Iraq War News

Support Our Troops
US troops groan in Iraq as former commander predicts long haul

RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) Jul 11, 2003
US troops were grumbling Friday at retired General Tommy Franks' prediction that soldiers could be stationed on Iraq's boiling desert plains for up to four years.
To hear the news just as suspected supporters of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime begin to ratchet up their attacks against US positions in this and other towns was dampening the spirits of the Americans.

Franks' address to Congress Thursday quashed hopes for a quick exit from the country, as he said the United States would "be involved in Iraq in the future."

"Whether that means two years or four years, I don't know," said Franks, a former head of the US Central Command who led the war that ousted Saddam Hussein in April.

"That kind of sinks morale a little bit," said one young female private who was guarding the US base on the western edge of Ramadi, a town in a Sunni Muslim belt west of Baghdad where violence against coalition troops -- and the Iraqis who work with them -- has flared into a daily danger.

"I don't wanna be out here for that long," she told AFP from her gunner's perch atop an M-113 armoured personnel carrier.

Most of the roughly 150,000 US troops currently in Iraq, engaged in everything from policing to searching for weapons of mass destruction, know their tour of duty will likely stretch between six months and a year.

Captain Michael Calvert stressed that the 1,000 or so troops of the Third Air Cavalry Regiment based around Ramadi were realistic about the length of their tour of duty.

"I think most of us feel this will turn into a long-term operation," he said inside the US base, a converted palace once owned by Saddam.

But since US President George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq on May 1, occupation forces have faced a wave of attacks that have killed 31 American troops and six British soldiers.

Still, Private Andrea Dominique Allen, 18, managed to keep her cool about the surging violence, after only two months in the country.

"Frankly, I don't think I'm as scared as I should be," said the Floridian of the mortars which have barrelled into the Ramadi base on nine of the last 10 days.

When asked if General Franks' assessment was a morale-sapper she turned more somber.

"It is a little bit," she said, "but if I have to stay, I have to stay."

Rumours have raced like wildfire through Allen's unit that they will be rotated out of Iraq by September, but like many coalition troops grappling with keeping the peace in Iraq, she says she has no idea when they're going home.

One of those who has put his civilian life on hold is Captain Mark Alacqua of the Third Infantry Division's Bravo detachment, stationed in nearby Fallujah, another flashpoint town west of Baghdad.

He hasn't seen his kids since January, he said, thumbing through his wallet photos of his two-year-old and one-year-old sons.

The Long Island lawyer called up to active duty from the reserves, and who has since spent five months away from his wife and kids, said he had not expected to be gone from his law practice so long.

"My business partner hates me more than my wife right now," he joked.

Private J.R. Gonzalez, a 24-year-old from Texas serving in Baghdad with the 16th battalion of the First Armored Division, said he misses home but refused to ponder a potential departure date.

"You don't know when you're leaving until you're on the plane."

Democratic W.House Hopefuls Attack Bush Over Iraq: "Democratic presidential hopefulsSen. Joseph Lieberman and former Vermont Gov. Howard Deandemanded investigations on Friday into false intelligence givento the president over Iraq's nuclear weapons. (Reuters)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Spain approves 1,300-strong force for Iraq: "The Spanish government approved the deployment of 1,300 military personnel to join a Polish-led force that will take over security in southern Iraq, Defence Minister Federico Trillo said. (AFP)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Second funeral held for Iraq war soldier: "The second funeral has taken place of a British soldier who died in Iraq at the start of the war."

In Ananova: War In Iraq



Private aid groups also under attack in IraqWar.info



Rebuilding Iraqi jails in IraqWar.info



COALITION AND IRAQI POLICE WORK TO MAKE IRAQ SECURE (JULY 11, 2003) in CENTCOM: News Release



US tank fires round for first time since end of war: "A US tank fired a shell for the first time since the end of the US war on Iraq in clashes overnight with guerrilla fighters in the flashpoint town of Ramadi 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, a military spokesman said. (AFP)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



2 More Troops Die In Iraq: "From Newsday :

The U.S. military reported yesterday that two more soldiers had been killed in separate attacks and the commander of American ground forces here said he was not surprised by what seemed to be escalated opposition to occupation forces.
The commander, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said attacks have gotten bigger and more sophisticated in recent weeks - but he said the overall security situation is not notably changed.

"

In Command Post: Irak

Support Our Troops

NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 504-03
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jul 11, 2003
(703)697-5131(media)
(703)428-0711(public/industry)

DoD, DoL Partner to Support Military Families

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao signed
a memorandum of understanding (MOU) today at a ceremony at the Pentagon to promote
cooperative efforts between the departments to improve the quality of life of
servicemembers and their families, and to contribute to the quality of the American
labor force.



The MOU provides a framework for a broad range of continuing efforts between the
departments including three important areas: connections to the job markets in
America s communities, involvement with labor laws that affect reemployment (i.e.,
training, unemployment compensation), and interest in states reciprocal licensing
and certification requirements needed to qualify for employment.



All of our people who serve are volunteers and we owe them a great debt of
gratitude, said Rumsfeld. If there s anything we can do to improve their lives and
create a circumstance that s better for them is just enormously important &. and
this is one of them.



The agreement will help military spouses establish careers despite having to
transition among job markets due to frequent relocations. It will also strengthen
the DoL s efforts to support returning reservists job searches, employ America s
Job Bank to recruit for military jobs, expand DoL s employment infra-structure to
support military spouse employment, and encourage corporate America to hire
returning reservists and military spouses.



We are so proud of our men and women in uniform," said Chao. "Now it's our turn to
support them by providing separating servicemembers, military spouses and veterans
with the help they need to succeed in the workforce. We are committed to connecting
these men and women with employers eager to tap their dedication, talent and skills."



Examples of the collaboration between DoD and DoL include: establishing One Stop
Career Centers near major military installations (Norfolk, Va.; San Diego, Calif.;
Fort Campbell, Ky.), expanding opportunities for reservists and military spouses to
access training and education grants, exploring options with states to offer
unemployment compensation to military spouses, working across states to improve
reciprocity for state certifications and licensing requirements to reduce employment
lags, and targeting unemployment by establishing a military spouse unemployment
index.



For further information please contact Lt. Col. Cynthia Colin, at (703) 697-5134 or
Elissa Pruett, (202) 693-4681.

[Web Version: http://www.dod.mil/releases/2003/nr20030711-0192.html]

-- News Releases: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases
-- DoD News: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/dodnews.html
-- Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/dodnews.html#e-mail
-- Today in DoD: http://www.defenselink.mil/today

Support Our Troops
A Microcosm of a New Disorder in Iraq
By Hector Tobar, Times Staff Writer

(2003-07-11) BAGHDAD--The boy and his donkey wait. Behind them, a man driving a forklift waits too. Farther back, two Humvees with a platoon of tense American soldiers also wait. Next in line are three red buses filled with singing Iraqi communists and a blue van with a black coffin on top and a group of wailing women inside. Everyone waits, though some wait more patiently than others.
The donkey has blinders on. Perhaps it is resigned to its fate: hauling a cart in 115-degree heat, stuck in another jam along with dozens, if not hundreds, of angry truck and taxi drivers and other miscellaneous commuters unlucky enough to plan a trip through the intersection of Rashid Camp Street and Saddam's Great Bridge Road.

