The latest from Fallujah, courtesy of Sam Bond:
Hey everyone. The peak of summer has come and gone, and we're all relishing in the relative reprieve of 110 degree temperatures – down from late July's brutal mid-120s. My platoon has been very busy supporting "precincting" operations in Fallujah, much like the one I mentioned in my previous email. We have now completed seven such operations, all carried out without major incident, and the results speak for themselves. Suicide bombings and IEDs are at the lowest levels since the initial Fallujah offensive in 2004. We have hired and trained some 1400 local Fallujans as neighborhood watch-standers, of whom several hundred (and more in the weeks to come) will become full-fledged Iraqi Police. The police and Iraqi Army, despite the sectarian differences in their membership, have cooperated effectively in the city, sharing intelligence and working together during combined operations to deny insurgents the ability to carry out effective attacks. Most important in this regard, the improved security has given local residents enough confidence in the police to encourage reporting of insurgent or terrorist activity, and the police have demonstrated the ability to respond swiftly and efficiently to detain criminals, dispose of IEDs, and confiscate illegal weapons caches. The cycle often goes from initial civilian report to completed police action before Marine elements even receive the full information from the police – just the way it should be. Civil affairs projects, reconstruction efforts, and municipal improvements are moving along, not necessarily as quickly as we might like, but without the setbacks and regression that result from a poor security situation. As testament to these developments, it appears that the Iraqi Army brigade that had been stationed in the city to assist with improving security may soon be able to leave the city of Fallujah altogether, and conduct operations in the hinterlands around Fallujah where many insurgents have been forced to flee. That would leave just the police inside the city proper, with small-Marine units serving in advisory and support capacities – directly in line with the stated intent of our mission nationwide. And by the way, 2/6 hasn't suffered a casualty from enemy action – of any kind – since May 18 th, an unheard of span of nearly ninety days.
These developments, I'm happy to say, are not going completely unnoticed in mainstream media – the target of my last group dispatch. I have been following the headlines and some of the editorials regarding the security situation over the last few weeks, and have been somewhat pleased by descriptions of the "improving security situation in al-Anbar province," even if little specific mention is given to Fallujah-proper. From what I can tell, the events in Fallujah are mirrored in most major cities in Western Iraq, most notably in the provincial capital of Ramadi to our west. While terrorist attacks still occasionally grab headlines, the overall level of violence is substantially lower than at comparable times last year, and the interviews, intelligence reports, and other assessments of Iraqi civilians and security personnel largely reflect buy-in and tempered optimism. Yes, there are still sectarian tensions, and yes, there are still allegations of fraud, corruption, and Iranian influence, but these have become the exception – not the rule. From my perspective, there is hesitant buy-in: locals are pleased with the improvement in security, and while their situation is far from perfect, the outlook is surprisingly good.
That said, the obligatory nod to improvement in most stories I've read is couched in a "despite (blank), there is still (blank)" construction. Or: "(E)ven though there are encouraging signs of progress in Western Iraq, the political situation continues to deteriorate." Perhaps I'm overly-sensitive to such pessimistic phrasing of a remarkable improvement. And let me caveat by saying that I too am disappointed by the Iraqi government's inability to capitalize in a meaningful way on these notable achievements. Frankly, I have no more insight or perspective on the developing political situation than any of you – and it doesn't look good. And, yes, on some basic level, I'm upset that Iraqi parliament is taking August off. Perhaps a respite will allow them to come back to the table and hammer out some tangible reforms and legislation. I won't speculate any further on that critical aspect – I'm just as much in the dark, and fully realize that the political solution will determine overall stability or chaos in the country.
What I will say is that those two issues – security and political progress – are not interchangeable or equivalent. To expect political progress in the middle of raging gun battles is foolhardy. People can't concentrate on meaningful political solutions if they are constantly concerned for their own safety. You must have the one before the other, namely security first. I may be oblivious to the rest of the country, and much of al-Anbar as well, but Fallujah is safer. People are getting more optimistic. And it is in this type of environment that true progress can emerge. I have no reason to suspect that the strategy we have adopted in this city – once the symbolic bastion of both terrorist and Saddamist insurgents working in concert – can't work elsewhere. The widely discussed NY Times op-ed giving a fair assessment of this progress, albeit province-wide and not really city-specific, has been hailed as enlightening by some and ignorant by others. I was not surprised at the uproar the article started – it was, after all, a cautiously optimistic piece talking about prospects for success when so many seem to have assumed the foregone conclusion: the war can't be won, so bring it to a close. I was also not surprised to hear that, in the aftermath of a poll that showed the American public had improving outlooks on the war this month as opposed to last, the poll had to be re-taken, and despite identical results, written off as somehow "inaccurate."
