DAY 6 -TRAVELOGUE TO IRAQ

Family and friends,

I’m sorry that I haven’t written in a few days.  We’ve been busy traveling and in transit trying to make our way into Fallujah.  We finally made it and are looking forward to seeing some of the city today.

I’m struggling to figure out the direction of the film, mainly because it is very hard to figure out what is going on here.  On one hand, there is much to be hopeful about.  At the surface, it appears most Iraqis have been able to return to their daily lives, they waive at Marines, casualties are way way down, and the presence of US and coalition forces has been drastically reduced.  On the other hand, at what cost has this security arisen?  Who are we leaving in power?  Will security persist after we leave?  Who will fill that vacuum?  Unemployment is still high and targeted political violence still occurs. What lies beneath the surface in Iraq? I wonder how honest of a film can we make and is it arrogant to think that we can even attempt to figure any of this out?

In meetings and interviews with tribal leaders who participated in the Al Anbar awakening, I continue to ask them where the bodies are.  They claim that there was vicious fighting between the tribes and Al Qaeda once the tribal leaders “woke up” and decided to switch allegiances.  Perhaps there are questions we are not supposed to ask, but what did they do with the Al Qaeda dead?  At the heart of the question I wonder whether they fought against Al Qaeda groups or if they were the ones following the Al Qaeda leadership, armed with money and ideology, down a treacherous path and when the Awakening occurred shot those leaders in the back of the head, about faced, and started following us down a different path.  There is no doubt that it is not that simple, many Sheiks and tribesmen were killed in the fighting, but I desperately want to know what happened and am not satisfied by the answers we are getting.  It has just got to be more complicated than the story of Abu Risha gathering the tribes to stand up to the brutality of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Did Al Qaeda’s money supply get dried up? Did ours start flowing?  Did the Marines win hearts and minds through innovative counterinsurgency tactics?  Did the Iraqis decide to take matters into their own hands?  Any ideas?

Onto our update…

Monday was rather uneventful except for one meeting in the morning with the director of the local radio station, the head of the Fallujah police, the local ePRT, and the Marine PTT.  For laypersons among you, that is the State departments embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team and the Marine Police Transition Team.  Fascinating study in the different approaches between state department personnel and the Marines.  The purpose of the meeting was to help the police and the radio station director coordinate in the case of emergencies to get information out to the public.  The Marine, being a Marine, was very direct and comfortable with his Iraqi counterpart.  It seemed the State Department official was less so, or at least took a decidedly different tact.  It seems there is a growing popular consensus in the States that we need more foreign service officers and state department personnel to do this type of work since they are the duty experts.  I couldn’t disagree more.  There are no experts and the State department folks are trying feeling there way out here just as much as the Marines, except the Marines have been doing this for 5 years.

I don’t want to diminish the work they are doing or the fact that all of them volunteered to come out here, but, well, here ya go…The head of the State Department team is a career consular officer. He spent a career overseas handling visas and immigration issues.  In Ramadi a number of Foreign Service Officers I spoke to are couriers.  Before coming to Iraq, their job was to handle carrying secure mail for embassies around the world.  They do have hired contractors who are experts in specific fields, but where are the economists, political scientists, sociologists, businessmen, cultural experts, people who speak the language, etc…?  To think we can simply replicate or create more state department personnel to handle these problems is folly.  Something different and innovative is needed and perhaps, if we had something different an innovative we wouldn’t find ourselves in these messes in the future?

As I’ve said in other updates, the Marines have adapted out here.  When asked why, the usual response is because Marines like to win.  Marines are game changers.  They want the ball at the 7 yard line on the 4th down and have proven out here that they can adapt a more nuanced approach than the use of force.  You’d be amazed to see the books stacked on their tables out here.  Next to playboys and more revealing men’s magazines are books on sociology, history, economics, and the local culture.  They’ve built solid relationships and Iraqi leadership speak fondly of friends from past battalions that have been through the AO.

Yesterday, we finally arrived at Camp Burgess, the last US post in Fallujah.  It will be closing soon and the Marines will be withdrawing to outside the city.  It is astonishing to think that just over 4 years have gone by since we fought here and now the Iraqis are largely running the show.  After unloading our gear and checking in, we headed over to the radio station to interview the director.  He spoke extensively about life in the city, the problems they still face with police corruption, and the upcoming elections.  The streets here are covered with election posters, including female candidates- some wearing full Burkahs! In 2005, the Sunnis largely boycotted the elections and lost out over the last few years because they had little representation in Baghdad.  Now they are throwing their weight into the elections and perhaps this is a sign of better days to come and a more robust political process to replace the violence.

After the radio station, we headed over to the government center to interview and have an early kabob lunch with Sheik Salah, one of the leaders of the city council.  Huge, jovial guy.  He has worked and led the city council since sometime in 2004 and said 14 of his predecessors were killed by the insurgents.  I wonder how he stayed alive.  He lost 50 tribesmen to Al Qaeda and others to the coalition, but like other Sheiks before him, was quick to add that the relatives were mistakenly killed by the coalition.  I asked how he could be so quick to forgive and he said that it was part of being a spiritual man and added, ”How can you look to a better future when you cannot escape the past.”

Last night we went out on a foot patrol through Andaloos, the shopping district in Fallujah and the site of some of the heaviest fighting my battalion experienced in 2004.  Fruit vendors were open late into the night, Mercedes drove down the streets, kids played soccer under a few working street lights.  We walked by the Blackwater Bridge, where the four Blackwater contractors were burned, beaten, and hanged in 2004.  It is now decorated with political posters and the police officers guarding the entrance to the city slapped the hands and joked with the Marines patrolling by.  I bought a banana and orange at a local vendor and another gave me the most delicious apple I’ve ever eaten.  Things have definitely changed, but I don’t dare believe I, or any other America , knows what lies beneath the surface.

Love ya’ll and thanks,

Zach

There are a few ways to view iraq:

“A haunted trash strewn Fallujah street or the fruit stand open late at night around the corner.”

“A rubbled wartorn building in Ramadi or the construction taking place beside it.”

Advertisement