The three-lane-by-two-lane convergence of the streets is a boiling jigsaw puzzle of overheated cars. Men in dishdasha robes or sweat-stained shirts gesture frantically, walking among the stationary vehicles pointed in opposite directions, raising their arms in exasperation, trying to sort it all out.

"Back!" "Stop!" "Go!" "No!" "What are you doing?"

All of the volunteer traffic cops are themselves stranded drivers: They've gotten out of their cars and walked to the intersection to try to clear a path through the mess.

"Why do you bother yourself? There is no hope," a driver in a Mercedes tells one of the volunteers, who is yelling, "Wait!" in fervent Arabic.

This is what it means to drive in Baghdad at peak traffic hours --roughly 10 in the morning till 2 in the afternoon, when people try to go home to sleep off the heat and the craziness of their occupied city.

On Permanent Break

There are a few traffic officers in Baghdad, but they have a tendency to abandon their posts and seek shelter from the sun at nearby soft drink stands. People driving down Rashid Camp Street on their way across Saddam's Great Bridge Road are on their own. Getting through this one intersection can become a 30-minute crawl.

It wasn't always this way.

"That traffic light, it used to work," says Ishmail Almosuay, a clerk at a machine parts store overlooking the intersection. "People used to respect the signal. If they didn't, they could be arrested. As you see, there is no electricity, so there is no signal. There is no order, no discipline."

Any Caltrans engineer who ever wondered what might happen if a city of 5 million people suddenly ceased to have enforceable traffic laws can come to Baghdad for the answer.

Cars routinely cross ripped-up center dividers and drive the wrong way on four-lane highways -- the better to avoid slow traffic on the correct side of the road. Faced with a backup caused by a U.S. military checkpoint up ahead, drivers pull onto the sidewalks as if they were rush-hour express lanes.

They honk at the pedestrians to get out of the way. There isn't a patrol car in sight to stop them.

"The Americans are closing all the roads. They closed the suspended bridge too," says 44-year-old Magid Hameed, explaining the sequence of events that brought him to the intersection, where his battered turquoise Renault has stalled on the sidewalk near the useless traffic signal.

When a space in the intersection opens up, he pushes his car onto the street again and tries to make a left turn, causing half a dozen other drivers to scream at him in outrage.

The traffic light hasn't worked since the U.S. military entered the city. No one in the neighborhood really knows why Baghdad's new rulers can't fix it. It becomes one more thing to blame on the Americans.

"It was better for us under the Saddam regime," 16-year-old Ahmed Tarek says.

"Look at this," he adds, pointing at a long line of cars waiting to buy gasoline. That line adds to the traffic problem by taking up one of the two lanes of Saddam's Great Bridge Road, forcing west- and eastbound cars to share a single lane.

"We are the country of oil," Ahmed observes, "but there is no gasoline."

Like a lot of things in Iraq these days, the gas shortage doesn't make any sense. There is, however, a certain logic and pattern behind the apparent chaos at the intersection, though only the people who work there all day can see it.

In the early morning -- rush hour in Los Angeles -- the cars move through here with only the briefest of backups. A driver who heads south on Rashid Camp Street can wait for a lull in the cross traffic and simply plunge across.

A Mess by Noon

After 10, the line of cars heading south gets longer. Gridlock sometimes forces the cars to squeeze through one at a time. By noon, the backup on Rashid Camp is two blocks long.

Inevitably, some of the drivers stuck a hundred yards or so back get out of their cars to find out what's happening ahead, leaving a passenger at the wheel to inch the vehicle forward.

At the intersection, the less-than-selfless good Samaritans push at the hoods of cars blocking the way, raising their upturned hands in a fingers-touching-thumb gesture that means "patience." Once their own cars pass through the intersection, they jump back in and drive off. Moments later, other self-appointed traffic cops step forward.

At about 1 p.m., a pair of U.S. soldiers whose Humvee is stuck a block or so away march up to the intersection.

Like everyone else, they are frustrated. The heat and the traffic are bad enough; the fact that American GIs have been attacked and killed in Baghdad in precisely these kinds of crowded urban situations only makes things worse.

A sergeant whose helmet identifies him as "Pressley" yells exactly the same things in English as the Iraqi drivers around him yell in Arabic -- and he appends an expletive to each "Stop!" or "Hold up!" for good measure. When drivers don't obey, he lifts his M-16 and points it at their cars' radiators.

After a few minutes, Sgt. Pressley has southbound traffic flowing again. When his Humvee pulls up, he looks around to make sure all of his soldiers are accounted for. "Let's go," he says, and the Americans leave. A moment or so later, a southbound Mercedes nearly crashes with a westbound truck. The gridlock is on again.

"You see, the Americans only come here to help their vehicle," says Almosuay, the clerk. "They don't care about us. No one cares about us."

Support Our Troops
The stuff you don't hear about on CNN?

Let's start with electrical power production in Iraq. The day after the war was declared over, there was nearly 0 power being generated in Iraq. Just 45 days later, in a partnership between the Army, the Iraqi people, and some private companies, there are now 3200 megawatts (Mw) of power being produced daily, 1/3 of the total national potential of 8000 Mw. Downed power lines (big stuff, 400 Kilovolt (Kv) and 132 Kv) are being repaired and are about 70 percent complete.

Then there is water purification. In central Iraq between Baghdad and Mosul, home of the 4th Infantry Division, water treatment was spotty at best. The facilities existed, but the controls were never implemented. Simple chemicals like chlorine for purification and Alum (Aluminum Sulfate) for sediment settling (the Tigris River is about as clear as the Mississippi River) were in very short supply or not used at all. When chlorine was used, it was metered by the scientific method of guessing.

So some people got pool water to drink and some people got water with lots of little things floating around in it. We are slowly but surely solving that. Contracts for repairs to facilities that are only 50 percent or less operational are being let, chemicals are being delivered, although we don't have the metering problem solved yet ( ... but again, it's only been 45 days).

How about oil and fuel? Well the war was all about oil, wasn't it? You bet it was. It was all about oil for the Iraqi people! They have no other income, and they produce nothing else. Oil is 95 percent of the Iraqi GNP. For this nation to survive, it must sell oil.

The refinery at Bayji is [operating] at 75 percent of capacity producing gasoline. The crude pipeline between Kirkuk (Oil Central) and Bayji will be repaired by tomorrow (2 June). LPG, what all Iraqis use to cook and heat with, is at 103 percent of normal production and we, the U.S. Army, are ensuring it is being distributed fairly to all Iraqis.

