Tower Of Babel - Wolfowitz trip two
In its 6,000 years of history, the ancient city of Babylon has seen the passing of many kings and conquerors, from Alexander the Great and the Mongol hordes, to the armies of Syria, Turkey, Persia, and Germany. Now, modern-day Babylonians awake to find a new occupying army outside the original Babylon Gate, and one unlike any seen in the past.
A riverside palace in Babylon, near the Iraqi city of Al Hilla, is headquarters to the coalition's multinational division, which is led by Poland and includes 9,200 troops from 21 different nations. A visit to the palace demonstrated both the tantalizing advantages of a greater international military presence in Iraq, and the limitations of a division whose makeup of Poles, Ukrainians, Latvians, Thais, Danes, Spaniards, Nicaraguans, Dominicans, Bulgarians, and Mongolians rivals the complexities of the nearby ancient Tower of Babel.
"It's a great challenge, trying to meld the forces of 21 countries into one unit," Maj. Gen. Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, the Polish commander of the multinational division, conceded to the Wolfowitz delegation. "We have East Asians, Latin Americans, Europeans. It's difficult just ironing out the language difficulties, not to mention the different cultures and military habits involved."
Although the multinational division was purposely assigned a relatively quiet area of responsibility in the Shiite-dominated region south of Baghdad, this area has become a flashpoint given recent events in the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. On August 29, for instance, a suicide car bomber assassinated the revered Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and scores of his followers, in an incident that U.S. officials believe was intended to spark a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis. Though heartened by the fact that it did not do so, U.S. officials have been unable to avoid the vexing problem of exactly what to do about firebrand cleric Muqtada Sadr, whose actions and diatribes against the U.S.-led occupation have become increasingly provocative.
After an incident in which Sadr loyalists became involved in a gunfight that left three U.S. soldiers dead and seven wounded, and amid reports that Sadr's followers were hiding weapons in mosques, coalition authorities decided to act. But no one believed that the Polish-led division was up to the task. "One of the dilemmas of the multinational division is that its rules of engagement rule out offensive operations," said a senior U.S. officer in Iraq. "Given the dynamic situation in Karbala and Najaf, that meant we had to introduce U.S. forces into the mix."
The U.S. officials cite their response to the provocations in Karbala as a potential model for future joint U.S.-Iraqi operations, as well as an unmistakable warning to Sadr. Newly graduated Iraqi Civil Defense Corps forces, backed by U.S. combat troops, raided two mosques associated with Sadr, capturing weapons and arresting more than 30 of his supporters and two key Sadr lieutenants. Largely because it was ICDC troops that actually entered the mosques, U.S. officials believe, the response among Iraqis in Karbala has been relatively muted.
Col. Ralph "Rob" Baker, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Armored Division, led the operation against the Sadr mosque in Karbala. "We definitely did not want that raid to be depicted in the Arab media as some sort of assault on Shiite mosques, so we let two squads of ICDC forces that we had trained in urban combat go through the door as we backed them up, and they were up to the task," he told National Journal. "That also sent an important message to Sadr, who I would personally prefer to see marginalized rather than taken down and somehow martyred in the eyes of his followers. To most of the senior Shiite clerics, he's still a young kid," Baker said. "Sadr has insisted, however, that he is answerable only to Islamic law and the judgment of other clerics. That's a dangerous proposition in Iraq. The fundamental issue now facing this country is whether everyone is going to accept the same law, and have it apply to all equally. That's the only way Iraq will hold together."
Before boarding his helicopter, Wolfowitz gave an impromptu press conference. Was he not daunted by the challenges that lay ahead in Iraq's uncertain march to democracy? "You know, the Polish General Tyszkiewicz told me something interesting," Wolfowitz replied. "He told me that 15 years after the end of Cold War, his country is far better off than they were under Soviet domination and immediately after liberation. Yet Poland still has 18 percent unemployment and many challenges to confront. That's a valuable perspective. Instead of comparing Iraq to America, I think you need to compare it to progress made by other countries in the developing world. By that yardstick, I think an awful lot has already been accomplished in just the past six months."
Belly Of The Beast
The headquarters for the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division is in Saddam's ancestral home of Tikrit, in a cavernous palace on a bluff overlooking the Tigris River. Though Saddam reportedly never actually occupied this edifice, which he only recently had built, his presence is as real to the inhabitants of Tikrit as is the snake-rattle of automatic weapons fire that echoes in the river valley nearly every night.
