Organizing for America | Deborah Koppelman's Blog: Straight from a Soldier on the Ground in Iraq

Straight from a Soldier on the Ground in Iraq

By Debbie - Jun 25th, 2008 at 5:28 pm EDT

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This piece is from a soldier with 4 tours in Iraq. Nothing else needs to be said.

As of last week, my homecoming date changed...
I fulfilled a voluntary year long
commitment to the President as part of the surge.

Undoubtedly, many of you have questions about the situation in Iraq.
I'm probably one of the few people you know who has been here and I
have no doubt you want a progress report. Despite what you may hear
from countless politicians who have never been in combat or never
lived on the ground in Iraq, the situation has not improved. (I feel
like clearing this information out of my mind now will allow me to
move on with my life. It will allow me to have conversations with you
about normal life when we see each other. A lot of veterans are tired
of being the canary in the coal mine that no one listens to. We just
have to share this stuff to move ahead though). While there have
been tremendous security gains made under the surge, the surge never
fixed several long standing problems. My work for...
has let me see Iraq and these problems from the highest levels to the
lowest levels. I participated in the many small scale missions as
well as huge operations in Diwaniyah, Basra, and recently Sadr City.
The healthiness of Iraq should never be evaluated by how low the
violence is. As Americans, we only see half of the violence in a
nation where people embrace violence routinely. If numbers look "low"
now don't expect them to stay like that. As soon as it gets quiet,
grunts often say, get ready for a shit storm.

All you have to do now is scratch beneath the surface and you find
infections that will tear the country apart in the next few years.

1) Religion. Perhaps this is prejudice but until you watch the
actions of the various religious leaders and cults you don't see
reality in Iraq. In the vacuum of power created by the disbandment of
the government and the military in 2003, the religious leaders both
Shiite and Sunni stepped in to fill the void. They came to the people
and attempted to solve their grievances while we hid inside patrol
bases and ignored the population. We never put limits on religious
leaders or cults and how they could work in politics, education,
economics, and the security forces. They have so entrenched
themselves, especially Shiite groups funded by Iran, that now they
own the government. Superstition still reigns in every day life.
People are hesitant to take on responsibility without consulting
their mouqtars and imams. The religious people know this and they
work on the people's fears, ignorance, and pocket books. Islam, once
controlled under the Baath party, took on a whole new life after the
invasion. It preaches and justifies sectarianism while pulling in
money, equipment, and personnel to fight its enemies on the streets
or in the ministries. Unless we close down the mosques and separate
governance and security from religion this will continue to destroy
the country.

2) The culture of Iraq. Without changing Islam and Tribalism,
democracy will never work here. I worked with tribes from Baghdad
down to Basra and everywhere in between this year. My team and I
helped stand up over 5,000 tribal fighters to counteract the
insurgents. (Most of our guys were former insurgents we just paid
them more than Al Qaeda or Mr. Sadr or anyone else). The tribes still
run law off of outdated rules or concepts that don't mesh with a
liberal democracy. No one taught any of these men political science
101. They don't understand people's rights such as the right to
petition or the responsibilities of the government. They understand
that the tribe comes before the state and that progress only happens
if god wills it, not if men and women take action. I have also
watched the consistent abuse and enslavement of women. Women have
lost more freedom in the last five years than what they obtained
under the Baath Party. Religious extremism has been the chief culprit
in this change but once again we never controlled it. All in all the
idea of coming here to stand up a democracy only makes sense if you
re-till the soil and uproot any cultural toxins. If this sounds
arrogant, then it should come as no surprise. Being sent here 4 times
and making a half-ass attempt at democracy is painful, then absurd,
and eventually tragic.

3) The influence of Iran. All the weapons, personnel, and training
for the enemy comes across the border. While Syria has always aided
AQI, most of the real stuff has always come from the east. You
probably do not know that the border has been unsealed since 2003.
You probably don't know that Iran funds every group Shiite or Sunni
in order to create as much chaos as possible. It has also led to a
glut of foreign goods into Iraq that has crushed local business
owners and farmers. Progress in Iraq can't happen unless we choose to
confront the government of Iran. The current policy has been one of
saber rattling and zero constructive action, be it economic,
diplomatic, or military. Iran has worked itself into every day life
as well as the ministries, mosques, schools, and businesses. They
have run circles around us since the beginning and now they are
really in charge.

4) Economics. While some insurgents are religiously and politically
driven, most are just trying to put food on that table. As a part our
government's brilliant planning for the war, we never focused on how
broken Iraq was economically. The sanctions put on the country after
1991 broke most people's backs. By not solving these problems in the
summer of 2003 we opened the door for insurgent recruiters. Sadly the
Government of Iraq has plenty of money stashed away but their goal
all along has been to make America pay for as much reconstruction and
security as possible. The State Department Provincial Reconstruction
Teams (PRTs) have not attacked widespread unemployment or stagnation.
We have tried as military people, not trained for business or
reconstruction, to hire a few thousand people here or there but this
has not put a dent in the financial woes of the country. As long as
people can't get real jobs they will keep fighting each other or the
Coalition.

I've watched the same things every year (except for my hospital year
in 2005) one since 2003. I am very tired, perhaps Amero-centric, but
I am very observant. All my time here confirms that the future of
Iraq is no future at all. It's bleakness is heartbreaking. I've given
up any notion of things turning around because the facts tell the
truth. The facts come from the Iraqis I live with not the foreign
eyed soldiers or the state department folks in nice pants. The facts
say the insurgents have already won by becoming legitimate religious-
political parties and by our refusal to force other countries in the
region to play ball.

Semper Fi,

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What next in Iraq. | Report to Admin

By Virginia in East Norriton, PA Jun 25th 2008 at 6:00 pm EDT

Thank you for sharing this eyewitness appraisal of the situation in Iraq. It is not easy to get a second opinion. There is much to absorb in his letter. It seems "Old Europe" knew better about occupations, having suffered the hard knocks in the last century, bet our congress would not listen.

What does the soldier think will change if we leave?

Re: What next in Iraq. | Report to Admin

By Debbie Jun 25th 2008 at 7:50 pm EDT

Thanks for befriending me Virginia,

I don't think anything will be different if we stay or go. The whole thing is a pile of you know what. Bush made it and we're living with it. The worst is service personnel whose lives will never be the same and the Iraqi people who didn't know how good they had it before Bush took us there. It's just a plain mess and nothing good will come if it. The Middle East is its own entity. Who are we to think we can control it or the rest of the world? The utter tragedy of it all overwhelms me.

Thank you both | Report to Admin

By Patty Jun 25th 2008 at 6:33 pm EDT

First I want to say thank you for sharing this information with everyone. I have friends who are in the military and are there on their 5th tour and I unfortunately have heard the same from them.
Second I extend my thanks to this service member who has sacrificed so much and gives so much on behalf of this country to protect our freedom and way of life.

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