You have to remember that only three months ago, all these things were used by the Saddam regime as weapons against the population to keep them in line. If your town misbehaved, gasoline shipments stopped, LPG pipelines and trucks stopped, water was turned off, and power was turned off.

Now, until exports start, every drop of gasoline produced goes to the Iraqi people. Crude oil is being stored and the country is at 75 percent capacity right now. They need to export or stop pumping soon, so thank the UN for the delay.

All LPG goes to the Iraqi people everywhere. Water is being purified as best it can be, but at least its running all the time to everyone.

Are we still getting shot at? Yep.

Are American soldiers still dying? Yep, about one a day from my outfit, the 4th Infantry Division, most in accidents, but dead is dead.

If we are doing all this for the Iraqis, why are they shooting at us?

The general Iraqi population isn't shooting at us. There are still bad guys who won't let go of the old regime. They are Ba'ath party members (Read Nazi Party, but not as nice) who have known nothing but and supported nothing but the regime all of their lives. These are the thugs for the regime who caused many to disappear in the night. They have no other skills. At least the Nazis [in Germany] had jobs and a semblance of a national infrastructure that they could go back to after the war, as plumbers, managers, engineers, etc. These people have no skills but terror. They are simply applying their skills ... and we are applying ours.

There is no Christian way to say this, but they must be eliminated and we are doing so with all the efficiency we can muster. Our troops are shot at literally everyday by small arms and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). We respond. One hundred percent of the time, the Ba'ath party guys come out with the short end of the stick.

The most amazing thing to me is that they don't realize that if they stopped shooting at us, we would focus on fixing things more quickly and then leave back to the land of the Big PX. The more they shoot at us, the longer we will have to stay.

Lastly, all of you please realize that 90 percent of the damage you see on TV was caused by Iraqis, not by us and not by the war. Sure, we took out a few bridges from military necessity, we took out a few power and phone lines to disrupt communications, sure we drilled a few palaces and government headquarters buildings with 2000 lb. laser guided bombs (I work 100 yards from where two hit the Tikrit Palace), [but] he had plenty to spare.

But, any damage you see to schools, hospitals, power generation facilities, refineries, pipelines, was all caused either by the Iraqi Army in its death throes or from much of the Iraqi civilians looting the places.

Could we have prevented it? Nope.

We can and do now, but 45 days ago, the average soldier was fighting for his own survival and trying to get to his objectives as fast as possible. He was lucky to know what town he was in, much less be informed enough to know who owned what or have the power to stop 1,000 people from looting and burning a building by himself.

The United States and our allies, especially Great Britain, are doing a very noble thing here. We stuck our necks out on the world's chopping block to free an entire people from the grip of a horrible terror that was beyond belief.

I've already talked the weapons of mass destruction thing to death - bottom line, who cares? This country was one big conventional weapons ammo dump anyway. We have probably destroyed more weapons and ammo in the last 30 days than the U.S. Army has ever fired in the last 30 years (remember, this is a country the size of Texas), so drop the WMD argument as the reason we came here. If we find it, great. If we don't, so what?

I'm living in a ''guest palace'' on a 500-acre palace compound with 20 palaces with like facilities built in half a dozen towns all over Iraq that were built for one man. Drive down the street and out into the countryside five miles away like I have and see all the families of 10 or more, all living in mud huts and herding the two dozen sheep on which their very existence depends ..then tell me why you think we are here.

WMD is an important issue. We have to find them wherever they may be (in Syria?), but that is not our real motivator. Don't let it be yours either.

Respectfully,

ERIC RYDBOM MAJOR, ENGINEER Deputy Division Engineer 4th Infantry Division

Support Our Troops
No More Honorable Place
By Rich Galen
CNSNews.com Commentary from Mullings.com
July 09, 2003

* The Western press is presenting an image of the United States' occupation of Iraq as a failure -- or at least a failure-in-waiting -- largely because of the attacks on soldiers.

* Saddam Hussein, who is an accomplished manipulator of the media, knows that however horrible it might be to kill a coalition soldier, it only makes good television footage if the murder is accompanied by destroying a vehicle in the process. Hence, the footage of the burning remains of blown-up equipment.

* During my trip to Kuwait we had an opportunity to visit Camp Doha on July Fourth. For a description of our trip to Camp Doha, see today's Travelogue -- "It's Africa Hot."

* One of the people on the trip was an excellent young reporter for The Hill newspaper, Alex Bolton who, while I was in the PX buying tee shirts, was doing actual reporting.

* He spoke to two soldiers, both of whom had cycled out of Baghdad only a few weeks earlier. One, a Captain in charge of an Intelligence Company in the Third Infantry Division and another, a helicopter pilot who flew close air support during the taking of Baghdad and beyond.

* While they are not indifferent to the casualties being suffered by coalition forces, one said it was like "walking in downtown Chicago at night." It was wise "to be cautious," but you didn't necessarily "need to be afraid."

* He had worked hand-in-glove with Iraqis on the ground to find out what was going on. He said he had found the "vast majority" of Iraqis were "very happy we were there" and tried to be as helpful as possible.

* The pilot said for the most part the people with whom he had come into contact were "extremely friendly, and reminded us that the "power is on, people are conducting business in the markets; it's not the smoking ruins that you think."

* Later, we met with a number of high-ranking Iraqi officials, present and former, all of whom had the same advice for President Bush: Stay the Course.

* A former Kuwaiti Oil Minister told us that Americans are too eager for quick solutions. Sometimes, he said, things just take their own time. He said America should be prepared to have a presence in Iraq for 10 years or more. We, after all, are still protecting Europe with NATO from a Soviet Union which no longer exists, nearly 15 years after the Berlin Wall came down.

* He and another official talked about the additional benefits of a continued US presence in Iraq.

* The Minister pointed out that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was moving forward because we had removed Iraq from a position of influence and funding for the Palestinian terrorists.

* Another senior Kuwaiti official said that the US is everyone's second choice to be in the region: Syria wants Syrians, Iran wants Iranians, Saudis want Saudis, Egypt wants Egyptians, and so on. The US, he said, "is a necessary evil," and were we to leave, the nations surrounding Iraq would instantly rush in to take a piece of the country.

* "You are not just rebuilding Iraq," he said, "you are keeping everyone else apart."

* Remember the dire predictions to which we were treated prior to the invasion of Iraq - the humanitarian disasters in terms of lack of food and water; the refugee crisis (into and out from Iraq); and the calculations by retired military experts and others that coalition casualties might exceed 1,000 during the war.

* We don't see anyone comparing those pre-war predictions with the post-war realities.

* Finally, as we were leaving Camp Doha the Public Affairs officer who escorted us -- a Captain with a Ranger badge on his shoulder and a Airborne badge on his chest -- said this about our efforts in the Middle East: "This might not be the most comfortable place for American troops to be on the Fourth of July; but there's no place more honorable."

