| Submit your comments on this article | |||
| Iraq | |||
| Marines losing the battle for hearts and minds | |||
| 2003-03-25 | |||
| Noted on CNN overnight; long but will generate a lot of buzz. Hopes of a joyful liberation of a grateful Iraq by US and British armies are evaporating fast in the Euphrates valley as a sense of bitterness, germinated from blood spilled and humiliations endured, begins to grow in the hearts of invaded and invader alike. Attempts by US marines to take bridges over the river Euphrates, which passes through Nasiriya, have become bogged down in casualties and troops taken prisoner. The marines, in turn, have responded harshly. Harsh? Sounds like al-Guardian editorializing. We're being remarkably restrained. Out in the plain west of the city, marines shepherding a gigantic series of convoys north towards Baghdad have reacted to ragged sniping with an aggressive series of house searches and arrests. A surgical assistant at the Saddam hospital in Nassiriya, interviewed at a marine check point outside the city, said that on Sunday, half an hour after two dead marines were brought into the hospital, US aircraft dropped what he described as three or four cluster bombs on civilian areas, killing 10 and wounding 200. Mustafa Mohammed Ali said he understood US forces going straight to Baghdad to get rid of Saddam Hussein, but was outraged that they had attacked his city and killed civilians. "I don't want forces to come into the city. They have an objective, they go straight to the target," he said. "There's no room in the Saddam hospital because of the wounded. It's the only hospital in town. When I saw the dead Americans I cheered in my heart. Your name again, sir? If you don't want us in your city, then point out the snipers and Fedayeen to us and we'll take care of it, and leave you alone. "They started bombing Nasiriya on Friday but they didn't bomb civilian areas until yesterday, when these American dead bodies were brought in. We know the difference between a missile and a cluster bomb. A missile shoots to one target whereas a cluster bomb spreads after they release it." Mr Ali said marines now controlled the centre of the city, but that fighting was continuing, with members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party in the forefront. Asked about the much-vaunted fedayeen militia, reported by some sources to be leading the battle, Mr Ali said: "They are children." Other travellers from Nassiriya said they were press-ganged youths who went into battle dressed in black with black scarves wound around their faces and who fight for fear of the execution committees waiting to shoot them if they try to run. So let's find the execution committees. Shouldn't be too hard -- hard boys with guns towards the rear. Watching from behind a barbed wire barrier as hundreds of the marines' ammunition trucks, armoured amphibious vehicles, tankers, tanks and trucks lumbered past through clouds of dust as fine as talcum powder, Mr Ali asked why such a huge army was needed just to catch a single man. This guy is right up there with Michael Moore — and the Guardian reporter. "We don't want Saddam, but we don't want them [the Americans] to stay afterwards," he said. "Like they entered into Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar and didn't leave, they will do here. They are fighting Islam. They're entering under the pretext of targeting Ba'ath, but they won't leave." Light dawns on Mr. Ali. Another Iraqi squatting next to him leaned over, pointed to the convoys and said: "This is better than Saddam's government." The marine convoys, which have been passing northward now almost non-stop for two days, are using a partly-built concrete motorway bridge over the Euphrates which US military engineers have made strong enough to take one tank at a time. At this point the river is a narrow, slow-flowing blue current. Nasiriya is at the western end of the waterlands once occupied by 200,000 Marsh Arabs, the Ma'dan, whose culture, thousands of years old, was all but destroyed by Saddam with terrible loss of life.
Son is probably about 25 or so, right? Add it up: hard boy, rifle, and money. Take your time, Said, we'll wait for you to figure it out. "What did I do?" he said. "This is your freedom that you're talking about? This is my life savings." In 1991, in the wake of Iraq's defeat in the first Gulf war, Mr Yahir was one of those who joined the rebellion against Saddam Hussein. His house was shelled by the dictator's artillery. The US refused to intervene and the rebellion was crushed. "Saddam would have fallen if they had supported us," Mr Yahir said. "I've been so humiliated." We're sorry about that; that's why we're here this time. Under the bridge, Sergeant Michael Sprague was unrepentant. The money, the marines said, was probably destined for terrorist activities — buying a suicide bomber, for instance. "The same people we determined were safe yesterday were found with weapons today," he said. Marine scouts shot two Iraqi men yesterday when they were seen carrying Kalashnikovs. Each man was found to be carrying three magazines, but they never fired at the marines before they were killed. "They were pointing their weapons in an aggressive manner, and they were taken out," said Sgt Sprague. Nathen had been captured the previous day, along with dozens of others, and like them, had been let go, Sgt Sprague said. Then they caught him again with a Kalashnikov in mint condition and 3m dinars. Sarge is a lot quicker than daddy Said was. "So the question I would like to be asked is, if this person already went through EPW [enemy prisoner of war] questioning and was found to be OK, why on earth would he come back? The problem with these people is that you can't believe anything they say." Could he understand the locals' distrust of the US after what happened in 1991? "If it weren't for the liberal press, we might have taken Baghdad last time," said the sergeant. Attaboy, Sarge, tell us. In the end the marines let father and son go on their way with gun and money, accepting that both were for personal use. But Sgt Sprague was none too happy to see them go. The convoys have, after all, come under sporadic mortar attack. "There's a mad mortarman out there," he said. I would have kept the rifle. Have Said sign a receipt.
