is Al-Qaeda and other insurgent elements that want to return Saddam, create a caliphate [or] do any number of different things.” BAGHDAD Then there is Baghdad. Baghdad has become the primary battleground in Iraq. “Baghdad, a city the size of Los Angeles, is spread out and very diverse. What you have there is almost a tale of two cities to some degree. It is a tale of one city that is predominantly Shia, those areas in which security is pretty good. Al–Qaeda is trying to get in and blow them up periodically but the checkpoints are stopping a good bit of that. Where commerce has returned, the markets have reopened. We have hardened all the markets. And I’m talking about enormous markets that have tens of thousands of people. Those areas have bounced back very, very well.” “Then you have the mixed areas though that are still in the sense battlegrounds…All it takes is one death squad just to really literally ruin the neighborhood. They are fault line neighborhoods or they are Sunni Arab neighborhoods that are under threat from both Al-Qaeda, who’s trying to retain them as logistical routes or safe havens, and by, in some cases, Shia extremists who are trying to expand into those areas or to push into another block or another neighborhood.” “Those are challenging places and they are challenging for the people that live in them as well… In fact we were in one of them just yesterday – the Amariyah area of Baghdad which is just east of the Baghdad International Airport; between that and the wealthy Mansur area, where all the diplomats used to live. And we were out talking to folks in the market and on the street and all that stuff. They are surviving, they are enduring. But you know it’s a pretty tough existence for them, frankly.” THE KEY TO SUCCESS We are only a few weeks into the Baghdad Security plan. Only two of the five surge Brigades have been inserted into the city, yet General Petraeus is cautiously optimistic. He knows what it will take to win. “The truth is, the key to all of this is the Iraqi leadership and we should make no mistake about it. The Iraqi Army will do well if it has good national leadership, like any Army. If the national leadership cannot not hang together as a national body, then how can you expect the national army to remain together?” “You have to have a national government. You have to have national direction. I think the army is one of the better stories. It is a mixed bag in some cases but, by in large, the army has some quite good units, quite heartening units. I was just up in Ninewa Province for example and there are two pretty good Iraqi Army Divisions up there. In fact, we have only a single battalion contributing to the security in Mosul, in large measure because there is a pretty good Iraqi Army Division, pretty good police chief and police force. It is not perfect. It’s under threat. Al-Qaeda is trying to open a new front there. They did manage to break guys out of a prison. There are all kinds of pressures and challenges. But that’s actually a place where you can see the future of a smaller coalition presence and Iraqis stepping up to the plate and taking over. I wouldn’t say its easy there because you have some real ethnic challenges between Sunni Arabs and Sunni Kurds.” Iraq is rife with problems and challenges. Each area seems to have its own set of unique issues. This is what makes ‘victory’ in Iraq so difficult. But when asked, General Petraeus said this: “The real challenge is to create something that is sustainable. We could cut a deal with the Mahdi Army, for example. We could bargain for six or nine months of peace with them but that serves no purpose.” FOCUSED ON THE JOB IN IRAQ “Hopefully, we can create a window for opportunity for the Iraqi leaders so that they can bridge some of the differences [and] achieve true national reconciliation. And if they can’t, then we gotta look each other in the eye and say it's not gonna happen and say we need a Plan B.” When I asked the general about the current political situation in America, he made it quite clear that his job was to remain focused on the mission in Iraq. Then he went on to say: “I think that a soldier should understand the mission he has been given and make sure he and his boss have discussed it and they are both clear on it and then ask for what he needs and then do the best he can with what he gets. And, inform people of the risk if he doesn’t get what he asks for. And, if it’s sufficiently less than what is judged to be needed, then he has to go back and say I can’t accomplish the mission, lets change the mission. That’s the approach you have to take. “I cannot make my recommendations based on what I think the pain is back there for the military services or the White House or Capitol Hill or anything else. All we can do is do our mission to the best of our ability and retain integrity as we do that. And, be willing to note that if it’s not going to happen. I’ve gotta say that. I owe that to 150,000 young Americans and anther 10,000 coalition partners. General Petraeus believes that the mission is doable, but he cautioned, “It is by no means a done deal.” “There are no guarantees.” “My job is to help the Iraqis establish a better level of security in Iraq – that is job one.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Give Peace a Chance Richard S. Lowry 3/11/07 Daily, we hear pundits in the government and the
media call for America's withdrawal from Iraq. They claim that the
country is spiraling into civil war and that the violence unnecessarily
continues to take American lives. They claim that the Iraqis are
not stepping up to the plate to secure their own blessing of liberty.