* If you feel yourself doubting our efforts in the region, repeat that to yourself.

* On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Chapter 3 of the Travelogue -- "Kuwait Here. I'll Be Right Back;" a pretty good Mullfoto; and the usual things.

Iraq War Blog Updates
Suspected rebels kill 4 people in Turkey: "Suspected Kurdish rebels raided a village in southeastern Turkey, killing four villagers and injuring another, an official said Friday."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



Two Iraqis Wounded After Attack on U.S. Troops: "Two Iraqis were wounded when theirvehicle was caught in crossfire after a rocket-propelledgrenade attack on a U.S. patrol near Baghdad airport, the U.S.military said on Friday. (Reuters)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



'Comical Ali' Leaves Baghdad, Might Not Return: "Former Iraqi Information MinisterMohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, who earned the nickname "Comical Ali"during the U.S.-led war on Iraq, made a sudden appearance inAbu Dhabi on Friday, saying he might not return to hishomeland. (Reuters)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Iraqis Call For Self-Rule: ""A conference of 900 Iraqi notables have demanded the quick establishment of an Iraqi government to combat the lawlessness and insecurity that reign three months after the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist regime. The group said the transitional government should have a six-month mandate, renewable once only, to draw up a constitution for the new Iraq. The move puts new pressure on the occupying forces to agree to some form of Iraqi government, rather than the interim political council which the United States now favours." Zaki Yahya reports from Najaf for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting."

In Electronic Iraq



CIA tried to persuade British to drop Iraq uranium allegations: "The US Central Intelligence Agency tried unsuccessfully last September to persuade the British government to drop from an official intelligence paper a passage alleging that Iraq had sought to buy uranium in Africa, The Washington Post reported. (AFP)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Paris Club seeks swift restructuring of Iraq's debt: "The Paris Club of creditor nations said it is ready to restructure Iraq's public debt of more than 21 billion dollars (18.5 billion euros) as soon as possible. (AFP)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq

Support Our Troops
CF man, Army platoon bait Iraqi ambushers

By BORZOU DARAGAHI, Associated Press Writer

NEAR BAQUBA, Iraq --- The sweat dripped from U.S. Army Lt. Kurt Chapman's face.

The Fourth Infantry Division platoon commander had just set a trap for a group of elusive Iraqi ambushers --- and he was the bait.

It was now a matter of watching and waiting.

"They want to shoot at us. We'll see if they have the guts," said Sgt. Samuel Bailey of Cedar Falls, Iowa. "When they started aggressively attacking us, we decided to take the fight to them. We own the night."

When Chapman's men first ventured out of the base onto the road toward "RPG Alley," a strip of road 70 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Baghdad, where American forces have come under attacks by rocket-propelled grenades, the two-Humvee convoy kept its lights on --- to lure in attackers.

Using slow-moving convoys to bait attacks on ambush-prone roads is a common U.S. tactic in Iraq, where hit-and-run fighters are impossible to discern until they open fire. Once they do, the U.S. forces, protected by their armor and aided by their night scopes, do their best to cut the irregulars down.

"Are you scared?" Chapman asked his driver.

"No, not scared," Pfc. Clayton Randall responded unconvincingly.

As the convoy rolled into RPG Alley, rebel sentries opened fire with flare guns and small arms. Chapman said the fire was meant to warn ambushers to take position.

Just to make sure everyone knew they were out and about, Chapman stopped by a local gas station and began aggressively questioning the men hanging out there.

"These shady characters are connected to the attackers somehow," Chapman said.

Confident the assailants were riled up, the Lieutenant faded back to a spot where he could spy on the ambush location. A sliver of moon hung above the Iraqi desert.

"The whole place is a little spooky," said Bailey, as he peered through the powerful night-vision scope mounted atop his armored Humvee. "There are usually people moving around. Tonight there's no one."

Just then two of the battalion's M-1 tanks drove past the ambush spot in an attempt to draw fire. Randall spotted two men carrying weapons suddenly standing up on a roof. They crouched down when they saw the American vehicles were near-impenetrable tanks.

The tanks moved into spots where they could observe the ambush site. One of the men reappeared.

"I saw a head pop up and look around," said Bailey, Chapman's gunner. "Whoa! Whoa! Someone's bursting off rounds there."

The commander at Chapman's 3rd Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment headquarters radioed the final go-ahead.

"You have permission to engage," said Lt. Col. Mark Young.

One of the tanks opened fire with its 7.62mm gun. Orange tracer rounds disrupted the night.

By early morning, Chapman and his men raided two homes and a gas station suspected of being outposts for the militants, detaining three men who were later released after interrogation.

The suspected assailant on the roof was cut in half, Bailey said.

"He ain't there no more," he said

Support Our Troops
Baghdad, Iraq-AP -- Some American troops who fought in Iraq are being honored today in Baghdad.

The U-S military handed out hundreds of combat infantry badges to soldiers who took part in the fight for the Iraqi capital. It's the first time since the Korean War that the medals have been presented to American reservists.

The soldiers are from the Third Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, which is based in Florida. The ceremony took place at a stadium in Baghdad. More than 360 combat infantry and combat medical badges were awarded.

The battalion commander says his men at first were supposed to guard missile sites -- but plans changed and they found themselves in the heart of Baghdad. He says three members of the unit were injured, one of whom got a Purple Heart.

Support Our Troops
Posted on Fri, Jul. 11, 2003

Kansan awarded Silver Star for bravery in deadly Iraq ambush
Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. - Pfc. Patrick Miller has been awarded the Silver Star for his efforts during a fatal ambush in southern Iraq that ended with 11 U.S. soldiers killed and six captured.

Miller, 23, of Valley Center, may have killed as many as nine Iraqi fighters before he and the five other soldiers were taken captive by the Iraqis, a U.S. Army report says.

The report also says that mistakes and malfunctions led the Army's 507th Maintenance Co. into the ambush on March 23 - the third day of the war.

More than three dozen medals have been awarded to soldiers in the ambush, including Bronze Stars, Purple Hearts and Prisoner of War Medals, officials said. Miller was the only one to receive the Silver Star, which is awarded for bravery in combat.

The report assigns no individual blame but it makes clear that trouble began when the unit's commander, Capt. Troy King, took the wrong route. That mistake put his convoy of 33 soldiers in 18 vehicles on a path to tragedy.

It said the unprecedented speed of the U.S. ground advance from assault positions in northern Kuwait was a contributing factor because it overextended the 507th support convoy's communications.

Of 33 people and 18 vehicles ambushed, only 16 soldiers in eight vehicles got away, the report said. Two soldiers in the convoy were from the 3rd Forward Support Battalion and are among the 11 killed. It was the deadliest day of the Iraq war for U.S. forces.

