Hero, friend to military community remembered

[thedrifter]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 18, 2004
TIMMI TOLER
DAILY NEWS STAFF

His "children and grandchildren" are in the service. Some are in Iraq, others are drill instructors at Parris Island, S.C. A few are retired Marines in Onslow County.

Retired Marine Sgt. Maj. John "Ski" Kalinowski had a big extended family. Friday, they were grieving. Kalinowski, a two-time winner of the Navy Cross, died Thursday after battling health problems for a number of years. He was 79.

"This community has lost one of its most decorated heroes. He was a mentor and a leader of Marines right up until the very last," said Joe Houle of Jacksonville, a retired sergeant major and close friend of Kalinowski.

Kalinowski, a military community leader after he retired from the Marine Corps in 1979 following a career that included action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, received more than 26 decorations. In addition to the Navy Crosses, they included two Bronze Stars and six Purple Hearts.

Houle said Kalinowski never stopped serving, even after retirement.

"There were a number of Marines that he called his sons and daughters. For years we thought he had 11 sons and daughters because that's what he told us," Houle said. "They were actually people he had met and took in and helped raise that he called his children. They were no blood relation."

The relation was the Marine Corps.

Kalinowski's home in Jacksonville was full of his life and the lives of his children.

Marine memorabilia dotted the walls, pictures of Marines were hanged throughout the house. Commendation letters highlighting special moments when these Marines went above and beyond the call of duty lined the hallway.

And in the corner of the dining room, a gold plaque stood alone. On it were the words "In honor of Cpl. George Kalinowski and all others who died in Hue City (Vietnam) Dec. 23, 1968."

"That was his son," Houle said. "He lost him there."

Retired Marine general and former Camp Lejeune commander Ray Smith knew Kalinowski for more than 20 years. Smith said father and son both served in Vietnam.

"Ski escorted his son's body back to the states," Smith said. Kalinowski gave the flag that graced his son's casket to Marines in 1984 to fly over their post in Beirut, Lebanon. When the flag was returned to America, Kalinowski gave it to Smith.

"I immediately liked Ski the moment I met him, before I even knew anything about him, that alone made us close," Smith said. "But the tightest part of our connection is that I am the keeper of his son's flag. It's an honor."

And although Kalinowski lost his son, Smith said he kept being a father. Kalinowski's daily routine involved mentoring young Marines and included daily trips to the USO. It wasn't an easy task - Kalinowski's service in Korea had caused major damage to his legs requiring the use of a wheelchair.

But every day he went to the USO, and every day he found a Marine to add to his family.

"For a young (private first class) to go down to the USO and sit down and talk to this old guy was a very special thing. You knew Ski was a sergeant major, what you didn't know was that he was a hero. When he talked to Marines, he'd ask them about being away from home, about life in the Corps," said Smith.

"He didn't talk about combat, he talked about human things. He was the epitome of a humble hero."

Houle said he was a living example of the best of the Marine Corps.

"He was always talking to young Marines about what it took to become successful," Houle said. "He never used himself as an example, but I certainly used him as one. There is nowhere in Marine Corps history where you can find a Marine like Ski."

Jerry Pippin, a retired Marine captain, was also a close friend of Kalinowski. The former real estate agent hired Kalinowski as a maintenance contractor after he retired from the Marine Corps.

"He was a dedicated American. He had a deep love for God, country and the Corps," Pippin said. "... He was a leader by example - not by direction."


After he retired, Kalinowski decided to call Jacksonville home. He and wife, Blanche, served the community until Blanche passed away several years ago.

Kalinowski kept serving until Thursday.

"He was at the USO on Thanksgiving talking to our Geiger Tigers. He was there for the Marines right up until the end," Houle said. "We've lost one great hero."

A memorial service and burial for John "Ski" Kalinowski will be held Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Veterans Cemetery. Arrangements are being handled by Johnson Funeral Home.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Woman is sentenced in attempt to kill Marine
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 18, 2004

The girlfriend of a woman who was married to a Camp Pendleton Marine was sentenced to eight years, four months in prison yesterday for trying on several occasions to murder the husband by shooting, poisoning and having a hit man stab him.

Ebony "Pili" Woods, 22, of Escondido, pleaded guilty Aug. 9 in San Diego federal court to attempted murder for financial gain.

She and the Marine's wife, Astrid Tepatti, 22, were arrested Jan. 4 on Interstate 8 in Imperial County with the biological poison Ricin in their car, the same day Tepatti shot at her husband in their home, according to court records.

Tepatti used a potato Woods gave her as a silencer for the gun. The bullet missed.

The two women told investigators they planned to split the proceeds from a $500,000 life insurance policy, according to court records.

Tepatti also pleaded guilty to attempted murder in August and was sentenced Nov. 15 to nearly 11 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge John Houston ordered Tepatti and Woods to be kept apart in prison and not allowed to communicate with each other.

Sgt. Stephen Tepatti said after yesterday's hearing he didn't think Woods got a long-enough sentence and that the case is unfinished because the man who stabbed him as he sat at an Oceanside beach with his wife hasn't been caught.

He blames his now-ex-wife and her girlfriend for that.

"One of them has to know his name," he said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Fallujah assault exacting heavy toll on mental health
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. National - AFP
Dec. 18, 2004

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Nearly six weeks after US marines stormed the rebel enclave of Fallujah, military psychologists are still seeing a steady stream of service personnel traumatised by the long days and nights of ferocious street fighting.

In the macho culture of the US Marine Corps, it is sometimes hard for its personnel, male or female, to admit they have a problem and some try to ride out the symptoms, only seeking help after weeks of suffering in silence.