"I haven't met anyone in this region who doesn't believe Saddam is alive and out there somewhere, and may be coming back," said Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of the 4th I.D., which is responsible for securing the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad where attacks on U.S. soldiers have increased markedly in the past two months. Because of the former dictator's continuing hold on the Iraqi psyche, senior military officials in Iraq believe that capturing or killing Saddam remains one of the key unmet goals of the Iraq campaign. "By the time we got to Tikrit, Saddam had been around for 25 years -- more than twice as long as Hitler -- and it's going to take some time for us to counter his brainwashing and intimidation, and convince people that he's gone for good," one official said.
Although the killing of Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay was a major victory in the effort to break the Baathist hold on Iraqis' minds, 4th I.D. officers caution that that success must be balanced against increasing acts of intimidation and reprisal against U.S. "collaborators" by Baath Party remnants and members of the Saddam Fedayeen. "Iraqis coming forward with information are the most important intelligence sources we have, but retaliation and threats against them is a huge problem," Odierno told Wolfowitz and his staff. Stories abound in 4th I.D. headquarters of such reprisals, such as that of the young woman who objected when the Fedayeen tried to bury weapons in her front yard, and then was forced to watch her husband and son being shot to death. "Those kinds of stories play on the psyche of the Iraqis," Odierno said.
Despite the sharp increase in attacks on U.S. troops in the Sunni Triangle, 4th I.D. officials believe that Baath Party loyalists are fighting a desperate rearguard action in Saddam's final stronghold. "They've largely surrendered the north and south, and are funneling in Fedayeen and foreign fighters from outside in an attempt to defend the heartland," said Odierno. "While they've had some success in scaring the public and monopolizing press coverage, they also know that as long as U.S. troops stay, they cannot win. Each day, we get stronger, our actionable intelligence gets better, and we continue to improve infrastructure and win more Iraqis to our cause. Their only hope is to sway U.S. public and congressional opinion to force us to pull out."
In an effort to limit the most intrusive raids and random searches that alienate Iraqi civilians, 4th I.D. commanders have adjusted their tactics to focus more on targeted raids based on specific intelligence. Since September 10, such raids and operations have led to the successful interdiction of 175 "targets," they say, leading to the arrest of 1,316 enemy detainees, including 46 bomb-makers and six senior Baathist financiers.
By far the most dramatic shift in tactics -- and the one pushed hardest by Wolfowitz in his discussions with 4th I.D. leaders -- was the accelerated training and deployment of Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members, border guards, and police in the Sunni Triangle. To date, the 4th I.D. has recruited more than 12,650 such forces, in an attempt to increasingly put an Iraqi face on security operations. Nationwide, coalition authorities say they have deployed a total of 86,000 Iraqi security troops and police.
Lt. Col. Steve Russell, who trains ICDC forces for the 4th I.D., says the division has been able to weed out bad apples and potential spies by vetting recruits with local and trusted sheiks. Meanwhile, at checkpoints, Iraqi Civil Defense Corps troops often know if a car is stolen or if its driver represents trouble, he says, long before it can pose a danger to U.S. forces. "Because they've lived here all their lives, they notice when things aren't right long before we can," said Russell, whose 4th I.D. comrades have conducted more than 3,050 joint patrols with Iraqi forces just since September 10. "They gather intelligence from the friends and families in the region, and receive intelligence tips, that we simply aren't privy to. They can go into Iraqi homes and mosques without causing a furor or resentment. We can't."
Even in the Sunni Triangle, 4th I.D. trainers have exceeded their recruiting goals for Iraqi forces, and interviews with several of those volunteers suggest that in his hometown of Tikrit, Saddam was feared but not widely loved. "He stole all our oil, and hurt a lot of people around here," said one Iraqi trainee, who identified himself only as "Joseph." "These Fedayeen, all they are doing is fighting for money. That's not being a good Muslim. We are not fighting for money. We're fighting for our country. And one day, after the Americans help us get rid of the rest of Saddam's forces, we'll have our country back."
Before escorting Wolfowitz's entourage to its helicopters, Odierno drove them out to a lonely road crossing near a small power station and a canal bordered by tall grass. On the night of October 18, 1st Lt. David Bernstein of Phoenixville, Pa., and Pfc. John Hart of Bedford, Mass., were killed on this spot, in a coordinated ambush employing a machine gun, rocket-propelled grenades, and small arms.