Miller was driving with Pfc. Brandon Sloan and Sgt. James Riley when enemy fire struck and killed Sloan and disabled their truck. Miller and Riley moved toward another truck and noticed that the occupants were dead or beyond help.

With no means to resist, Riley decided to surrender himself and two other soldiers. Miller fired at the Iraqis several times before being surrounded and captured.

Miller was released with four other POWs April 13.

Information from: The Wichita Eagle

Support Our Troops

NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 501-03
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jul 11, 2003
(703)697-5131(media)
(703)428-0711(public/industry)

DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were
supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sgt. 1st Class Dan H. Gabrielson, 39, Spooner, Wis., died on July 9 in Ba Qubah,
Iraq. Gabrielson was assigned to the 652nd Engineer Company, Ellsworth, Wis. He
was traveling in a convoy that came under attack. He was killed by hostile fire.

Sgt. Melissa Valles, 26, Eagle Pass, Texas, died on July 9 in Balad, Iraq. Valles
was assigned to B Company, 64th Forward Support Battalion, Fort Carson, Col. She
died as a result of non-combat injuries. The incident is under investigation.

[Web Version: http://www.dod.mil/releases/2003/nr20030711-0189.html]

-- News Releases: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases
-- DoD News: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/dodnews.html
-- Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/dodnews.html#e-mail
-- Today in DoD: http://www.defenselink.mil/today

Support Our Troops
July 11, 2003
D.C. Guard deploys

Soldiers from the D.C. National Guard's 274th Military Police Company stand during their deployment ceremony at the D.C. Armory yesterday.



Photo by Dennis Ryan
Soldiers from the D.C. National Guard's 274th Military Police Company stand during their deployment ceremony at the D.C. Armory yesterday.

by Dennis RyanPentagram
staff writer


About 200 people, grandmothers, mothers, husbands, wives, children and friends came to say goodbye to 120 members of the D.C. National Guard's 274th Military Police Company yesterday at the sweltering D.C. Armory. The unit will first travel to Fort Eustis, Va. for validation. There they will have their equipment and supplies checked and receive further training before receiving deployment orders to somewhere in the Central Command area of operations.

Staff Sgt. Craig Wilkens stood in D.C. Armory holding his one-year old baby daughter Lenice and comforting his pregnant wife Janice.

"The hard part is leaving my new family and she's pregnant again," computer specialist Wilkens said. "The job is a job we have to keep peace. I'm a soldier."

Wife Janice just found out about her condition.

"It's very tough," she said while fighting back tears. "It's going to be hard, just him missing out on certain things with the baby and me three months pregnant. I just pray he'll be back for the delivery. I know God will be with the both of us. I have his family's support and my family's support."

Craig's mother Queen Wilkens is worried for her son but trusts he will return safely.

"You don't know what's going on," she said. "I'm crying, trusting God to take care of him and all the troops. I thank the lord for him. He's a good son. I'll miss him."

Sgt. Maj. Frederick Goldsmith spoke proudly of the 120 men and women being deployed.

"They're soldiers," Goldsmith said. "They know they signed up to defend their country. Morale is high. The soldiers are eager to get where they are going. They're well trained. Some NCOs are still here from Desert Storm."

Sgt. Anthony McKinney was at the ceremony dressed in desert fatigues. He just returned from Iraq on emergency leave, where he served with the 574th Transportation unit. The 574th started in Kuwait and is now helping to conduct Operation Scorpion around Baghdad.

"It's been trying," McKinney said. "We've been doing a whole lot of missions. We've encountered two ambushes but nobody was injured. My biggest advice is to support one another, especially the younger troops and keep in touch with families. The biggest thing our troops look forward to is mail."

McKinney also described some the conditions the soldiers will endure.

"It's very hot," he said. "Food is not the best, MREs and C-rats. We live in tents and sleep on cots. Most people are in good spirits as long as we are on the road."

Support Our Troops



Posted on Fri, Jul. 11, 2003

KEVIN OTT, 27



Army Pfc., Orient, Ohio

Base: Fort Sill

Ott had worked with a youth group and had sung in the church choir in his hometown of Orient, Ohio. He decided to join the military after the Sept. 11 attacks, and even when he was deployed to Iraq, his father says, he wasn't afraid of dying.

"He was completely at peace," said Charles Ott.

Ott's body along with that of another soldier was discovered June 28 near Baghdad, three days after they were reported missing 25 miles away.

Ott, 27, was part of an artillery unit based at Fort Sill.

Pam Condo, 49, remembered the time her brother gave her a ride on his beloved motorcycle.

"I was afraid because I knew he loved to go really fast, but to my surprise, he went really slow because he knew I was scared," she said.

Ott played defensive end for a season at Bluffton College, was on the football and basketball teams in high school, and coached his nephew's Little League team, Condo said.

His calls and letters during the war were reserved, but his family could tell he was proud.

"He absolutely loved Army life," Charles Ott said.

SHAWN PAHNKE, 25



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Army Pvt., Shelbyville, Ind.

Base: Germany

Pahnke grew up with military pride -- his father was a Vietnam veteran and his grandfather served in World War II -- and he was fulfilling his lifelong dream to serve in the military.

"His last letters talked about how proud he was to be a soldier," said his father, Tom Pahnke. "He was glad that he was finally doing what he was trained to do."

Pahnke, 25, of Shelbyville, Ind., was killed June 16 by a sniper in Iraq. He had enlisted in October after getting married and was stationed in Germany.

Tom Pahnke said his son missed the birth of his son, Dean, on March 20, but was able to speak with his wife, Elisha, on a cell phone.

"She had Shawn on the phone talking to him while she had the baby," Tom Pahnke said. "Shawn was able to hear the baby cry for the first time and know that he had a son."

JOSE AMANCIO PEREZ III, 22



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Army Spc., San Diego, Texas

Base: Fort Sill

Combat medic Perez's irrepressible sense of humor was matched only by his genuine desire to help others.

"One of the things he always wanted to do was be a paramedic, and he was using the combat medic as a step to do that and help people," said Spc. Alvie Jones.

"He had an amazing sense of humor. He could crack a smile out of a stone wall."

Perez, 22, from San Diego, Texas, and stationed at Fort Sill, died May 28 when his convoy was ambushed.

When his flag-draped casket arrived in his hometown of about 5,000 people -- where his family is one of the largest -- the hearse was met by hundreds of neighbors lining the roadway, waving flags and holding candles.

Residents later raised two long columns of flags to attention.

Perez was remembered as a competitive young man who worked hard but knew how to enjoy himself.

"He also loved the Army," said his best friend, Rene Salaiz. "He spoke of it proudly, just like when he caught an interception in a (high school) football game. He flashed his dog tags around."

BRETT PETRIKEN, 30



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Army Military Police Staff Sgt., Flint, Mich.

Base: Germany

Petriken was such a loyal Detroit Lions football fan that he had game tapes sent to him overseas.