The warning signs can range from irritability to extreme apathy, says Lieutenant Erryn Simmons, a trained psychologist who runs a combat stress management unit in this US base just outside the western Iraqi city.

Her colleague Lieutenant Thomas Fearing nods in agreement. "They are coming to us predominantly for sleep-related problems, such as insomnia or nightmares, bad dreams," he says.

"After the offensive began, we had a lot of patients, then there was this lull, and it has picked up again recently with people trying to sit on their symptoms."

The marines lost more than 50 dead and hundreds wounded, some of them seriously, in the huge assault launched on November 8, the largest since last year's invasion.

The US-backed government put rebel losses at more than 2,000, although unit commanders later revealed their troops had orders to shoot all males of fighting age seen on the streets, armed or unarmed, and ruined homes across the city attest to a strategy of overwhelming force.

The marines who seek help can be haunted by the sight of appalling injuries, the screams of wounded comrades, the fear of death, or simply the chaotic hell of combat, the psychologists say.

"We get mostly enlisted men, because they represent the bulk of our troops, but we also get a few NCOs and officers," says Simmons.

"We are here to prevent the combat stress symptoms from turning into post-combat syndrome disorder," she says.

"One technique is the listening experience, where we try to make them realise what really happened, how it happened, and why they display symptoms of stress because of this.

"We also have relaxation strategies or we can use sleep medication."

Fearing says most of those seeking help have been treated successfully through counselling, although one or two have needed more intensive therapy.

"All went back to duty, except for a few worst cases... we had a couple of them staying a few days with us," he says.

Given the difficulties of getting marines to seek help in the first place, it is perhaps understandable that the corps's press officers refused AFP's requests to interview some of the servicemen and women who were receiving treatment.

The marines were the last of the services in the US military to acknowledge that the stresses of the combat could undermine its fighting capacity and to recruit psychologists to provide counselling and other therapies.

"You are talking about a very macho, masculine environment, where there is a stigma attached to looking weak or in fear," says Simmons, one of a growing number of women in the corps.

"But I guess there's been a real shift to admit that somebody suffering from combat stress is not necessarily deranged or crazy."

At the moment the unit is treating five or six patients a day. Most return to active duty after a short series of 45-minute counselling sessions.

Simmons says that oddly it is more effective to treat traumatised personnel within their units rather than sending them home to families, who can often struggle to understand what their loved ones have been through.

"It's better if we can keep them with us, because we can provide support," she says.

"Maybe, it's better for them than to be sent back home, because, for some, their stronger family is here not there."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Details of Marine's death told
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By DAVE JONES
MODESTO BEE STAFF WRITER
December 18, 2004, 04:41:21 AM PST

A grieving father from Modesto learned the details Friday of his son's death in Iraq, and found out that another Modestan retrieved the Marine corporal's body amid a "huge firefight."

Capt. Andrew J. McNulty said Michael D. Anderson Jr.'s death Tuesday in Fallujah came "during clearing operations."

"His squad made entry with the building fully isolated and entered from the top down. He proceeded down a stairway into a kitchen and turned to make entry when an RPK machine gun shot and killed him," McNulty wrote in an e-mail.

"Five insurgents were in the room. … After an extensive firefight, the insurgents were killed and his body was removed from the house."

Two Marines notified Michael D. Anderson Sr. of his 21-year-old son's death later the same day, but said they had no details on how it happened. Anderson pushed to learn more.

"We requested it, I pressed hard to get it," Anderson said. "I needed to know."

He said Marine units such as his son's go on missions for 10 days at a time, return to base for two days, then go out again. His son's unit returned to base Friday, and McNulty had the opportunity to e-mail his account of Anderson's death.

The computer message went to a Lathrop-based Marine assigned to be with Anderson's family as they prepare for his funeral. His father provided a copy of the e-mail to The Bee.

Word from the war zone

Cpl. Terrence vanDoorn's unit also returned to base Friday. The Modesto man called his wife, Stephanie, and told her details of the battle in which Anderson died. She then called Anderson's father and passed the word.

Terrence vanDoorn is 21, a 2001 graduate of Downey High School. Anderson Jr. graduated the same year from Johansen High on the east side of town.

"Cpl. V ordered cover fire as he crawled in to recover Mike Jr.," the Marine's father wrote in an account of his conversation with Stephanie vanDoorn. "They moved Mike Jr. into a bathroom shower stall, as that must have been the cleanest, safest and most secure spot in this house.

"Bullets were flying in every direction as this huge firefight ensued. A fire started in this room due to the tremendous amount of automatic weapons fire.

"Cpl. V then went back to the shower to get Mike out of the now-burning house, running backwards carrying Mike around his chest, under his armpits. He tripped and fell, with Mike Jr. landing on top of him.

"He was successful in removing Mike from the hostilities inside, and away from the intense firefight."

Anderson added this note: "Cpl. V had to finish the mission for two more hours with the blood of my son on his fatigues, knowing that he had just lost his best friend."

Anderson said many people believe vanDoorn "deserves the top military honor possible, the Silver Star."

Cpl. Anderson's body arrived Friday morning at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and the military could conduct an "analysis" of the remains as early as today, his father said. He did not know exactly when the body would arrive home.

Anderson joined the Marine Corps after high school, and over the last three years had been dispatched to Japan, Guam, Hong Kong and Haiti. He was assigned to a Virginia-based Fleet Antiterrorist Security Team, or FAST, described by his father as a SWAT-like team.

The Corps sent him to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in late February to protect the U.S. Embassy and staff during a rebel uprising.