| |||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #10 Yes, Robert, I realize that the movie was fiction. Many good films are fiction. The point I was trying to make about the ruthless crushing of the Shi'ite rebellion has been made much more eloquently by Michael. |
| Posted by: JDB 2003-03-25 17:12:38 |
| #9 I think Anonon hit it - paunchy. The only people with enough food to become "paunchy" are Sammy's bad-asses. It marks them. |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-03-25 14:57:24 |
| #8 "Since "Three Kings" is one of my favorite war movies, I can understand their ambivilance towards us this time." So the Iraqis are a nation of extremely harsh film critics? Or perhaps they have a severe dislike of the Clooney family? That movie was fiction, ya know. As in "never happened". |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-03-25 13:30:10 |
| #7 Michaels points are very good. I would simply point out that this means we need patience. On the left there are some who are already calling this a quagmire. On the right we are getting murmurings to get tougher, stop worrying about civilian casualties, win and get out. We're not at that point yet - we're not even a week into this thing. Lets see what happens after we've cleaned up Basra, after we've brought food in, after we've taken down a RG division. Hold firm - be resolute. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-03-25 10:58:54 |
| #6 Let's connect a few points. Iraqis I've seen on TV have been polite with a little dancing. (See Safwan) Remember it was the Marine who started tearing down Saddam's portrait, then the local beat S's image with the sole of his sandal. They do, I'm sure, remember '91, so they're not going to jump into our arms until they KNOW they will not be punished by mukhabarat/feyadeen folks. You can be assured that they've been told as well about all the atrocities that Coalition forces would commit. Sounds ridiculous to us, but these folks have been conditioned to think like that. My next point is related to the preceding sentence. These folks have also been traumatized by 30-40 or more years of terror; they have learned not to trust anybody. They see our guys and they're naturally reticent. So let's not get in a tif about why garlands are not being placed around our necks. The Kuwaitis were happy to see us. It's been said here on Rantburg many times before: The big opportunity was '91, but the UN mission was only for the lib of Kuwait. All the more reason to keep the UNSC the hell OUT until we and those Iraqis who want to help have started to rebuild people's minds and not just their infrastructure. Cambodians were probably in shock when Vietnamese came in to get rid of Pol Pot. Remember reaction of Dachau prisoners. Why didn't they look happier? Obvious answer. |
| Posted by: Michael 2003-03-25 10:29:49 |
| #5 Since "Three Kings" is one of my favorite war movies, I can understand their ambivilance towards us this time. That said, Atom Conspiracy is correct. Forget the sensibilities of the Eurocreeps who would leave these folks in slavery and let's just do a hardcore WWII-style de-Nazification program with summary judgements on gunnys like that creepo son. These Ba'athists need to be locked up and tried, not let go in 24 hours to terrorize the local yokels. We'll never be safe unless we administer the proper whupass. |
| Posted by: JDB 2003-03-25 02:48:23 |
| #4 There have been reports of some Iraqi gratitude and jubilation at liberation but the overwhelming picture painted by the media is negative - grumbling, if not outright hostile. Saddam may be a thug but he's their own thug. Why do they have to make things difficult for themselves? I hope there's a change if we can break the back of the Rep. Guard resistance. Perhaps they'll be more relieved when the shots have stopped and relief aid arrives and the reconstruction begins in earnest. The best antidote will be to kill Sammy. Then they'll be less suspicious of reversals or reprisals. In the mean time, I feel bad for the boys that have to watch their backs and wipe out the hornet's nests. Good luck. I hope Baghdad doesn't turn into a big Moghadishu. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-03-25 02:43:56 |
| #3 I have seen some film of Fedayen irregulars. My evaluation: paunchy but fanatic. They appear to be recruiting any idiot who would feel gratitude for being empowered now by a dicator who disempowered people for over two decades. As the front tightens, they will become useless. However, during occupation they would be deadly. Perhaps, at victory Coalition troops should shoot anybody who isn't smiling. |
| Posted by: Anonon 2003-03-25 02:07:12 |
| #2 Any combatant without uniform can be executed on the spot. I can't understand why they allow locals to retain arms during a war. |
| Posted by: TJ Jackson 2003-03-25 01:31:16 |
| #1 Al Guardian, home of Charlotte Raven, temple-whore of the Hate America Cult (their arch-druid, Bob "hit me again" Fisk works for the laughably named Independent). The day after 9-11, Raven wrote of the United States that "a bully with a bloody nose is still a bully." Another Guardian slut, whose name escapes me, wrote that the money being spent to identify the dead from the WTC should be sent to third world countries instead, since the feelings of the rich oppressor class that populated the building did not matter. They are bigots, terror-apologists, and prostitutes, pure and simple. Any trustafarian or Mumia-cong halfwit who is offended by this can report me to the Thought Police. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2003-03-25 01:10:51 |