"He loved to watch them, win or lose," said his stepmother, Kathy Petriken.

He also loved a good joke, and knew how to make people feel at ease, said his uncle, Dave Petriken. "Nobody had a bad word to say about him," he said.

Petriken, 30, from Flint, Mich., and stationed in Germany, was killed in a traffic accident May 26 in Iraq.

Just before he left for Iraq, he told his mother not to worry.

"He said, `I have a bulletproof vest and a bulletproof Humvee. Mom, I'm trained for this,' " Deborah Petriken said.

Jeff Blanchard, a former high school substitute teacher, said Petriken was "just a clean-cut, polite, nice young man."

"You never had to ask him to be quiet, you never had to ask him to sit down," he said. "When it's that quality of an individual, it really hurts."

Petriken is survived by his wife, Christina, and 8-year-old daughter.

Support Our Troops
Letter from Central Iraq
Borzou Daragahi, July 8, 2003
Poor George. He's the Lebanese-American translator here at the base where I'm embedded with the United States Army's Fourth Infantry Division. George is 50 years old and came here after selling his Pittsburgh food wholesaling business because of "family problems."


It was called "Pitaland."


George misses his kids. He misses fresh Near Eastern food and is a little tired of the Army's meals ready-to-eat. He tells me proudly how he used to sell Persian tea through his wholesaling business. Sometimes he finds his way to the nearby market to buy grapes, cantaloupes and plums. He washes them clean and chills them on ice. He politely offers them to the soldiers, but can never find takers. I think they're afraid of Eye-raqi food. Instead they ask him to draw up signs in Arabic that say, "If you approach this area with weapons you will be shot."


I devour on a slice of George's cantaloupe. It's a cool, sweet island in an undending sea of heat, dust and exhaust.


Hours later I’m slapping sand fleas gnawing on my hands as I sit in the Humvee with the soldiers. It’s hot as hell. The desert radiates heat. The Humvee retains the heat. The wind blows heat. The helmet and porcelain-plated flak jacket I’m wearing make it even hotter. I feel like I'm living on top of a huge car engine that's been running non-stop for days. Each time the Humvee moves I get a mouthful of sand. My sinuses are clogged. I haven’t had a shower in days.


The young lieutenant, a tall brooding young man from Portland, Maine, is in charge. He’s talking into the radio, reading out map coordinates. Sweat drips from his face.


The lieutenant has just set a trap. We’re the bait. He used our two-vehicle Humvee convoy to lure attackers out of hiding. It is now a matter of watching and waiting.


For the past few weeks, attacks on American troops in central Iraq have been spiraling upward. U.S. soldiers have been wounded every day and about a couple per week have been killed. It’s no Vietnam, where an average of 100 young American men a week were shipped back home in body bags. But it’s become enough trouble that the U.S. has launched a series of dramatic operations –- with names like Peninsula Strike, Desert Scorpion, Sidewinder and Gravedigger –- to stamp out the insurgency.


As an embed, I’m given full access to the base and allowed to go on missions with the troops. Being a reporter embedded with the U.S. military means you sleep on the same cots they sleep on, munch on the same meals ready-to-eat they eat and melt beneath the same blazing sun under which they labor.


After a while, you begin to understand the current troubles in Iraq from the perspective of the grunt on the ground. It’s not what you might think. The U.S. soldiers aren’t being hailed as liberators and warmly embraced by the vast majority of the population. Nor are they raping Iraqi women or indiscriminately shooting at anything that moves. They’re ordinary soldiers trained to kill cast into inordinately complex situations.


"Why don't we just shoot the fuckers?" one soldier asks during a stakeout of a sight used to ambush American soldiers.


"Well, there's a school nearby," the other responds. “Now, I don’t think we’ll hit the school, but the people of the village will think that we were trying to, and that’ll make things difficult in the long run.�


"Awkay," the other concedes.


From the humanitarian projects they carry out to the surgical early-night body snatches they conduct, they’re in many cases doing things for which they have no training or experience.


One of my favorite people is a captain who mans the base at a town north of here. I think I identify with him partly because he's from upstate New York; his dad worked for IBM in Armonk, and he's a little different from most of the soldiers and officers who came from either the ghetto or the deep south: He's a New Englander.


He sees his job as part social worker, part police officer and part anthropologist. He gets very involved with the Iraqis in his little town. He encourages his men to go out to the hospitals and schools and make friends.


At the scene of one raid, the other men were getting jumpy. “Why are they coming towards us? Why is that one driving away? What's going on here?� The M-16 muzzles went up. The gunners tightened their grips on the mounted artillery.


No, the captain told the other men, calm down. They've never seen Americans here before. The ones running away are scared. The ones approaching are just curious.


Everyone relaxed.


It strikes me how young these guys are. Many of them just out of high school or college. They’ve seen little of the world, and their months here are turning into an extended summer abroad, replete with language classes.


One soldier manning a checkpoint proudly tries out a new Arab expression he just learned. “Erfa eedek wa stadiyah,� he says. “It means, ‘Put your hands up and turn around.’�


A gunner I know says, things like, “We’re Americans. We own the night.�


“Did you say I could shoot?� the gunner asks his lieutenant.


“No, I did not,� the lieutenant replies instantly.


“Aw man, you give me a hard-on saying I can shoot and then you kill it,� says the gunner.


“Whoa, dude,� says the lieutenant. “Too much information.�


I tell you, they’re young.


They don't mind me. In fact they seem delighted I’m here, excited to take me on missions. They're warriors, and no warrior is complete without a scribe to laud his feats. They print out and devour my stories.


They don’t at all even seem to mind me being from Iran, the next country on the post-September 11 to-do list. If they did, they would never say anything. They treat me with the utmost respect. I am a "Sir." The Army, I’ve found out, is probably among the most politically correct institutions in America.


The lieutenant colonel commanding the base defies the stereotype of a career army man. Recently, a bunch of broadcast media came knocking at the base entrance wanting interviews with him. There was CNN, Fox and ITN, but he was most excited – I mean giddy – by the public radio guy there.


“NPR? I love NPR,� he said. “Morning edition. All Things Considered. Am I gonna be on NPR?�


The soldiers would love to take off their flak jackets and helmets and be embraced lovingly by the Iraqis as liberators. They’d love to go home. Alas, they can’t do either. The country’s security situation remains a mess. Many Iraqis view Americans with hostility and suspicion. Shadowy groups are funding and organizing attacks on them. This base and others in the area come under regular mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire.


Whenever we first venture off the base, flare guns and small arms fire erupt, a signal to attackers that the Americans are coming and a message to the Americans that the attackers are organized. It’s a stomach-turning sensation, knowing you’re rolling into a potential ambush. One embedded journalist – an NBC sound engineer – has already died when a rocket-propelled grenade hit a similar convoy.