Thursday, Anderson Sr. received a visit from a Marine who served as a guard at the same embassy in 1979 and 1980. Anderson Sr. said he knew his visitor, Jerry Harmon, but had not seen him in 20 years or so. As young men, they attended the same church and worked at a service station together.

Harmon showed up with a U.S. flag, folded in a triangle, and gave the banner to Anderson.

The flag had flown outside the embassy in Haiti when Harmon was there. He said he "retired" the flag, torn and tattered, after a hurricane in 1980. By giving the flag to the Anderson family, he said, "I thought it would help with some sort of connection to Mike."

Anderson said: "For me to have a flag off that embassy, a flag that a Marine took down … I will cherish that."

Another flag tribute

At the state Capitol on Friday, Gov. Schwarzenegger ordered flags lowered to half-staff in Anderson's honor.

"Our prayers go out to Cpl. Anderson's family and the entire community of Modesto as they mourn Michael's death and celebrate his life," the governor said. "His life and his admirable service to our country in the fight for freedom will not be forgotten."

Anderson Jr. chose to leave his FAST unit in May, opting for a transfer to the West Coast. The Marine Corps sent him to Camp Pendleton, which put him in line for duty in Iraq. He shipped out Sept. 11.

"At first, he was all gung-ho, like everybody is," his father said. "He called after the first firefight he was in and said it was the greatest day of his life."

But his attitude changed quickly. He told his family that he was having nightmares and could not get the smell of flesh and blood out of his head.

"He was tough as nails," his father said. "You know when they say that Marines are a different breed? I didn't know what they were talking about until I had one for a son."

Two funds have been set up in the wake of Anderson's death: His family is collecting money to help pay travel expenses for Anderson's FAST Marine buddies who want to attend his funeral. Contributions should be directed to the Mike Anderson Jr. Fund at the Bank of America, 1737 Oakdale Road, Modesto 95355, in care of Sabrina Tinajero. Postal Service employees have set up a fund for Anderson's mother, Jennifer Tyson, who works at the downtown Modesto post office. She said the money will go to a veterans cause, likely medical care in the Modesto area. Donations can be made at the city's main post office, 715 Kearney Ave., in care of Debbie Fong.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Those who practice to deceive
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BY JAMES P. PINKERTON
Omaha World-Herald

Can reporters be trusted with war information? Can the government be trusted?

We're still finding out - or maybe we're not finding out.

One of the great successes of World War II was Operation Fortitude, aimed at cloaking the D-Day invasion in a "bodyguard of lies."

The Allies wished to convince the Germans that the invasion force would cross the English Channel and land near the town of Pas de Calais, at the Channel's narrowest point.

So the Allies created a phantom army, with inflatable rubber tanks and papier-mache airplanes. To further the illusion, they created a fake navy, too, and put out faux radio transmissions. Meanwhile, the real assault armies were assembling farther south.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, the Allies landed at Normandy, 200 miles from Calais. Not only was the Normandy coast lightly defended, but the Germans were still convinced the "real" attack was coming at Calais. By the time they figured out the deception, it was too late.

Operation Fortitude was, in the words of Air Force historian Ernest Tavares Jr., a "near-perfect plan," leaving the Germans "essentially blind." And that's the way to win a war.

So to the obvious question: Could anything so sneaky as Operation Fortitude be pulled off today? Could thousands of people be kept quiet in a world full of cell phones, e-mail and text messaging, all interfacing with an ever-proliferating number of cable news channels, bloggers and listservs?

Which is to say, in other words, that "the media" today aren't just a few reporters who might be pep-talked or intimidated into keeping a secret.

Instead, "the media" include millions of people representing different traditions, different countries, different loyalties. Could such a buzzing collectivity even begin to keep a secret?

The United States is hardly helpless. U.S. forces deposed Saddam Hussein in just three weeks of fighting last year.

But the larger objectives in the "Global War on Terror" - defeating the insurgents, democratizing Iraq, winning hearts and minds across the Middle East - remain to be achieved. It's apparent that reports and images from Iraq, most notably the Abu Ghraib prison photos and the video of the Marine shooting a wounded man in Fallujah, aren't helping the U.S. cause.

It's not so much that the media are untrustworthy, although many in the military might argue that they are. It's that the "press," from Al-Jazeera reporters to the humblest free- lancer, is simply uncontrollable. Absent an enormous paradigm shift, that won't change.

But the military is preparing just such a paradigm shift.

On Dec. 1, the Los Angeles Times revealed that in September the Pentagon had established a "strategic communications office" to wage information - or disinformation - warfare in Iraq. The Times reported that an Oct. 14 announcement by the Marines of a seeming attack on Fallujah, carried on CNN, was, in fact, a fake-out of the enemy.

It's hard to argue against deceiving the enemy in wartime. But it must also be noted that such deceptions are soon covered by the media - which is to say, they are uncovered.

Of course, it's possible that the military has launched a hundred other Fortitude-like fakes that have gone unreported. But now we know - or we think we know - that the Pentagon plans to create a "director of central information" to control "strategic information."

That new post is not to be confused with the "national intelligence director," the new slot created to oversee the CIA and other spy outfits - one thinks.

But now that the directorate of information has been revealed, what does that revelation do to the American government's credibility? Is it really a good idea to have, in effect, a Ministry of Deception if its existence is known to the world?

In the future, it might be harder for the enemy to know what's going on, and that's good. But it will surely be harder for Americans to know what's going on, and that's not so good.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

For 53-year-old, recall by Marines 'very important to me'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAROLYN KASTER
Associated Press

LEBANON, Pa. - This is what Frank Ryan is bringing with him to Iraq:

Fourteen pairs of socks, 10 pairs of underwear, eight uniforms, and an alarm clock with his son Matthew's picture in it. Four razors, the lubricated kind for dry shaving, a knife, one sweater, two hats, long thermal underwear for sleeping and more family photos on a CD.

