"They're just going to keep killing us until we leave"

Padraig18

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Fri Dec-19-03 06:37 AM
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"They're just going to keep killing us until we leave"

Area GI: "They're just going to keep killing us until we leave"

Coles County Leader
December 19, 2003

He got off the plane Monday afternoon - Mosul to Kuwait to Germany to Atlanta to Dallas to Indianapolis, where he was met by his family - two days traveling for 15 days at home. He was still wearing a faded desert-tan combat uniform and a battered pair of boots, still covered with the dust of the Iraqi desert. He asked us not to use his name, a request we have decided to honor.

He slept for most of the next two days, getting up only long enough to eat and wander dazed around the house. "They told us we wouldn't know where we were for a while," he said. "I didn't think it would affect me, but it is."

There is a new wariness. He moves slowly and deliberately, uncertain of once familiar things: a refrigerator, a newspaper, his baby sister. The newspaper says three of his fellow Screaming Eagles were killed in Mosul the day before, two shot dead while guarding a gas station, the third when his Humvee rolled past a roadside bomb. He will be back in Mosul by Christmas. No wonder he is wary.

Even the air he breathes is unfamiliar. "It's just nasty and dirty there," he said. "There's a bunch of dead animals - dead dogs, dead cows, dead donkeys - on the roadsides. There's sewage in the cities and the towns. There's oil fires, fires nonstop. There's just trash everywhere. Everywhere. It's like a giant landfill. There's chickens and donkeys in the towns, walking around, dumping wherever they want. Stagnant water all over. All of it. It's just a bad smell that you can never escape."

We load a CD that the battalion sent home, "The Road to Mosul," the story of his brigade's role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. They rolled out of Kuwait last March, psy-ops loudspeakers booming rock music across the desert: Drowning Pool's "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" and Guns 'n Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle." They rolled north, securing the city of Najaf, ancient Babylon, and shelling the headquarters of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen.

"The Fedayeen would go into people's houses, tell the guys they'd kill their families if they didn't attack us," he said. "They'd come at us in waves, right at the machine guns, and we'd wax them. The thing was, we didn't get shot at much then. A little bit on the convoys, a little bit when we rolled through Baghdad."
They didn't know it then, but those were the good old days. There's no rock music score to the occupation of Mosul, nobody making gung-ho videos.

Instead, there are improvised explosive devices along the roads and steel cable strung across roads in an attempt to decapitate passing soldiers. Telephone poles are dropped to create ambush sites. The sudden pop-pop-pop of AK-47 fire.

"The only good thing is, when we're attacked, we usually kill the guys who do it," he said. "They may eventually run out of guys to attack us, but I doubt it. It seems like for every one you kill, three or four take his place"

There are no jubilant Iraqis welcoming their liberators. "The only people who are happy to see you are the people who are getting stuff from us," he said. "The mayor is happy, but we're propping him up. The sheiks are happy, because they're getting schools. You hand people money, they're happy, but you don't know what'll happen when you turn your back."

"The average Iraqi, though, sees things getting worse. They're sick of us and we're sick of them, because we don't know who the good guys are, and neither do they. It's killing morale."

The rules of engagement have changed. "Officially," he said, "it's 'Don't fire unless you're fired upon. We're here to win hearts and minds. We're all a bunch of buddies. But down in the trenches where my buddies and I are, the word is, 'If you're scared, kill it. If you feel threatened, kill it. If you just don't know, kill it.' I'm so disgusted I've considered going AWOL or deserting, and I'd say I'm in the majority of soldiers over there in my feelings.' "

"Some of our guys are being overly aggressive. What it is now is, 'It's too late in the ballgame. I'm going home. If I kill him by mistake, it's too bad, but I'm going home if I live.' We throw candy at the kids, but they'll turn around and throw rocks at us. Little kids, teenagers, they flip us the finger or run a finger across their throats or pretend they've got guns. That breaks my heart, because I love kids, and they've been the victims of this war more than anyone else. Does anyone in the White House even care what's going on any more?", he asked.

"I don't know who's going to fix it. The Iraqi police are a joke. Most of them are pretty good guys, but they don't trust each other, and they damn sure don't trust us. They need Arabs soldiers to do what we're doing, but the Iraqis wouldn't trust them, either. They're just going to keep killing us until we leave."

I was stunned to read this in one of our local weekly newspapers, because the paper has generally been very supportive of the Iraq War; on reflection, however, I am less surprised. Although conservative, the paper is not right-wing. Yet another sign of growing discontent in 'America's Heartland', IMO.

Note to Moderators: Please indulge the full re-print; the paper is not available in an online edition. Thanks! :hi: