Preparing for the Iraqi Elections: "They Cannot Kill Us All"
I spent the last week in Baghdad. CPT Keegan Cotton traveled with me to show me around and to introduce me to key individuals since I am his replacement. To say the least, Captain Cotton had looked forward to this trip for a long year!
Describing a week like this past week to someone who has never been in Iraq would be like trying to describe a sunset to a blind man. Not that it was beautiful but that it is impossible to describe to someone with no frame of reference. It is impossible for me to articulately describe the situation, the sights, the feelings, the smell, the people, the conversations...the entire experience of it all. It was surreal.
For me this whole deployment is like a strange and bizarre intersection of all of the experiences in my life- military, business, travel, political and non-profit work. It is impossible to discuss or begin to understand one issue in Iraq without some understanding of so many others. Military, politics, economics, religion, history all combine here into a very fluid situation with many moving parts. The learning curve is incredibly steep for me here but it seems like I am able to draw on so many experiences from my past that it seems almost too coincidental- it feels like my destiny to be here in this job- in a weird way.
Before leaving I had a million questions for Keegan- the typical rookie questions. I feel like a second grader...for every question he answers I have two more for him. One of them I have to include here. While packing for the trip I asked him if he carries an extra set of uniforms- we're always looking ways to cut down the weight of our gear. He looked up and a really serious look came across his face "Oh, yeah, ever since what happened to the Chaplain we all carry an extra set of uniforms everywhere we go." I braced myself for the usual sad story and asked "was he covered in blood or something." Keegan smiled "Oh, no- porta-potty accident- most disgusting thing I've ever seen or smelled. He had to keep wearing it. Bring the extra uniform."
We traveled by helicopter down to Baghdad a week ago. Helicopters here are like buses for us. There are huge fleets of helicopters constantly taking off and landing at all of our bases throughout Iraq ferrying in men and supplies. We picked up a ride on a Blackhawk helicopter and flew fast and low down to Baghdad, with two machine gunners scanning their weapons out for insurgents the entire way down, flying low to the earth to avoid any small arms.
Iraqi children would stream out of houses at the sound of our helicopters and wave excitedly at us as we wizzed past at 125 miles per hour and only 50 feet off the ground. Once outside of the urban areas we flew over huge tracts of desert and farming areas. In these more remote farming areas the parents, too, would wave excitedly at us- which I took to be a good sign of their positive feelings for us.
Flying into Baghdad I was amazed one thing: the satellite dishes. Every single house or dwelling- no matter how small or poor- had one. Three years ago they were illegal. Now every person has access to information through a TV. That struck me as interesting. Free flow of information- that's a positive.
The main American effort in Iraq is led out of Baghdad in an area called "The Green Zone". Officially, The Green Zone is now called the "International Zone" but everyone still calls it the Green Zone. It is in the heart of Baghdad and contains many of the embassies and most of our US agencies represented here in Iraq. The most common comparison used to describe the Green Zone is that it is like the "Star Wars" bar in the movie "Star Wars". All kinds of men and women in every type of uniform or clothing, from dozens of nations all here for different reasons with different missions and agendas. It is located in a giant tract of land in central Baghdad, an area the coalition arbitrarily chose to defend as a "safe" area. The area is about the size of the Upper West Side in NYC- it is very large and Iraqi civilians live throughout the area and still live there, probably over 10,000 Iraqis live in the Green Zone. Outside of the "Green Zone"- everything is referred to as the "Red Zone". The names are derived from a simple piece of relatively unknown trivai: back before the insurgency weapons in the area were unloaded: green. Now, whether you're in the Green Zone or in the Red Zone, your weapon is on Red: loaded.
The military provides the majority of the security and the infrastucture here, but virtually every US agency has some type of role here. For someone with limited government or military experience, it is impossible to keep up with how the system works. Just understanding the names of the organizations and how they fit into this- and just on the American side alone- requires considerable effort. The State Department, Commerce Department, Department of Agriculture, UN, and others are just the beginning. The main US organizations that really make a difference would not even be recognized by most Americans: PCO, IRMO, USAID, etc... This confusion does not become any easier when discussing the many Iraqi Ministries and the foreign militaries and governments and NGO (charities) that are here. Everything here is an acronym- and having a conversation with anyone includes at least one acronym per sentence- otherwise you receive a fine...
To add to the confusion just within the US agencies- people go home! They don't come back. The turnover here is very high. Each organization has its own policy. The Army has a one year tour, the Marines seven months, the Air Force four months. Some of the bureaucratic positions are ninety days. So by the time you meet the people who can help they come and go quickly. It is very confusing to understand what outfit has what responsibilities, where the budget comes from, and who they work with...
Many people assigned to Iraq never leave the Green Zone- tens of thousands of them. Many don't even leave their little sub-set within the Green Zone, such as "The Palace" or "The Embassy". These are all self-sufficient little sub-cultures that have their work, their living quarters, their entertainment all in little areas protected by giant concrete with towers with their own security- even within the Green Zone. They are like large prisons located within the Green Zone that they choose to stay inside. There is a stereotypical resentment from those who live, travel and work outside the "Green Zone" against those who make major decisions from the safety of their granite buildings in the rear. These stereotypes develop in every war and this one is no different. Usually these people are called REMFs (Rear Echelon Mother ...s) I always laugh when people get riled up about those things. Most people would be REMFs if they had a choice.
I met with some of the top twenty or so Iraqi business leaders at a luncheon held by the US Department of Commerce. Hearing their opinions was very insightful, both the positive and the negative. One Iraqi businessman who approached me afterward made a real impression on me. He thanked me sincerely many times for coming to Iraq and asked me to thank all of my comrades. I asked what he thought about the elections and the insurgency. His answer was very insightful. He said, "the insurgents offer nothing. There is no future for the insurgency, they offer only death. Now with the US we have hope."
I am a big fan of history, and I hadn't really thought about the situation here in Iraq in such clear terms before. In all other insurgencies that I could think of- Malaysia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, America... each time there was "hope" and at least a reasonable "sales pitch" to help get people on the side of the insurgents. Here it is only to "kill the infidels". It has nothing to do with helping the Iraqi people. In fact- most insurgents are more than willing to kill Iraqis- including children- in order to kill the "infidels". This type of strategy has no hope if the world continues to support the Iraqis. In Vietnam, the battle was over the hearts and minds of the people- and as faulty as communism proved to be- they had a sales pitch for why their system was better for the people and they won them over. Most who chose communism truly believed it was going to be better for the people. Here no one really thinks the insurgents have anything to offer the people of Iraq.
I asked how long things could go on like this within Iraq in his opinion. He said that "Iraqis are used to death, now they finally have hope. We just need the US to stick with us. "
Again, I had made the mistake of looking at this situation through the American lens- not from the viewpoint of the Iraqis. I've put a lot of thought into his insights and it makes a lot of sense to me now. If you look at the history of Iraq in the last twenty five years they have become used to dying on a massive scale. The Iraqis have been witness to nearly a million of their own people being killed. Starting in 1981, Saddam started an eight year war with Iran cost over 400,000 Iraqi lives. Within Iraq itself Saddam is said to have killed over 300,000 himself. In 1990-91 Iraq lost 50,000 lives in the invasion of Kuwait and the liberation by coalition forces. Again, Saddam was willing to fight the coalition in 2003 and cost untold lives. These wars and internal genocide alone cost the Iraqis at least 800,000 dead.
Numbers are useless unless you can relate to them. Iraq's population is less than 10% of the US population (291 million vs 24 million). Because the US population is so large, in order for an American to feel the pain of the Iraqis losing 800,000 people, it would be like the US losing ten times that- or eight million American people to war and at the hands of our own police death squads! Again, that number really is so large it is hard for Americans to put that in perspective. We lost less than 1% of that in Vietnam. The US had 58,000 killed in Vietnam- and look at the impact that those losses had on the American psyche. Those losses changed America and the impact of that war is still felt today by the American people and reflected in our policies. Imagine if they had been 100 times that many killed in action!
Prior to this insurgency, the Iraqi population had been bled white by Saddam and his policies- losing over 4% (800,000) of their population to war and violence. They are used to death much more than the American public. These are scary times. Iraqis are now seeing death in a different way- much more publicly and much more randomly, but yet they now have hope.
The new Iraqi government has started a great advertising campaign throughout Iraq on TV and radio. In one TV commercial, and old man looks down an alley and there are three men with ski masks looking back at him brandishing AK-47s. He stands there, and is joined at his side by a little girl to his left. Then a woman comes and stands by his right. Others join by his side and soon there are dozens and then hundreds of them. They start to walk forward towards the insurgents. The commercial finishes by saying "together we are not afraid". Other commercials inspire Iraqi pride by speaking of "One Iraq". They are apparently very effective. They are on the air all the time and even on Al Jezeera.
Before I said good-bye to my new Iraqi friend, I asked him if he was going to vote. He beemed a big smile and said proudly: "Yes!" I asked if he thought that there would be violence on election day and what affect it would have on the election. His answer was "They cannot kill us all."
Describing a week like this past week to someone who has never been in Iraq would be like trying to describe a sunset to a blind man. Not that it was beautiful but that it is impossible to describe to someone with no frame of reference. It is impossible for me to articulately describe the situation, the sights, the feelings, the smell, the people, the conversations...the entire experience of it all. It was surreal.
For me this whole deployment is like a strange and bizarre intersection of all of the experiences in my life- military, business, travel, political and non-profit work. It is impossible to discuss or begin to understand one issue in Iraq without some understanding of so many others. Military, politics, economics, religion, history all combine here into a very fluid situation with many moving parts. The learning curve is incredibly steep for me here but it seems like I am able to draw on so many experiences from my past that it seems almost too coincidental- it feels like my destiny to be here in this job- in a weird way.
Before leaving I had a million questions for Keegan- the typical rookie questions. I feel like a second grader...for every question he answers I have two more for him. One of them I have to include here. While packing for the trip I asked him if he carries an extra set of uniforms- we're always looking ways to cut down the weight of our gear. He looked up and a really serious look came across his face "Oh, yeah, ever since what happened to the Chaplain we all carry an extra set of uniforms everywhere we go." I braced myself for the usual sad story and asked "was he covered in blood or something." Keegan smiled "Oh, no- porta-potty accident- most disgusting thing I've ever seen or smelled. He had to keep wearing it. Bring the extra uniform."
We traveled by helicopter down to Baghdad a week ago. Helicopters here are like buses for us. There are huge fleets of helicopters constantly taking off and landing at all of our bases throughout Iraq ferrying in men and supplies. We picked up a ride on a Blackhawk helicopter and flew fast and low down to Baghdad, with two machine gunners scanning their weapons out for insurgents the entire way down, flying low to the earth to avoid any small arms.
Iraqi children would stream out of houses at the sound of our helicopters and wave excitedly at us as we wizzed past at 125 miles per hour and only 50 feet off the ground. Once outside of the urban areas we flew over huge tracts of desert and farming areas. In these more remote farming areas the parents, too, would wave excitedly at us- which I took to be a good sign of their positive feelings for us.
Flying into Baghdad I was amazed one thing: the satellite dishes. Every single house or dwelling- no matter how small or poor- had one. Three years ago they were illegal. Now every person has access to information through a TV. That struck me as interesting. Free flow of information- that's a positive.
The main American effort in Iraq is led out of Baghdad in an area called "The Green Zone". Officially, The Green Zone is now called the "International Zone" but everyone still calls it the Green Zone. It is in the heart of Baghdad and contains many of the embassies and most of our US agencies represented here in Iraq. The most common comparison used to describe the Green Zone is that it is like the "Star Wars" bar in the movie "Star Wars". All kinds of men and women in every type of uniform or clothing, from dozens of nations all here for different reasons with different missions and agendas. It is located in a giant tract of land in central Baghdad, an area the coalition arbitrarily chose to defend as a "safe" area. The area is about the size of the Upper West Side in NYC- it is very large and Iraqi civilians live throughout the area and still live there, probably over 10,000 Iraqis live in the Green Zone. Outside of the "Green Zone"- everything is referred to as the "Red Zone". The names are derived from a simple piece of relatively unknown trivai: back before the insurgency weapons in the area were unloaded: green. Now, whether you're in the Green Zone or in the Red Zone, your weapon is on Red: loaded.
The military provides the majority of the security and the infrastucture here, but virtually every US agency has some type of role here. For someone with limited government or military experience, it is impossible to keep up with how the system works. Just understanding the names of the organizations and how they fit into this- and just on the American side alone- requires considerable effort. The State Department, Commerce Department, Department of Agriculture, UN, and others are just the beginning. The main US organizations that really make a difference would not even be recognized by most Americans: PCO, IRMO, USAID, etc... This confusion does not become any easier when discussing the many Iraqi Ministries and the foreign militaries and governments and NGO (charities) that are here. Everything here is an acronym- and having a conversation with anyone includes at least one acronym per sentence- otherwise you receive a fine...
To add to the confusion just within the US agencies- people go home! They don't come back. The turnover here is very high. Each organization has its own policy. The Army has a one year tour, the Marines seven months, the Air Force four months. Some of the bureaucratic positions are ninety days. So by the time you meet the people who can help they come and go quickly. It is very confusing to understand what outfit has what responsibilities, where the budget comes from, and who they work with...
Many people assigned to Iraq never leave the Green Zone- tens of thousands of them. Many don't even leave their little sub-set within the Green Zone, such as "The Palace" or "The Embassy". These are all self-sufficient little sub-cultures that have their work, their living quarters, their entertainment all in little areas protected by giant concrete with towers with their own security- even within the Green Zone. They are like large prisons located within the Green Zone that they choose to stay inside. There is a stereotypical resentment from those who live, travel and work outside the "Green Zone" against those who make major decisions from the safety of their granite buildings in the rear. These stereotypes develop in every war and this one is no different. Usually these people are called REMFs (Rear Echelon Mother ...s) I always laugh when people get riled up about those things. Most people would be REMFs if they had a choice.
I met with some of the top twenty or so Iraqi business leaders at a luncheon held by the US Department of Commerce. Hearing their opinions was very insightful, both the positive and the negative. One Iraqi businessman who approached me afterward made a real impression on me. He thanked me sincerely many times for coming to Iraq and asked me to thank all of my comrades. I asked what he thought about the elections and the insurgency. His answer was very insightful. He said, "the insurgents offer nothing. There is no future for the insurgency, they offer only death. Now with the US we have hope."
I am a big fan of history, and I hadn't really thought about the situation here in Iraq in such clear terms before. In all other insurgencies that I could think of- Malaysia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, America... each time there was "hope" and at least a reasonable "sales pitch" to help get people on the side of the insurgents. Here it is only to "kill the infidels". It has nothing to do with helping the Iraqi people. In fact- most insurgents are more than willing to kill Iraqis- including children- in order to kill the "infidels". This type of strategy has no hope if the world continues to support the Iraqis. In Vietnam, the battle was over the hearts and minds of the people- and as faulty as communism proved to be- they had a sales pitch for why their system was better for the people and they won them over. Most who chose communism truly believed it was going to be better for the people. Here no one really thinks the insurgents have anything to offer the people of Iraq.
I asked how long things could go on like this within Iraq in his opinion. He said that "Iraqis are used to death, now they finally have hope. We just need the US to stick with us. "
Again, I had made the mistake of looking at this situation through the American lens- not from the viewpoint of the Iraqis. I've put a lot of thought into his insights and it makes a lot of sense to me now. If you look at the history of Iraq in the last twenty five years they have become used to dying on a massive scale. The Iraqis have been witness to nearly a million of their own people being killed. Starting in 1981, Saddam started an eight year war with Iran cost over 400,000 Iraqi lives. Within Iraq itself Saddam is said to have killed over 300,000 himself. In 1990-91 Iraq lost 50,000 lives in the invasion of Kuwait and the liberation by coalition forces. Again, Saddam was willing to fight the coalition in 2003 and cost untold lives. These wars and internal genocide alone cost the Iraqis at least 800,000 dead.
Numbers are useless unless you can relate to them. Iraq's population is less than 10% of the US population (291 million vs 24 million). Because the US population is so large, in order for an American to feel the pain of the Iraqis losing 800,000 people, it would be like the US losing ten times that- or eight million American people to war and at the hands of our own police death squads! Again, that number really is so large it is hard for Americans to put that in perspective. We lost less than 1% of that in Vietnam. The US had 58,000 killed in Vietnam- and look at the impact that those losses had on the American psyche. Those losses changed America and the impact of that war is still felt today by the American people and reflected in our policies. Imagine if they had been 100 times that many killed in action!
Prior to this insurgency, the Iraqi population had been bled white by Saddam and his policies- losing over 4% (800,000) of their population to war and violence. They are used to death much more than the American public. These are scary times. Iraqis are now seeing death in a different way- much more publicly and much more randomly, but yet they now have hope.
The new Iraqi government has started a great advertising campaign throughout Iraq on TV and radio. In one TV commercial, and old man looks down an alley and there are three men with ski masks looking back at him brandishing AK-47s. He stands there, and is joined at his side by a little girl to his left. Then a woman comes and stands by his right. Others join by his side and soon there are dozens and then hundreds of them. They start to walk forward towards the insurgents. The commercial finishes by saying "together we are not afraid". Other commercials inspire Iraqi pride by speaking of "One Iraq". They are apparently very effective. They are on the air all the time and even on Al Jezeera.
Before I said good-bye to my new Iraqi friend, I asked him if he was going to vote. He beemed a big smile and said proudly: "Yes!" I asked if he thought that there would be violence on election day and what affect it would have on the election. His answer was "They cannot kill us all."
posted by Dan at 2:46 AM
<< Home