And that's not to mention the venison jerky for instant protein from Jan and Chuck Soulliard, friends from the post office.

Ryan is a 53-year-old retired Marine colonel with 32 years of active and reserve duty under his belt.

An accountant from Lebanon, he got a phone call from the Marine Corps' manpower office in August. Officials wanted to see if he would come out of retirement to serve in Iraq.

Could he pass the physical? Was he interested?

Yes, he said, he would be ready to go. "Being able to be part of this is very important to me," he explained.

On Nov. 3, his orders came in the mail, marked "Involuntary Presidential Select Recall." This was no longer a courtesy call. He would deploy on Dec. 5 to serve as deputy chief of the multinational force in Iraq. Ryan's assignment: to be responsible to the chief of staff and commanding general to coordinate the planning and operations of ground forces.

For Frank Ryan, 2004 is ending in ways he could hardly have imagined when the hectic year began.

In preparation for deployment, Ryan started jogging four times a week to lose the 20 pounds he had gained while running for the 17th congressional district seat in central Pennsylvania. He lost the Republican nomination to Scott Paterno.

He had to close his accounting business temporarily and refer his current clients. He had to finish landscaping the front yard. He had to prepare his four grown children and his wife, Sherrie. He was going into harm's way.

One of the hardest parts of the deployment for Ryan was stopping the adoption of a baby girl from China.

When he retired two years ago, he and Sherrie thought it would be wonderful to have another child, and so they started the adoption process. Just before Ryan got his orders they were told they would be paired up with a child and travel to China to get her as early as January. They chose the name Julia Rose.

The deployment made the adoption impossible, since the Chinese adoption agency required them to pick up the baby together. The adoption will have to wait. It's for the best, Ryan said.

"This is not going to happen, but if I became a casualty, what would it mean for the baby?" he said.

He had already set up an education fund for Julia Rose.

In the period before deployment, Ryan prepared himself mentally for combat.

"I tell this to any of my young Marines: You are going into a different world and have to be prepared for just about anything," he said. "They can't afford to take anything for granted."

For Ryan, that means breaking up normal everyday patterns, such as getting up and having a cup of coffee. "Don't have a pattern to your daily life," he said. "Patterns will get you killed."

Another aspect of mental preparation is what he calls "personnel accountability."

"It is real easy to wake up in the morning and say, four kids, my wife, three dogs, I'm covered," he said. "Now I need to know where everybody is every second of the day, and: Are they OK? And so you mentally have to be prepared. You can't take your eye off of one person once. Real leadership is defined by your ability to care for others."

Ryan joined the Marines as soon as he turned 18, at the height of the Vietnam War.

His son, Matthew Ryan, 22, enlisted with the Pennsylvania National Guard right out of high school. He will be commissioned in May when he graduates from Penn State. He has chosen the infantry and expects to be sent to Iraq.

On Sunday, Dec. 5, Frank Ryan had a cup of coffee out of his favorite mug. He put on his new uniform and loaded his bags in the family Volvo station wagon. He gave the dogs a goodbye cookie.

Then he and Sherrie and three friends headed for Harrisburg International Airport. First, he'd fly to Camp Lejeune, N.C., then later to Iraq.

As Ryan checked in at the airport counter using his one-way ticket, he struck up a conversation with another traveler, John Hatton, a retired New York police officer and former Marine. When they parted, Ryan gave a quick salute and smile, and Hatton said, "I will say a rosary for you, Colonel."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Supporting the troops
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Editorials/Op-Ed section
The Washington Times
Dec. 18, 2004

There are plenty of ways to help U.S. servicemen overseas this holiday season, even with Christmas a few days away. Just ask 15-year-old Shauna Fleming of Anaheim Hills, Calif. Shauna started a wartime letter-writing campaign last spring in her high school that turned into something extraordinary.

The campaign recently topped 1 million letters to soldiers with the aid of her Web site ( www.amillionthanks.org ). In a ceremony at the White House to commemorate the millionth letter, President Bush thanked Shauna personally and invited her and her parents into the Oval Office for a private chat. Shauna's next goal: 1.4 million letters, one for each member of every service.

In years past, you could wrap up a care package and mail it to "Any Service Member" for the holidays. These days, the Pentagon is asking you not to do that. This doesn't mean you can't help. Financial contributions, letter-writing and e-mail, authorized pre-made care packages available for purchase or volunteer work through non-profits can all give servicemen a holiday blessing. Here are some of the best ways to do it.

One of the oldest options, the United Service Organization, is still one of the best. A general donation to the USO pays for hospital support for recuperating soldiers, the famous USO entertainment tours and other important services (call 1-800-876-7469 or visit www.uso.org/pubs/8_20_10417.cfm ). The USO also pays for long-distance calls back home, pre-made care packages and even home computers for servicemens' families.

A $10 donation to Operation Phone Home buys a serviceman 100 minutes on the phone and pays to ship the card (1-800-901-1501 or www.uso.org/donate). $25 to Operation USO Care Package buys a safe and secure means of sending morale-boosting personal items (1-877-USO-GIVE or www.usocares.org ). Gift certificates for use on military bases are also encouraged (1-877-770-443 as is Operation Homelink, which gives computers to military families (1-312-863-6336 or www.operationhomelink.org ).

