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GIs Fare Well in Iraq’s Third Largest City
We knew this, but a good story to see on the AP wire. EFL.
The 101st Airborne Division fought its way to northern Iraq during the invasion and seized Mosul encountering little more resistance than scattered small arms fire. Since then, the troops’ exploits in Iraq’s third largest city - once home to the northern headquarters of Saddam’s Hussein’s army - have been a relative success story in the often chaotic and stuttering U.S. occupation of the country. The soldiers here know it. The Iraqis do too, by and large.

The troops can claim the coalition’s biggest prizes so far in the hunt for members of Saddam’s regime - the July 22 capture of the dictator’s sons Odai and Qusai during a six-hour firefight at a palatial villa in this city. And aside from the gunfight, they have made headway helping Iraqis move forward - Mosul boasts a city council that was billed as Iraq’s first postwar elected body. Soldiers say residents sometimes flip "them the bird" and gunshots often ring out, but mostly they’re celebratory shots, not aimed at U.S. troops. In other parts of the country, particularly the so-called Sunni Triangle south of Mosul, Americans are being attacked on an almost daily basis. The semblance of stability has not gone unnoticed by some Iraqis in Mosul, a prewar stronghold for Saddam supporters. "We are much better off than the people in Baghdad. Other than the problem of electricity, everything is fine here. We go out at 2 a.m. and are not afraid," said 60-year-old Nohad al-Issa. Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of the 101st Airborne Division, said Mosul is gifted with an "educated entrepreneurial citizenry that has known a good economy. It’s also blessed with ample water, has oil and "fantastic farmland."
Petraeus was a great choice for this job. He’s done almost everything right.
The city, which lies 240 miles north of Baghdad on the banks of the Tigris River, is part of the country’s breadbasket and the areas to the south are dominated by rolling fields of wheat and barley. About two-thirds of its people are Arab, with Kurds as the largest minority. There is also a significant Assyrian Christian minority. Petraeus hails the May election of the city council as his biggest achievement and claims to have "enabled" Iraqis, through reconstruction projects, "advice and encouragement." Using funds seized from Saddam’s regime, U.S. troops have spent more than $15 million in Nineveh province, rebuilding, renovating or refurbishing hundreds of clinics, hospitals, schools, and a music hall; getting water running, digging wells in dried up villages, fixing roads and installing a 911 emergency medical telephone line. They’ve even set up Internet cafes and sponsored 160 soccer teams ahead of the start of the new season this month. Also in the works is a plan to create 3,500 jobs by granting loans to people wanting to set up small businesses.

One of the biggest complaints Iraqis throughout the country have with coalition forces is the lack of electricity, and although Mosul has not been spared 12-hour power cuts, work is being done to improve the situation. The Army is pumping oil at Kisik refinery and overseeing a power-for-oil agreement with neighboring Syria whereby Damascus provides Mosul with 50 megawatts of electricity in return for 16,000 barrels of oil per day. But the success stories don’t mean everyone is happy. In Bab al-Baydh, a poor neighborhood in Mosul, some men complained bitterly that they couldn’t find work. "We haven’t seen any change. ... There may be freedom, but nothing else," said Hamed Mahmoud, a 33-year-old jobless man.
So get off yer lazy butts. There’s lots to do.
Others were more damning. "I can’t believe an infidel would ever help a Muslim," said Saad, who was too embarrassed refused to give his second name. But others in Mosul took a more neutral line. They don’t feel any great love for their occupiers, but want to get on with their lives. "Who likes occupation? " questioned Ghanim al-Basso, governor of Nineveh province. "But we don’t want them to leave before they repair what they destroyed or what was destroyed. When this is done, we will tell them ’May God be with you.’" And the ambivalence of Mosul’s residents toward the U.S. troops has meant the soldiers remain wary. "It’s just the feeling you get when driving through town and the way they stare at you ... the uneasy look, as if to say, ’we don’t want you here, why are you here’ kind of stare," said Staff Sgt. Gary Trout, 35, from Altoona, Penn.
A look practiced for about 14 centuries, so don’t feel bad, Sarge.
And the troops know the success rate has to continue if they are to move forward. "We are in a race to win over the people. What have you and your element done today to contribute to victory?" reads a note posted at their base inside one of Saddam’s former palace.
Finish the job and come home, boys.
Posted by: Steve White 2003-09-05
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=18340