From Searching to Soccer

To start things off, I am happy to report that my family has made it back home to Colorado after 2 months and over 9,000 miles of driving. Yes, Tina is still sane, but she had to work to keep the casualty count among the kids down to one appendectomy, one re-injured knee, and one broken arm. It appears that Deployed Dad maintains a commanding lead in the category of “Fewest Trips to the ER.” Despite 75% of the kids getting hit with one type of injury or illness during the trip, they had a blast. Thanks to all of you who hosted them on that journey.

My journeys over the past couple of weeks included a trip down to the city of Balad in southern Salah Ad Din province. Balad was the home of a large portion of the Saddam Hussein Air Force. The few fighter jets that we maintain in country are based out of Balad, but I did not travel to Balad to visit with the Air Force. The Army calls the base around the airfield COB Anaconda. Like most inhabited areas in Salah Ad Din province, Anaconda sits in the Tigris River Valley. Insurgent activity down in that area has not been limited to just AQI. The region has a mix of Sunni and Shiite citizens, so there have been Shia insurgent groups as well as a couple other Sunni groups operating in the area.

The unit that I visited at Anaconda is a Field Artillery (FA) battalion. When you think Field Artillery, you obviously think of the big guns and the rolling barrages of destructive firepower. In the Counterinsurgency (COIN) fight, the need for that type of fire support is not generally required. Therefore, our FA units have been asked to take on a lot of non-traditional FA roles in the past couple of years. I was visiting with the battalion to collect information on how they have organized for their new roles. They have had to adjust to fight an infantry fight, as well as having to perform the other duties and community engagements that are important to winning over the population.

I had mentioned a few weeks ago that the insurgents may have been moving towards the river valleys as the Iraqi Army (IA) and US forces chased them around the Northern provinces. During my visit to Anaconda, the FA battalion conducted the first series of riverine operations to be conducted by Army units during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). I did not have the opportunity to participate on these operations, but the soldiers would have made their Navy brethren proud with their performance out there on the river.

One of the missions that is being handled by the FA soldiers is that of reconciliation. The reconciliation process is a method being used for former fighters to clear their names with US forces. The Iraqis do not have any formal part in the reconciliation process. Anyone who reconciles with the US still has to deal with the Iraqi system if they have committed Iraqi criminal offenses. There are rules as to who can reconcile with our forces, and there are certain requirements placed on those wishing to clear their names, such as the requirement to turn in weapons and provide information on weapons caches. The troops down at Anaconda have been leading the pack on reconciliation efforts in the province and have discovered a lot of weapons caches. The result has been a significant reduction in violence.

Along with the reconciling, governance, and economic issues, the FA battalion still has to deal with security issues day to day. I participated with one of the companies (or “batteries” in FA speak) as they went to search a farm house complex in the region for a suspected weapons cache. The property sits in an isolated rural area that is only accessible via elevated canal roads. An IA unit linked up with us on our way out to the farm. Upon our arrival, we were met by the farm owner, who explained that he lived there with his brother, his three wives, and his ten sons. He said that he knew nothing about any weapons caches, and he invited a search of his property. The US and IA troops took him up on the invitation and searched for quite awhile, but did not locate any caches. There were plenty of sheep, a few cows, and a lot of rats, but no hidden weapons. It is never a surprise to watch our soldiers act with tremendous professionalism, but it was also nice to see the Iraqi soldiers acting very professionally. The IA platoon leader was definitely in charge of his troops, and in a real sign of progress, the platoon sergeant was even giving commands. That is a big deal in an army where non-commissioned officers (NCOs) have had no role in the past. The strength of our military comes largely from the leadership of our non-commissioned officers as they train, supervise, and mentor our soldiers. The US Army is trying to develop the IA to the point where they also have a strong NCO corps.

The US Battery Commander did not want to leave the farm house without showing some appreciation for the cooperation that we received (for those of you in Colorado Springs, this Captain happens to be a 1997 Harrison High School graduate and a subsequent graduate of UCCS). He went to one of his vehicles and produced a soccer ball, which he gave to one of the 10 sons. An immediate impromptu soccer match broke out, pitting the sons against some of the US and IA soldiers. The soldiers, wearing full battle-rattle, were no match for the quick little farm kids, so as usual, we probably would have lost to the kids had there been nets to use for scoring. One of the kids told us that we were welcome back to his house every day if we wanted to come back. The farmer was thinking, “Hey thanks, guys; I have 200 sheep to tend to and now my kids will spend their day playing soccer instead of doing their farm duties.” Admittedly, I was looking around while the kids were playing with their new soccer ball, and there were sheep wandering around everywhere. I imagine the kids were busy rounding them up after we left. The attached pictures are obviously from the search-turned-to-soccer visit.

I have a couple of news stories from this end. Marie Colvin of the Times of London has been embedded with one of the IA units up in Mosul during Lion’s Roar. She called the operation up in Mosul “one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.” While our Commanding General did not agree that the terrorists have been completely defeated in Iraq, he did say that he thinks that we are at the “irreversible point” as far as taking on the insurgency. These guys are still here, and they are still killing, but as I mentioned before, they haven’t been able to muster the big attacks over the summer that they have conducted in the past.

Also from Iraq, which I assume you probably know about, the last of 550 metric tons of yellowcake was safely shipped out of Iraq to a firm in Canada. Yellowcake is the raw material from which nuclear bombs are made. A professor from Sussex University in England (Norman Dombey), estimates that the yellowcake shipped from Iraq was in large enough quantities to make 142 nuclear bombs. The presence of the material was kept very secret and it was shipped very quietly out of country to avoid any possibility of any of the insurgent groups getting their hands on it. To top things off, there was a mass re-enlistment ceremony conducted by GEN Petraeus at Al Faw Palace on the 4th of July. 1215 US servicemen and women re-enlisted, making that the largest re-enlistment ceremony on record. Not bad for a stretched-thin military.

As the elections are approaching in both Iraq and the US, poll-taking will begin in earnest. In an interesting poll taken in Iraq, most Iraqis don’t want a quick US withdrawal or an immediate time table. The polling results indicate that the majority want the US to leave, but only a minority say that they want us to leave immediately. Here are some comments taken from the article. I will not comment on the comments:

“The American presence in Iraq is the safety valve to keep this country quiet. If they withdraw, that will lead to calamity.” – Maied Rashed al-Nuaemi, Mosul.

“The proposal…to pull out the troops by summer 2010 is foolish. If the United States withdraws from Iraq, I think its credibility among the international countries would collapse.” – Mohammed Sulaiman, Baghdad.

“We need more training, as well as new and developed weapons and supplies. We also need modern and developed technology. The US should withdraw gradually so our Iraqi forces can fill the gaps that the American forces will leave.” Brig. General Najim Abdullah, Iraqi National Police.

The Iraqis are still struggling to pass an elections law, so it is unclear whether their elections will even happen this fall. Registration drives have already begun and so far, no attacks on registration stations. I think these people are realizing that they lose power if they don’t participate in the elections process.

Everyone take care and enjoy the last full month without what we have all been waiting for – the beginning of another football season.