Sometime soon, there may be an article – again in the NY Times – that details the specific progress being made in Fallujah. That reporter, I'm told, arrived only after serious prodding by some senior officials, and (rumor warning) I'm told that other media outlets declined the opportunity to come to Fallujah because of wanting to capture stories involving "an infantry battalion in combat." Gunfights, explosions and casualties are the gritty, attention grabbing components that sell papers and magazines. As such, it appears that the very success we've worked so hard to attain is hindering our chances of mainstream media exposure. So, I will be very interested to see both the content of, and reaction to, that story once it is published.
More traditional wars have seen watershed events of a positive nature – the capturing of enemy units, the establishment of beachheads, enemy surrenders etc. This conflict has rarely provided similar decisive moments of a positive nature, other than the killing or capturing of well-known al-Qaeda terrorists. After four years of fighting a counter-insurgency, there are too people monitoring the war who understand this fact: enemy combatants killed are the wrong metrics with which to gauge progress. We are all too familiar with the numbers and events that draw attention to the setbacks and tragedies: car bombs, fatality numbers, video of smoldering HMMWVs and Iraqi emergency response vehicles. Our military and security successes – when we have them - should be measured in numbers that will, probably, never grab enough headlines or hold the reader's interest: lack of attacks, schools re-opening, people shopping comfortably in markets. Because these successes are not easily quantifiable, and rarely represent "Breaking News," they go unnoticed all too often.
In this way, the lack of specific mention of Fallujah in mainstream media is a twisted indicator of that success. Through occasional perusing of internet headlines and sporadic tuning in to cable news, I've only seen Fallujah mentioned once since May, when the highly-inflated and misrepresented suicide attack I lamented in my last email briefly grabbed headlines and then vanished. Since then, the one "Fallujah" story I've seen detailed new information regarding a possible illegal shooting in the 2004 assault. The allegations and speculation surrounding that story were picked up by all of the usual suspects on mainstream media websites. So, amid all the tangible progress that U.S. and Iraqi personnel are achieving in Fallujah in 2007, the city only made the headlines for events that unfolded three years ago (and which may yet be determined to be lawful.) Make no mistake, w hat is happening in this city right now is probably as close to a resounding military success as could be conceivable in the current context: where's that headline? If omission is the highest form of flattery mainstream media cares to bestow on those of us now in Fallujah, then I guess I should be thankful for the resounding silence.
Yesterday during a particularly uneventful stint on radio watch, I picked up an old issue of the Boston Globe from 22 July and began skimming the letters to the editor. Under the title "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow in IRAQ," submitters offered varyingly optimistic, pessimistic, and angry assessments on the current situation. One letter (submitted by "Ed" in Natick, MA) in particular struck a nerve for me. He recounted a recent discussion with an Iraq War Veteran, who was telling a small group of people about his experiences, and lamenting the all too common phenomenon of radio talk show hosts who "carry on (about the situation in Iraq) as if they had been there while they didn't know what was happening." The veteran then calmly defended the work he and his counterparts had done and cited some of their accomplishments. As the conversation broke up, the author asked the veteran: "Are things getting better?" The veteran then shook his head and said "No." The author, then, comes to the following conclusion: "If after four years it's not getting better, do we really want to keep sending them over there?"
I applaud my fellow servicemember for being candid, and doing his part to keep people informed about the situation. I also have no doubts that, wherever that servicemember may have been stationed, he came to an honest (and probably very difficult) conclusion that, no, things are not getting better from his perspective. To be fair, not knowing his rank, billet, and operating area, I can't say for certain if his was a position that afforded the opportunity to get first-hand experience across the country, or in one particular locale. But I suspect the latter. That "Ed" then over-reached in his conclusion, attaching strategic significance to what was likely a local assessment, is ironically just the same folly he tried to circumvent by citing "someone who had been there."
I have detailed some of the accomplishments I have seen within my unit, and with our Iraqi counterparts in Fallujah. I have not personally seen any other part of the country for the last five months and I acknowledge that the prospects for political progress look grim. I have seen a local strategy, here, in this one city, that has improved security in measurable and undeniable ways. Given the time, I believe – but can't say for certain - that same strategy can work elsewhere. We have suffered casualties, but at a level far lower than we could ever have reasonably have hoped. And so, with disclaimers firmly in place, I offer my own answer to Ed's question:
Yes, things are getting better.
Thanks again for all the support and feedback – I'm sorry that I haven't had a chance to reply individually to all of you that have emailed, but please know that I appreciate every one of your messages. Looking forward to seeing you all again soon here in just a few months.
Cheers,
Sam |