Other trustworthy services are the Armed Forces Relief Trust ( www.afrtrust.org ) and the individual military relief agencies: the Army Emergency Relief (866-878-6378 or www.aerhq.org), the Air Force Aid Society (800-769-8951 or www.afas.org), the Coast Guard Mutual Assistance (800-881-2462 or www.cgmahq.org ) and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (703-696-4906 or www.nmcrs.org ). These groups are officially sponsored by the Pentagon and provide vital emergency services but receive no government funding whatsoever. They rely entirely upon private donations to do their good work.

You can also help by simply sending an e-mail. You can log on to Shauna's site ( www.amillionthanks.org ) or you can use a new Pentagon program, "America Supports You," which lets users send messages to soldiers and vice versa. "America Supports You" ( www.americasupportsyou.mil ) lets you read messages to soldiers and read messages the soldiers return from the front.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The Power of Shame
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Steven Vincent
National Review Online
Dec. 14-17, 2004

EDITOR'S NOTE:This is the first in a five-part series of excerpts from "In the Red Zone" by Steven Vincent. Together they constitute Chapter 4, "The 'Resistance.'"

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow - and they will win. - Michael Moore

She was a Sunni Muslim, an attractive, thirty-something writer, one of the few women I met who eschewed a scarf in public. And she was overjoyed at the demise of Saddam. "I am so happy! Freedom at last! The world is open to me now!" she exclaimed during a small social function at an art gallery in Karada. "Can you recommend some American magazines I might send my writing to?"

I promised I'd draw up a list of suitable periodicals, then added - carelessly, for this was my first trip to Iraq - "You must not mind seeing American soldiers on the streets."

The woman's smile vanished. Her brow darkened and she shook her head. "Oh, no. I hate the soldiers. I hate them so much I fantasize about taking a gun and shooting one dead."

Stunned by her vehemence, "But American soldiers are responsible for your freedom!" I replied.

"I know," the woman snarled. "And you can't imagine how humiliated that makes me feel."

He was a short, intense, bespectacled lawyer from Baquba, who claimed he had connections with anti-Coalition forces in the Sunni Triangle. As we drove through the desert into Baghdad, "I hate your country," he informed me. "Every time I see a U.S. tank I feel like it is crushing my skull."

Less startled by this expression - for this was my second trip to Iraq - I asked the attorney the cause of his feelings. As if explaining the most self-evident thing in the world, he replied, "America is occupying my country - as a patriot, of course I must resist." He fixed his wire-rimmed gaze on me. "Imagine if a foreign power was occupying America - wouldn't you resist?"

I think of these people each time I read about violence in the Sunni Triangle, that one-hundred-mile area stretching from Tikrit to the north, Ramadi to the east, and Baghdad to the west. I think of similar Iraqi confessions of shame, resentment, or "patriotism" each time I hear of an American soldier or Iraqi civilian killed by an IED, mortar assault, or car bomb. I feel a simmering anger over the pointlessness of these attacks and those aspects of Arab psychology that cling to humiliation and rely on violence to satisfy grievances. And my anger burns hotter when I read comments from the Western media ennobling these murderous "insurgents" by calling them the "Resistance" - or, more horribly, the "Revolution" - ignoring the thousands of Iraqis who risk their lives every day opposing the nihilistic bloodlust of these men.

After more than eighteen months of fighting in Iraq, there seems to be no means of dealing with this insurrection. The Kurds and the Shia (renegade cleric Moqtada al-Sadr notwithstanding) have shown a willingness to negotiate over the future of Iraq - why not the Sunnis? What do they hope to gain from their "guerrilla" war against the U.S. and against the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi? More important, what factors in the Arab Iraqi character lie behind Sunni opposition to a democratic Iraq, and why can't American politicians, military personnel and members of the media seem to understand them?

We hadn't considered it, those of us who supported the war. After all, it made no sense, it was unreasonable. And yet, the moment I spoke to that woman at the art gallery, I knew: even as they were being liberating from Saddam, Iraqis felt shamed by the fact that they couldn't do the job themselves.

"If only you'd given us more time, we would have risen up and overthrown him," a waiter at the Orient Palace lectured me a couple of days later. "It's terrible, when I think of it," a student at Baghdad University said. "A foreign army has to come across the world to free us from Saddam - who are we, then?" This sense of indignity, of loss of "face," explained the ungracious gratitude many Iraqis evinced toward the U.S. - the "Thanks America, now go home" syndrome. How naïve we were to believe that they would greet our troops with flowers, as Dick Cheney so famously and wrongly predicted. As the Center for Strategic and International Studies explained in a report on Iraq's reconstruction, "the United States should expect continuing resentment and disaffection even if the U.S.-led reconstruction efforts seem to be making positive, incremental improvements to the country according to quantifiable measures. In other words, the occupation will not be judged by the sum of its consequences, but rather qua occupation."

In retrospect, it seems obvious. No one likes being beholden to another for his freedom. The Iraqis consider it incomprehensible that a people with a glorious Sumerian and Babylonian heritage and a country with rich natural resources had to rely on foreigners for rescue. "No wonder civilization began here," said a teacher at the Shabandar café. "We have everything - food, water, oil, minerals." This pride, however, has its negatives. Since Iraq today isn't in much of a position to fulfill its potential, its people often project their sense of superiority outward - most notably on the United States - which only reinforces their sense of national disgrace.

EDITOR'S NOTE:This is the second in a five-part series of excerpts from In the Red Zone by Steven Vincent.