"When we first got here, the attacks tended to be by small, undisciplined groups who would give up and run at the first indication of a fight," explained Odierno. "More recently, the ambushes directed at us tend to be a little more organized. We can't prove it, but we think that indicates the increased presence of foreign fighters in this region."
As the helicopters carrying the Wolfowitz delegation lifted off from Tikrit, many of its members breathed easier, relieved to leave the Sunni Triangle behind. Every 4th I.D. soldier seemed to have a story about a harrowing firefight or close call with a roadside bomb. Indeed, just hours after the delegation's departure from Tikrit, a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter there was hit by rocket-propelled grenades and forced to crash-land in flames. Thankfully, the next stop for the delegation was Kirkuk, by all accounts a multiethnic success story in the relatively calm Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
Hero's Welcome
"When you first arrived in Iraq, we thought you wore the ring of Solomon!" laughed Sheik Ali Khalid Al Iman, welcoming Wolfowitz to a roundtable discussion with local Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmen religious leaders in Kirkuk, held in the shade of a long pavilion. "Now we see from your behavior and politeness toward Islam that you may even be one of us, because you come hoping to try and help us solve our problems. And as you can see at this table, we are of three ethnic groups, and two strands of Islam, Sunni and Shiite, and there are no problems among us."
The stop in Kirkuk clearly acted as a balm to Wolfowitz's spirits, as he walked to the pavilion through the city's main market street, where he was greeted and mobbed by locals as a returning hero. Although U.S. officials still fear that the region could turn into a flashpoint over the issue of resettlement of Arabs and Kurds displaced during Saddam's rule, on this day, the talk among the imams was of mundane matters. And, for Iraq at least, Kirkuk seemed an oasis of relative harmony.
"I'm very impressed by your spirit of cooperation," Wolfowitz told the religious leaders. "That makes us allies in the most basic sense, because we share the same goals.... I promise that we won't consider our work here finished until people are doing well again, and a new government is established in Iraq."
On that positive note, Wolfowitz left for his final evening in Baghdad. At the dinner reception that night, before the next morning's rocket attack on the Al Rashid Hotel, a reporter asked an Iraqi official if he felt that security was improving in the capital. The official replied that it would be wiser not to travel in the large Chevrolet Suburban SUVs favored by coalition and Iraq Governing Council officials. "Better to travel by taxi so as not to present such an obvious target," he said, "because the Baathists are once again getting more organized in Baghdad. I can feel it."
Goodbye, Baghdad
The Wolfowitz delegation left the coalition's headquarters by helicopter on the night of October 26, no one wanting to chance driving a convoy through the "snipers' alley" leading to Baghdad International Airport. Looking out the open rear door of the giant CH-47 chopper, you could see the rear gunner silhouetted against the bright lights that shimmered over the city and reflected off the dark ribbon of the Tigris. The backwash from the Chinook's turbines wafted through the darkened fuselage like one last, hot breath from Iraq.
That afternoon, Wolfowitz had stopped at a hospital to visit the critically injured from the Al Rashid rocket attack. An Army colonel was killed in the bombing, the most senior U.S. officer to die in Baghdad. After visiting the critically injured, Wolfowitz spoke with reporters.
"The victims of this attack, including our colonel who tragically died, are real heroes," Wolfowitz said. "The criminals who are responsible for their deaths and injuries are the same people who have abused and tortured Iraqis for 35 years. There's a small number of bitter-enders who think they can take this country back by destabilizing it and scaring us away. They are not going to scare us away. We're going to finish this job despite the last, desperate acts of a dying regime of criminals."
It was exactly the right tone to honor the fallen, of course, and from the air at night, you could almost imagine Baghdad as just another capital city with a river running through it. You didn't want to think about the ethnic and religious patchwork that the view obscured, or the demons spawned by 35 years of tyranny. You didn't want to think about all the heroes, American, Iraqi, and coalition alike, who are yet to be sacrificed to the cause. You didn't want to think that the Ramadan offensive had only just begun. Just for a moment, you wanted to see the landscape below the way Paul Wolfowitz sees it -- without doubts or fears of ignoble failure. You wanted to believe.
nationaljournal.com |