And, they bristle that last November's elections prove that the
American people have had enough.
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10475&Itemid=128
SWET stands for Sewers, Water, Electricity and Trash Collection. In addition, the Iraqi government is preparing to pour megabucks into local construction projects. The "Surge" is much more than a military plan to kill all the bad guys.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ World War Three Richard S. Lowry 7/12/06
In years gone by, when aggressors attacked their enemy, it was quite clear to everyone taking refuge in the castle that a state of war existed. Everyone knew that they were in peril. Today, we are fighting a war halfway around the World. Surely, our economy has been affected, but not enough for the American public to feel the pain of war. For us, the war on terror is a nightly news item and a political football to be kicked around in the nation's capitol and on news talk shows. Only the families and friends of our casualties feel the pain of this war. It wasn't until 9-11 that the American people were shocked into the reality that we were at war. It wasn't until those majestic buildings came crashing to the ground in a cloud of crumbling debris and broken bodies that we realized that we were vulnerable. We all woke up to the reality that there were people in the world that meant us harm, people who were dedicated to the destruction of our way of life. But, soon we forgot. Soon we let our comfortable lives lull us back into a sense of complacency and false security. Wake up America! Nothing has changed. Usama bin Laden is still out there. The Taliban continue to fight in Afghanistan and Americans are dying nearly every day in Iraq. Our struggle continues. Our enemies still plot our destruction and Israel is under siege. Bringing our troops home from Iraq will not change anything except to embolden our enemies. People who study history and warfare understand that the only way to win a war is to eliminate ones opponent's will to continue. Our enemies understand this as well. They know that America will lose heart and that we will eventually call for the withdrawal of our forces from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our enemies know that it is only a matter of time until victory is theirs. What if we lose? What would happen if gasoline rose to $20 per gallon? How many Americans would lose their jobs? How many small businesses would go under? What would happen to our economy? Who in this World would come to our aid if our economy were thrown into chaos? And, who would stop the Islamic Fundamentalists from oppressing women, destroying Israel and returning much of the eastern world to the Stone Age? If you are anti-war, you should be cheering for our victory in Iraq. If we lose, war the likes of which the world has never seen will break out when the fanatic factions in the Middle East attempt to wipe out Israel - and they will. We are surely in the midst of World War Three and we must win this conflict or Armageddon will surely follow.
An Nasiriyah Revisited It is hard to believe that it has been three years since Jessica Lynch and the 507th Maintenance Company rolled through the dusty streets of An Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003. Eleven of Jessica's fellow soldiers were killed that morning, five were captured and a dozen more injured. Lynch was critically injured and near death when she was brought into a military hospital near the site of her ambush. Within hours of the ambush, the North Carolina Marines of Task Force Tarawa moved to secure the bridges in An Nasiriyah. LtCol Rickey Grabowski's 1st Battalion, of the 2nd Marine Regiment rolled into the city and encountered stiff resistance. By midmorning they had rescued nearly half of the soldiers who had been ambushed and by noon the Marines were charging forward through a hail of RPGs, AK-47 gunfire, mortar and artillery barrages. By sunset, Grabowski's Marines had secured their objectives but at a terrible cost. Eighteen of America's finest died and another dozen were wounded. In all, twenty-nine Americans died that day in An Nasiriyah. Their story has never really been told. Initially, the situation in Nasiriyah was so confusing that no one knew the connection between the 507th Maintenance Company and the brave Marines of the 2d Marine Regiment. At first, Jessica's capture was kept quiet for fear that the enemy would move her and most of the Marines who died that day could not be identified without extensive DNA analysis. As the days and weeks passed, the news media moved on to Lynch's rescue and then the fall of Baghdad. When the Department of Defense finally sorted things out and released the names of the Marines and soldiers who died that day, the media took very little interest. No one ever realized that that bloody day in Nasiriyah, on March 23rd, was the costliest day of combat for America in the invasion of Iraq. These twenty-nine American soldiers and Marines were never given a fitting tribute to the ultimate sacrifice they made while in the service of their country. Before sunrise on the 23rd on March 2003, thirty-three soldiers, traveling in eighteen trucks, stumbled into the dusty desert city of An Nasiriyah. It wasn't until they had driven all the way through the city that they realized that they were hopelessly lost. As soon as they turned around and tried to retrace their path, every Iraqi with a gun started shooting at the beleaguered convoy. The lead three vehicles managed to run the gauntlet and get back to the U.S. Marines' front lines. The next five vehicles broke down and ten soldiers scrambled for cover in a nearby ditch. Surrounded, they each vowed to go down fighting. They had fought to hold off the enemy for nearly an hour, when Major Bill Peeples and the Marine tankers of Alpha Company, 8th Tanks arrived to save the day. The Marines beat back the enemy and rushed the ten soldiers to safety. The remaining seventeen soldiers were not so fortunate. Eleven were killed and six captured. Specialists Jamaal Addison and James Kiehl both died when their vehicle careened through an intersection and rolled over on its top. Private First Class Howard Johnson II and Private Ruben Estrella-Soto's truck crashed at the same intersection. Sergeant Donald Walters was lost north of An Nasiriyah when his vehicle broke down. He leapt from his disabled vehicle and laid down covering fire so that the rest of his unit could turn their vehicles and get out of a horrific ambush. Private Brandon Sloan was shot and killed while the vehicle he was in was racing south. Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Mata's truck shuddered to a stop atop a railroad overpass and burst into flames. Mata was killed, but his driver, Specialist Hudson, survived.
