(From the diaries -- Plutonium Page. This was posted last night and slipped down the list, unnoticed.)
I didn't think it was possible to depress me more about Iraq. I was wrong.
An hour before dawn, the sky still clouded by a dust storm, the soldiers of the Iraqi army's Charlie Company began their mission with a ballad to ousted president Saddam Hussein. "We have lived in humiliation since you left," one sang in Arabic, out of earshot of his U.S. counterparts. "We had hoped to spend our life with you."
Now keep in mind, these are the Iraqis supposedly on OUR side. If that's the sentiment of the people who AREN'T shooting at our boys and girls, one can only imagine what the Iraqis who actually hate our military forces there feel.
And it only gets worse from there.
The U.S. military had billed the mission as pivotal in the Iraqis' progress as a fighting force but had kept the destination and objectives secret out of fear the Iraqis would leak the information to insurgents.
And we're off to a great start in utter failure. The Iraqis are supposed to participate, but because they can't be trusted nobody bothers to tell them what to expect. And Republicans WONDER why we keep telling them this isn't going to work.
Young Iraqi soldiers, ill-equipped and drawn from a disenchanted Sunni Arab minority,
say they are not even sure what they are fighting for. They complain bitterly that their American mentors don't respect them.
In fact, the Americans don't: Frustrated U.S. soldiers question the Iraqis' courage, discipline and dedication and wonder whether they will ever be able to fight on their own, much less reach the U.S. military's goal of operating independently by the fall.
"I know the party line. You know, the
Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, five-star generals, four-star generals,
President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld: The Iraqis will be ready in whatever time period," said 1st Lt. Kenrick Cato, 34, of Long Island, N.Y., the executive officer of McGovern's company, who sold his share in a database firm to join the military full time after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "But from the ground, I can say with certainty they won't be ready before I leave. And I know I'll be back in Iraq, probably in three or four years. And I don't think they'll be ready then."
"We don't want to take responsibility; we don't want it," said Amar Mana, 27, an Iraqi private whose forehead was grazed by a bullet during an insurgent attack in November. "Here, no way. The way the situation is, we wouldn't be ready to take responsibility for a thousand years."
Now who are you going to believe?
The official Republican line? Or your lying eyes and ears?
U.S. officers said the Iraqis had been particularly instrumental in obtaining intelligence that led to the detention of several suspected insurgent leaders in the region. They said it was unfair to evaluate the Iraqi forces by U.S. standards.
"We're not trying to make the 82nd Airborne here," Taluto said.
No, you're just trying to REPLACE them with an Iraqi unit that supposedly would be just as effective...only they're not.
And with good reason.
Last week, U.S soldiers from 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, and Iraqis from 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, clambered into their vehicles to patrol the streets of Baiji.
The Americans drove fully enclosed armored Humvees, the Iraqis open-backed Humvees with benches, the sides of which were protected by plating the equivalent of a flak jacket. The Americans were part of 1st Battalion, 103rd Armor Regiment of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
As an American reporter climbed in with the Iraqis, the U.S. soldiers watched in bemused horror.
"You might be riding home alone," one soldier said to the other reporter.
"Is he riding in the back of that?" asked another. "I'll be over here praying."
These are the people supposed to be on their side, and these troops are treating them worse then dogs. If you treat soldiers with that kind of contempt for their lives, OF COURSE they aren't going to be willing to give you any worthwhile effort. Why should they when the only reward they get is a sniper or IED?
The (Iraqi) men spoke of the insurgents with a hint of awe, saying the fighters were willing to die and outgunned them with rocket-propelled grenades and, more fearsome, car bombs. Zwayid, a father of three, looked in disgust at his own AK-47 assault rifle, with a green shoelace for a strap.
"We fire 10 bullets and it falls apart," he said. Zwayid patted a heavy machine gun mounted in the bed of the Humvee. "This jams," he said. "Are these the weapons worthy of a soldier?" He and others said it was a sign of the Americans' lack of confidence in them.
"We trust the Americans. We go everywhere with them, we do what they ask," he said. "But they don't trust us."
And that is the fundamental failure of this enterprise. The American forces don't trust the Iraqis, and without something as simple as that its impossible to accomplish anything. The Iraqis brave enough or desperate enough to join the new Iraq military are fighting with both hands effectively tied behind their backs, blindfolded, and with a big neon sign on their foreheads.
McGovern added that the Iraqis had "come a long way in a very short period of time" and predicted they would ultimately succeed. But he said the effort was still in its infancy.
"We like to refer to the Iraqi army as preschoolers with guns," he said.
So in another 10-15 years they'll be called teenagers with guns instead. What a lovely thought! Maybe it would help if you MORONS would treat them as ADULTS instead of constantly insulting them and belittling them. And they wonder why fewer and fewer Iraqis like them.
"Get down and clear your own weapon!" Cpl. William Kozlowski shouted to Zwayid in English.
Zwayid answered in Arabic. "That's my weapon," he explained, pointing to his friend.
"Corporal, you're a leader!" Kozlowski shouted back. "Take charge!"
Zwayid smiled at him. "What's he saying to me?" he whispered.
A couple months ago I did a diary about how the lack of good translators would come back to haunt the US military in Iraq. I hate being right.
"They've come a long way in a short period of time," Cato, the Alpha Company executive officer, said of the Iraqi soldiers. "When we first got here, soldiers were going to sleep on the objective. Soldiers were selling their weapons when they went out on patrol. I was on missions when soldiers would get tired, and they would just start dragging their weapons or using them as walking sticks."
The men are housed at what they call simply "the base," a place as sparse as the name. Most of the Iraqis sleep in two tents and a shed with a concrete floor and corrugated tin roof that is bereft of walls. Some have cots; others sleep on cardboard or pieces of plywood stacked with tattered and torn blankets. The air conditioners are broken. There is no electricity.
Drinking water comes from a sun-soaked camouflage tanker whose meager faucet also provides water for bathing.
"This is the shower of the National Guard, Baiji Division," said Tala Izba, 23, a corporal, as others laughed.
"Mines, car bombs and our duties, and then we have to come back to this?" said another soldier, Kamil Khalaf.
Come a long way must translate from military speak to "From disgraceful to just plain hopeless".
Contrast this to how the Guerillas are supplied and its sorta easy to figure out why the other side is winning.