America the Omnipotent - Many Iraqis overestimated U.S. capabilities

France may see us as a barely-restrainable "hyperpower"; the Iraqis — at least in the beginning of the "occupation" — saw us as simply omnipotent. The ease with which our armies overran their country reinforced that idea, as did America's chest-thumping over its technological know-how. As a result, many Iraqis developed a warped view of U.S. competence and intentions. Since America was all-powerful, they reasoned, we couldn't make mistakes or act incompetently: such blunders must really be part of some Bush Administration master strategy.

Take, for example, the looting and fires that wracked Baghdad immediately after Saddam's fall. Where we might blame a catastrophic lack of Pentagon foresight, numerous Iraqis contended that America encouraged the looting in order to demonstrate the Iraqi people's inability to govern themselves. Approaching the status of an urban legend was the story of GIs who broke open the National Museum and invited passersby to help themselves to priceless antiquities. A cab driver swore to me that he had witnessed American soldiers exhorting crowds to ransack government buildings with hearty cries of, "Go on, people, take what you want!" I heard similar stories about Americans urging the pillage of expensive homes in Karada — although in my perambulations through the neighborhood, I saw no evidence of such damage. But that is incidental: the real point of these stories isn't truth, but rather the comfort they provide Iraqi people in shifting the blame for acts of criminal vandalism from themselves to devious Uncle Sam.

The overestimation of U.S. capabilities also distorted Iraqi notions of what to expect from our country. Since America was omnipotent, why couldn't it gin up the electrical grid, restore peace and tranquility, and provide employment to everyone — today? Here again, the U.S. was victim both of Iraqi projections and its own high-tech wizardry. Try to explain to an Iraqi housewife the difficulties of repairing an electrical system decades out of date and beset by saboteurs, and she'd cock a skeptical eyebrow. This from a nation with weapons so smart they can look up a target's address in the Baghdad yellow pages? No, the only reason America dropped the quality-of-life ball was that Bush wanted to keep Iraq downtrodden and dependent.

Not every Iraqi thought this way, of course. Still, I encountered these sentiments often enough to recognize that they pervade the nation's self-image and compensate for another, equally unrealistic, but even more debilitating characteristic: severe feelings of defeat and impotence. As Raphael Patai wrote in his classic, and controversial, 1974 book, The Arab Mind, "The encounter with the West produced a disturbing inferiority complex in the Arab mind which in itself makes it more difficult to shake off the shackles of stagnation."

A good illustration of Patai's observation was the conversation I had with Ahmed, the piano player at Fifties. Possessed of a superb knowledge of the American songbook, Ahmed would play, at my request, medleys of Sinatra songs, accompanying himself in a reedy, but serviceable, voice. One night, however, he ventured beyond "Angel Eyes" and "A Quarter to Three" to give me the low-down on the Iraq situation. "The only reason America invaded was to steal our national resources," he confided, during a break from his ivory-tickling. Ahmed's proof? America didn't actually have to invade Iraq in order to topple Saddam, he noted; all it really had to do was beam down special radiation from super-secret satellites orbiting overhead, which would scramble Baath Party communications and enable "the Iraqi people to overthrow Saddam." Why hadn't they overthrown him before? "Saddam wasn't in power just by himself, you know — he had very powerful backers." And who were these backers? "The Jews," Ahmed replied. You see, Jews not only supported Saddam, the pianist maintained, but also manipulated him into attacking Iran in order to "keep the Arabs down and — "

At this point, I requested he play "Send in the Clowns," and escaped to my room.

It is tempting to discount Ahmed's analysis as typical of the anti-Semitism one finds with tedious regularity in Iraq. But it reveals many of the demons that lie beneath the surface of the Iraqi national character: historical grievances, conspiratorial thinking, and a kind of bi-polar superiority-inferiority dynamic. Moreover, his comments point to another, equally troubling impulse that confuses Western observers and informs the nature of the Iraqi "insurgency": an unwillingness to take the blame for Saddam.

As dissident Iraqi intellectual Kanan Makiya wrote in The Monument, his 1991 book about art and culture in Iraq, "The question of responsibility has to be posed completely differently in a state ruled by fear than it would in an ordinary state, because on the whole the populace does not feel itself responsible for the actions of its rulers, even when it knows that momentous life and death decisions are taken in its name."

Iraqis refuse to accept that their society allowed a monster like Saddam to take power. Instead, they see him as an aberration, as if he were a maniacal gunman who suddenly burst into their homes, seized their families, and terrorized their neighbors, until the police finally stormed in and captured the lunatic. Now, standing amidst the ruins caused by the raid, they say to their rescuers, "It wasn't our fault this madman got in here. Thanks for getting rid of him — now, how soon are you going to repair our house?" They overlook that from 1968 to 1980, Iraq lived happily under the control of the Nazi-inspired Baath Party, while reaping the benefits of an oil-rich economy. (How many times did I hear how wonderful Baghdad was in the 1970s?) Not until Saddam seized complete control of the nation in 1979 and launched the war on Iran — and then on the Kurds, and then on Kuwait, and then on the Shia — did they realize they belonged to a madman. But by then it was too late.

continued...

[thedrifter]

At the same time, though, there are many Iraqis who, like my Baquba lawyer, don't care why American troops are in their country, only that they are here — and so must pay for that offense in lost and shattered lives. The shame that many Iraqis feel is not enough to compel them to take up arms against the Coalition — if that were the case, the volume of weaponry in Baghdad alone would make the U.S. presence untenable. (The Shia, in particular, must have enormous secret depots of small-arms ordinance just to shoot into the air to celebrate marriages.) Rather, there is another, more combustible aspect in the Iraqi personality, something that seeks healing for the wound of humiliation in violence and bloodletting. To find it, I traveled to the Sunni Triangle itself.