But this time, just to make sure everyone knew we were out and about, the lieutenant from Maine stops by a local gas station and the soldiers began aggressively questioning the men hanging out there. Confident the assailants were riled up and preparing an attack, we faded back to a spot where we could spy on ambush location.


During a previous raid, I went out and got some dark clothes so I wouldn’t show up to the enemy. But the mission commander had other concerns. He told me to tape a light to my helmet so I wouldn’t want me to get shot by Americans!


Through night-vision goggles in an armored Humvee, the Iraqi desert can be terrifying. A sliver of moon hangs above the eerie landscape. The gunner reports seeing someone with a something that looks like an RPG crouching around the top of the house.


Through the radio, the commander back at base gives the final permission to engage. The gun opens fire. Orange tracer rounds and a burst of artillery fire disrupt the night. The gunner said the man was cut in half. "He ain't there no more.�


The setting sun casts a pleasant orange glow on the outdoor cafeteria. The women running the mobile kitchen, blast cool R&B on the boombox as they serve up hamburgers, beans and powdered lemonade.


"That's some straight-up ghetto Kool Aid," says one soldier.


The difference between the commissioned and non-commissioned soldiers is stark. The officers – the lieutenants, captains, majors and colonels -- generally sit separately from the privates, corporals and sergeants.


The non-coms generally joined the army because they couldn't find anything else to do with their lives. When they eat they talk about going back home.


The commissioned officers went to West Point or other officer training schools. They saw the military as a path to political or corporate leadership. They talk about upcoming missions.


George and I, both civilians and bookish immigrants, always sit together at our own table. Andy, a British television reporter, who arrived a few days after I got here, also joins us. We talk about art and politics and the U.S. Army. “Look at this,� George laughs, “all of America’s fears and complexities in Arabia.�

GNN's man in Iraq, Borzou Daragahi is a reporter who has written for U.S. News & World Report, MSNBC.com, South China Morning Post, and the Christian Science Monitor, among many others. His writing and photos can be viewed his personal web site: www.borzou.com.

WELCOME HOME HEROES
Support Our Troops
3rd Infantry begins return

Savannah Morning News

The full-scale return of 3rd Infantry Division soldiers from Iraq begins today, but most of these soldiers are heading home to Fort Benning.

Fewer than a dozen soldiers from 1st Battalion, 3rd Air Defense Artillery were expected to arrive at Fort Stewart Thursday, but larger groups are expected this weekend. Pieces of the division have been trickling home in the past month, but the mass redeployment begins with the 3rd Brigade returning to Fort Benning.

Portions of units headquartered at Fort Stewart are expected anytime between today and July 18. They are: Division Artillery headquarters; 1st Battalion, 41st Field Artillery Regiment; Aviation Brigade headquarters; 1st Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment; 11th Engineer Battalion; 1st Battalion, 3rd Air Defense Artillery; and 92nd Chemical Company.

The division led the Army's ground invasion during the war and helped capture Baghdad.

Savannah Morning News

Support Our Troops
Mission creep is strangling morale in Iraq, Herald Correspondent Ed O'Loughlin writes in Falluja.


Three months ago, "Answer To This" was the lead tank in the lead company in the first American unit to smash its way through to central Baghdad. This week the 70-tonne Abrams battle tank had a different task to perform.

On a hot summer evening, two peasant boys loitering by an irrigation canal near Falluja in central Iraq saw "Answer to This" and two other tanks halt beside them in a swirling cloud of dust.

As the youths contemplated fleeing, a figure clambered down from a turret and handed them two leaflets.

"This is information about the new Iraqi currency that's coming out later this year," said First Lieutenant Bobby Ball of the 164 Armoured Task Force. "I hope you'll read it and pass it on."

The youths nodded dumbly, glanced at the Arabic leaflets and then legged it. Lieutenant Ball clambered back up into his turret and the tanks moved off again.

It's a stark example of what is known to military people as "mission creep".

Three months after the fall of Baghdad, two months after they were told they would be home soon, most of the original invading US ground units remain deep in Iraq, now trying to rule great swathes of still-hostile territory.

Equipped and trained for blitzkrieg warfare, the 145,000 remaining US troops are struggling to adapt to the low-intensity realities of what the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, still refuses to call a guerilla war.

So far, 31 US and six British soldiers have died in attacks since President George Bush declared victory on May 1. Incidents occur across the country at the rate of a dozen a day.

Falluja, a traditionalist Sunni Arab town an hour's drive west of Baghdad, has been a hotbed of resistance since troops of the 82nd Airborne Division killed at least 15 people there in late April and the beginning of May.

On Tuesday this week, for instance, the driver of another 3rd Division tank, a Bradley armoured fighting vehicle, was wounded when an anti-tank mine destroyed his vehicle. On Wednesday evening's tank patrol a helpful Arab youth showed Lieutenant Ball a coil of nylon cord emerging from a hole in a freshly dug patch of earth by the roadside - probably a trip mine.

The patrol marked the site's GPS co-ordinates so engineers could come and make it safe in the morning. It was now dusk, and time to be getting home. "Ya'll keep an eye out," said a voice on the tank's intercom. "It's RPG hour now."

It was a rocket-propelled grenade that caused the last combat fatality in the 3rd Division, although the victim was not a soldier. The Australian television sound recordist Jeremy Little was injured near midnight on June 29 when the grenade struck the Humvee in which he was travelling. He died last Sunday in a hospital in Germany.

Officers of the 3rd Division say it is a sign of how thinly stretched they are - and how little thought was given by the US high command to post-invasion scenarios - that lumbering tanks are sent to distribute leaflets, while the artillery men with whom Little was patrolling look for trouble in unarmoured vehicles.

Indeed, most of the troops and officers to whom the Herald spoke this week were scathing in their opinions of the top officials, right up to the commander-in-chief.

"George Bush goes on the television last week telling whoever's shooting at us to 'bring it on', said one NCO bitterly. "Easy for him when he ain't here."

Soldier after soldier spoke of being demoralised, of tolerance stretched to breaking point.

But the main source of this is not the mounting death toll, nor fear of enemy action, nor a lack of belief in the mission, as most US troops are still convinced of the justice of their presence in Iraq.

Instead, the biggest present threat to the US military mission in Iraq is simple homesickness.

"We get upset when our people get hurt, yes," said First Lieutenant Herb Leggette of the 1/9 Field Artillery, "but the biggest problem with morale right now is that we're about ready to go home. That's no secret."

It is two months since the 3rd Division was first scheduled to rotate back to America and, like other US combat formations, most of its units are still in Iraq or Kuwait. Many troops have been in the Gulf since last year.

With return dates announced and then cancelled several times now, rumours of the next possible rotation are the main topic of conversation in US military posts across the Gulf. Many soldiers are beyond desperate to get home.

A typical case is that of Staff Sergeant Sherra Jackson, 34, who runs the cookhouse at 2nd Brigade HQ. She said goodbye to four children aged four months to 16 years when she was shipped out to Kuwait last December. "I had to give up breastfeeding to come out here," she said.

How does it feel to be away from her children?

"It's hard. Really hard." She pauses a moment, then breaks down in tears.

"I just try to do it day after day. I just wish I could be there for the first birthday but I doubt it. He [Xavier] will be a year old on the 26th of July. I missed all my other kids' birthdays ... I missed my husband's birthday and I'll be here for our anniversary too ... I don't want to think about missing a whole school year."

In this mixed-gender, family-oriented army such stories are everywhere.

The driver of Lieutenant Ball's tank, Specialist Eddie Aguilar, 22, only found out two weeks later that his wife had given birth on April 1. He has yet to see his son.

"In the beginning he had a heart murmur and a stomach disease and they had to keep him in hospital. That really hit me very hard. I still don't like to think about it." There are tears in his eyes, too. "I would do anything, whatever it takes, to get home."

Even unmarried soldiers are aching for the States, even if it is just to escape the heat of the Iraqi summer, or the prohibition on alcohol for those on the mission, even off base and off duty.

The risk to the US military from all this internal discontent is not imminent mass desertion or mutiny, soldiers say. The real risk is that the increasingly likely prospect of more and more open-ended deployments in hostile Iraq - and perhaps other countries in the region as well - will deter future recruits from joining. Meanwhile, many serving soldiers could decide to put family first and retire next chance they get.

"When I see all that's going on it really makes me think for the first time about getting out of the military," said one father of two.

"You have to ask yourself if you really want to spend your whole life away from your home and your family. When you look at the missions we already have, there's Korea, here, Germany, now they're talking about Liberia. It's like peanut butter. You can only spread it so thin."

"Morale is at an all-time low already," said Staff Sergeant Jackson. "If they keep us here for a year or until December or whenever, I think it's going to have a real impact on the way the young soldiers look at the military in general. If I didn't have 10 years invested I'd get out for sure."

Only one military power has ever matched the US in projecting power around the globe. The British Empire had a rigid class system and a long-service, all-male rank and file whose junior members were not usually allowed to marry. For malefactors there was the lash, while officers' children went to boarding school. Regiments could serve overseas for years on end.

The US army of today, in contrast, is a middle-class, family-oriented corporate employer. Many are tempted to join up by attractive career paths, study, child care and health benefits and comparatively good salaries. The US military is particularly attractive to single mothers trying to beat the poverty trap.

With the war still ticking over and no sign of real relief from the tens of thousands of nebulous European and Asian troops promised by Mr Rumsfeld, a lot of US soldiers in Iraq are beginning to feel cheated.

Spouses, kids endure own agonies of war
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — After Lydia Teutsch puts her two daughters to bed each night, the young captain's wife tidies up her home. Her husband, Christian, is in Iraq, and she knows that at any hour, a casualty officer and chaplain could arrive with terrible news. Somehow, it seems better knowing everything is neat and in its place.

Brandie Cornett blow-dries daughter Kellie, 3, after a bath. At left, son Austin, 10, and Jasper the family dog dry off.
By Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Ten soldiers of the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division, which is based here, have died in Iraq since the war began. Recently there have been almost daily attacks on U.S. forces. For the 10,000 families left behind at Fort Campbell, the specter of bad news never lifts. Preparing for death eases the fear of it.

"If we didn't have a picture in our head of what we would wear, what we would say, what we would eat, we'd lose it," Lydia Teutsch says.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with longer and more dangerous deployments, have made military life even tougher for families left behind. Children's grades suffer. Schools counsel students on anger management. Base therapists are busier than ever consoling spouses. Wives "at their wit's end" call counseling hotlines at all hours, says Chaplain Maj. David Giammona, director of family counseling here.

"I'm seeing a lot of our spouses stretched very thin emotionally, and I'm seeing a lot of them just hanging on," Giammona says.

With their soldiers constantly in harm's way, families learn not only that plans for death never go away, but that plans for new life often go awry.

After returning from Afghanistan last year, scores of troops decided with their wives to have babies, certain the fathers would be home come spring. Then came war in Iraq. Dozens of mothers are now giving birth with fathers far away.

When Emily Mann was born May 4, her father could only phone in briefly. "It was: 'What does she weigh? What is her eye color? What is her hair color? I love you. I got to go.' And that was it," Dana Mann says

Iraqi police seek to avoid U.S. troops: "With daily shootings and rocket attacks against U.S. soldiers claiming two more lives, even Iraqi policemen said Thursday they want to keep a safe distance from coalition troops for fear of getting caught in the crossfire."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



The Liberian Conflict: a case for regional peace enforcement? in RISQ



U.S. said to doubt British intelligence: "U.S. intelligence officials had doubts about the quality of a British intelligence report alleging Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa in the weeks just before and after President Bush made the allegation in his State of the Union address in January, senior U.S. officials said Thursday."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



Bomb explodes in Pakistan office: "A bomb on Friday shattered windows in a 10-story office building in Pakistan's troubled port city of Karachi, killing one person, police and witnesses said."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



US Senate unanimously approves measure seeking NATO, UN support in Iraq: "The US Senate unanimously approved a measure calling on the White House to consider requesting NATO and UN troops in Iraq. (AFP)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Troop rotation system to be finalized shortly in IraqWar.info



Britain making waves about Gitmo Brits in IraqWar.info



Suspected in Luxor massacre extradited: "A suspected planner of the 1997 Luxor massacre that killed 62 people - mostly tourists - was handed over by Uruguayan authorities to Egyptian police Thursday, according to news reports."

In Seattle Post-Intelligencer: War on Iraq



Bush Knew Iraq Info Was False: "When President Bush told the nation, incorrectly, that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa, he did so despite being warned by the CIA that it wasn't true, CBS News has learned exclusively."

In CBS News: Iraq Crisis



America's Iraq: "Two months after the welcome demise of Saddam Hussein's regime, it has become customary to say that the US won the war and is losing the peace in Iraq. This formulation, coined to describe US neglect of Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban, gives the Bush administration too much credit. There were never any serious plans to "win the peace" in Iraq, as is obvious from the chaotic aftermath of the large-scale combat. The editors of Middle East Report comment."

In Electronic Iraq



Senate Pushes for NATO, U.N. Help in Iraq: "The U.S. Senate voted unanimously onThursday to encourage President Bush to reach out to NATO andthe United Nations for help in peacekeeping and rebuilding inIraq, reflecting mounting worries in Congress that the post-waroperation is stumbling. (Reuters)"

In Yahoo! News: War with Iraq



Beeb asks viewers about Iraq coverage: "Iraq: Pubcaster plans quarterly report on aud feedback BBC governors are to poll U.K. viewers about whether they feel the pubcaster's programs are biased in light of its controversial coverage of the Iraq war."

In Variety.com - Iraq