We know that Lori and Jessica survived the collision. It is not clear what happened to Buggs and Anguiano. When Patrick Miller approached the crash scene, he glanced in and thought everyone was dead. Hudson, Hernandez, Lynch, Miller, Piestewa, Riley, and Shoshana Johnson were all taken prisoner. Lynch and Piestewa were separated from the others and eventually ended up in the Tykar Military Hospital. Lori died while being treated, leaving Lynch alone and near death. The soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company that were killed that day were from all walks of life and every corner of this nation. They were a swatch cut from the American fabric and some of the first to die in this protracted war. Lori Piestewa was an American Indian and single mother. Brandon Sloan and Robert Dowdy were both from Cleveland Ohio. Brandon, 19, had left high school early to join the Army, while Dowdy, 38, was a career soldier. James Kiehl, 22, was a friendly computer technician who left behind a pregnant wife. Buggs and Anguiano were not even members of the 507th. Dowdy had convinced them to take one of their vehicles in tow two nights before. Their tow truck ran out of gas north of An Nasiriyah and Dowdy, Piestewa and Lynch had picked them up.
By noon, the Marines were pressing north to secure two vital bridges in An Nasiriyah. The fighting started long before they reached the Euphrates River but it wasn't until they moved into downtown Nasiriyah that all hell broke loose. Alpha Company secured the Euphrates River Bridge while Bravo Company swung out to the east side of town. Charlie Company raced over the Euphrates River Bridge and charged through "Ambush Alley" to the Saddam Canal Bridge. Eighteen Marines died in Charlie Company's battle for that northern bridge. Donald Cline was a twenty-one year old husband and father of two young boys. Patrick Nixon loved history and wanted to eventually be a teacher. Phillip Jordan was a career Marine and loving husband and father. Fred Pokorney was a giant of a man who had just been promoted to 1st Lieutenant. Sergeant Michael Bitz was the father of two young boys and one-month old twins. David Fribley and Brian Buesing were both Florida natives. Fribley joind the Corps after 9/11 and Buesing had been in the Marines since he graduated from high school. Brendon Reiss was the son of a decorated Vietnam Veteran and Randal Rosacker was the son of a Navy Master Chief submarine sailor. Jose Garibay and Jorge Gonzalez were both from Southern California. Thomas Slocum was a 22 year old from Colorado and Nolen Hutchings was from South Carolina. They were both troubled teens that had worked to turn their lives around in the Corps. Tamario Burkett was a young Marine from upstate New York. Kemaphoom Chanawongse was born in Thailand and came to the United States at nine years old. He was the first to have a Buddhist funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. Johnathan Gifford wanted to be a Marine since he was a little boy. Michael Williams joined the Corps late in life. At 31, he was just a Lance Corporal but older than most of the young officers he worked for. On his trip over to Iraq, he emailed his girlfriend and asked her to marry him. Thomas Blair was not a member of Charlie Company. He was part of an anti-aircraft unit that had been assigned to Charlie Company. He too, went directly into the Marine Corps after high school graduation. Twenty-nine lives ended too soon on that clear Sunday
in March. Twenty-nine families grieve to this day. These soldiers
and Marines died before there was a daily box score in America's
newspapers. They have been buried under 2000 more stories. Donald
Cline and Michael Williams died because they chose to help their
wounded comrades. Read about these brave young men and women in the
only book to tell the entire story of America's first major battle
in Operation Iraqi Freedom - "Marines in the Garden of Eden,"
Berkley, New York, will be released on June 6, 2006. |
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