EDITOR'S NOTE:This is the third in a five-part series of excerpts from In the Red Zone

The Oppressive Occupier? - This wasn’t how the liberation was supposed to go!

Violence is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction; it makes him fearless and restores his self-respect. -- Franz Fanon

Nam, nam, Saddam! (Yes, yes, Saddam!) -- An Iraqi boy, Fallujah, January, 2004

One beautiful late winter morning, I found myself standing on a street corner in downtown Fallujah, surrounded by a crowd of Iraqi men, each person shoving forward to express an identical sentiment: hatred for the United States of America.

"America bad, worse than Saddam. They must leave our country at once!" one man growled.

"American soldiers no good. Life was better under Saddam!" said another.

"We have no gas, no electricity, no security. When Saddam was president, everything was fine, life was good."

"Saddam was a good man. We hate President Bush! We hate America!"

The conversation didn't start this way. At first, I approached two men on the corner and we engaged in a reasonable, relatively balanced critique of the U.S. presence near their city. Gradually, though, as more people joined the group, the volume of the voices rose. Each accusation against America spawned another, harsher, castigation. Newcomers entering the discussion added even more severe views, until the entire encounter took on a radical tone. It was a phenomenon I noticed several times over there, especially in the Sunni Triangle. In heated conversation, there was a rush toward the extremes: the more vehement and violent the view, the more likely it would emerge as the consensus of a group.

Not that I was particularly alarmed this morning. Anticipating a flood of anti-American invective in this ancient smugglers den thirty-five miles west of Baghdad, I identified myself as a Yugoslavian journalist, gambling on Iraqi ignorance of southeast Europe to see the deception through. It worked. No one challenged me, or asked for any documents; in fact, nearly everyone was exceedingly polite, if agitated. Perhaps the residents didn't care where a reporter was from, just as long as he gave an ear to their complaints.

"The people here are angry," observed Dhia, as we drove away, passing a broken-down amusement park near Fallujah's souk. I nodded, resisting a temptation to ask him what he felt about America: the last thing I needed was to be alienated from my own driver in the heart of the Sunni Triangle.

I met Dhia in the fall when I asked the Armenian desk clerk at the Orient Palace to recommend someone to take me to the holy Shia cities of Karbala and Najaf. A gentle, slightly effeminate man with a soft smile and feathery voice, the twenty-nine-year-old dressed in neat slacks and polo shirts, had a good command of English, and drove his own BMW. In our travels throughout southern Iraq, he proved a good and trustworthy companion. When I returned to Iraq that winter, I contacted him, asking if he could take me to the towns of the Sunni Triangle. "No problem, Mister Steve — with me, you will be safe," Dhia promised.

And so, under his watchful eye, I assessed the intensity of anti-American sentiment. In Ramadi, a bustling market town of around 450,000 people, I conversed with a man preparing for the Friday lunch rush at an outdoor café. "America should leave now, not tomorrow," he declared, chopping lamb into little kebob squares. "Iraq is not safe because they are here. Americans shoot anyone, they break into homes and steal money." At a tea stand, a studious-looking young man shook his head. "At first we welcomed America. Then the soldiers began killing people." Another crowd gathered, everyone eager to tell the inquisitive Yugoslav why they despise the U.S.: no electricity, no gas; GIs break into houses, arrest people, and "touch" women. Life was better under Saddam. I asked nine small boys gawking at me if the former dictator was a "good man." All nine said yes.

One can perhaps understand why. Although totaling around 15 percent of Iraq's Arab population, the Sunnis have dominated Iraq since the mid-sixteenth century, when the Ottoman Empire used the sect as a bulwark against the Shia-influenced Persians to the east. In the twentieth century, the British and Iraq's British-controlled monarchy continued the policy of favoring the Sunnis and their well-developed administrative skills. Under Saddam, a Sunni himself, the religious sect reached the apogee of its power, thriving under a system of patronage and government benefits that awarded them top positions in all aspects of Iraqi life. In 2003, the American war machine ended their reign; suddenly, the jobs, pensions, and prestige the Sunnis used to lord over the Kurds and Shia were gone.

On a Ramadi street corner, I found a graying old man wearing a tattered brown sweater struggling to serve a small knot of men gathered around his portable tea stand. "I was a teacher, in my retirement," he related when the rush subsided and he had a moment to talk. "I received a nice pension from the government. When the Americans came at first I was happy — no more Saddam! Then they cut my pension. Later, they gave me $30 a month, then raised it to $60. But how can I live on that much? I had to come out of retirement. Meanwhile, there is no gas, no electricity, no salaries for the people. When Saddam was in power, we had all this. My life was fine. Now look at me. I have to sell tea to support my family."

En route to Khaldiya, we encountered a parked m-1 Abrams tank, its barrel aimed at windshield level at oncoming traffic. Dhia, however, would not enter the town itself. "They kill foreigners there," he murmured, reminding me that a few days previously, an IED killed three GIs in the area. Instead, we stopped at a roadside vegetable stand for an earful of anti-U.S. vituperation. At one point, a young man motioned toward three Bradleys lumbering down the road. "There go the Ali Baba," he spat. I noticed that Iraqis either sped up or slowed down to distance themselves from the convoy; one car actually drove off the road. No one wanted to be near a potential target of an IED or a rocket-propelled grenade.

It was painful to see America the object of so much hatred and fear, the very image of an oppressive occupier. It was worse when we found ourselves behind a trio of Humvees. Dhia crept several car lengths behind the rear vehicle, and I looked at the GI manning the roof-mounted m60 machine gun (Where was he from? What city? Where did his parents live?), reflecting on the isolation of these young men out here, how the Iraqis shun and avoid them, even as they face the threat that a roadside pile of debris will erupt into fire and shrapnel. This was not how the liberation was supposed to go.

EDITOR'S NOTE:This is the fourth in a five-part series of excerpts from In the Red Zone by Steven Vincent. Together they constitute Chapter 4, "The 'Resistance.'"

Rage Against the Foreigner -Dishonor propelled the Sunni insurgency

In Fallujah, Dhia and I visit the headquarters of the Islamic Political Party of Iraq. There, I asked a Sunni cleric seated on his diwan, or long couch, why he thought his Shia brethren had proven more cooperative with the U.S. He offered a mirthless smile. "The Shia think America liberated them from Saddam. But America did not come to liberate, they came for oil. America must leave immediately." But without the presence of U.S. troops, wouldn't Iraq slide into terrorist violence? "Let the soldiers leave, peace will come," the cleric replied, fingering his prayer beads. "They are the terrorists who kill the Iraqi people."

He has a point. Heavily-armed American soldiers, untrained for the kind of constabulary work that urban combat demands, are guilty of killing Iraqi civilians. In April, 2003, for example, 82nd Airborne troops in Fallujah shot and killed eighteen, apparently unarmed Iraqis; in September, 2003, troops mistakenly killed eight policemen just west of the city. In every town through the Sunni Triangle, similar incidents have taken place. (The military claims it does not keep statistics on civilian deaths.) Moreover, the day-to-day aspects of the American presence are infuriating: roadblocks, bridge closings, curfews. House searches can be brutal: doors kicked in, furniture overturned, rooms ransacked, whole families rousted. In the Sunni Triangle, American troops truly are an occupier.

continued.....

[thedrifter]

Over the next couple of weeks, Dhia and I crisscrossed the area, popping out of his car in towns west of Baghdad, as well as in Samarra, Baquba, and Tikrit (hometown of Uncle Saddam) to the north, to...

[thedrifter]

And if this psychic chain-mail is breached? The Arab, he continues, "must defend his public image. Any injury done to a man's honor must be revenged, or else he becomes permanently dishonored," Pryce-Jones writes. "Shame is a living death, not to be endured, requiring that it be avenged." For my part, I discovered this cultural and psychological phenomenon throughout the Sunni Triangle. While conversing with dozens of residents, I felt much less the anger of a population that was "occupied," "oppressed," or "enslaved" than the self-loathing of a people in disgrace. After decades of imperious rule, the Sunni Baathists were crushed by America — shamed, humiliated, they felt they had lost something perhaps even more precious than jobs or political power: honor.

Dishonor. This, I came to understand, was a huge factor that propelled the Sunni insurgency and gave it such an air of pointless, self-destructive violence. It is also the reason, I believe, why non-Middle Eastern observers have such trouble understanding the nature of this conflict — particularly Americans, who have no real experience with those extended families called tribes. Nor do we feel any longer a visceral connection between honor and self-respect, or the necessity of the lex talionis ("an eye for an eye," or, as an Arab proverb has it, dam butlub dam, "blood demands blood") to avenge humiliation. But the militants in the Sunni Triangle do. In order to reclaim their personal, family and clan reputations, these Iraqis seek to kill American troops, for only American blood can redeem their honor. The roadside ambushes and barbaric immolations correspond to archaic tribal codes where self-respect is restored only through violence and loss of life.

No wonder the insurgents — and many other Iraqis as well — seem to dwell on the edge of a bottomless chasm of rage: the shame they experience from the American invasion eats away at them. No wonder, too, that the insurgents' movement seems so vague. In my travels through the Sunni Triangle and my time in Baghdad I never once saw any symbols, propaganda, or call letters (FLN, NLF, IRA, and so on) that might refer to an organized "liberation front." These "resistance" fighters — or, à la Moore, Iraqi "minutemen" — seemed to have no leaders, issue no communiqués, propound no programs, or even have a name. But why should they? Their primary interest is their own "honor." They may claim they are "patriots" fighting for Iraq — many are, in fact, soldiers and officers from the old Iraqi Army — but at heart they see themselves as tribal warriors engaged in the venerable tradition of honor killings against the biggest tribe of all: America.

By failing immediately to occupy and pacify the Sunni Triangle during the war, the U.S. allowed the affiliation between tribal groups and the Baath Party to reform and reassert itself. Gradually, a combination of embarrassment, humiliation, disgrace, and dishonor, fueled by a genuine diminution in the Sunnis' quality of life, compelled these Iraqis to seek revenge rather than political negotiation. Attacks on U.S. soldiers produced American counter-responses, killing Iraqi civilians and initiating further cycles of honor and revenge slayings. Gradually, the Sunni's tribal mentality drew the U.S. into a new kind of war: an unreasonable war fought not for familiar goals like territory, riches, or ideology, but for the irrational, intangible prizes of honor and self-respect.

EDITOR'S NOTE:This is the last in a five-part series of excerpts from In the Red Zone by Steven Vincent. Together they constitute Chapter 4, "The 'Resistance.'"

The Wrong Words - Moral and linguistic clarity are crucial in this conflict

We must also take action against our own Iraqi citizens who choose to collaborate with the enemy. . . . If someone you know is considering taking a job with the Americans, tell him that he is engaging in treason and encourage him to seek honest work instead. If he refuses, you must kill him as a warning to other weak-minded individuals. — Ted Rall

As long as we're here, we're the occupying power.It's a very ugly word, but its true. — Paul Bremer

Barely a week after my last visit to Fallujah, twenty-two policemen died when their station came under a fierce and organized assault by some seventy attackers. I have often wondered if my mustachioed friend with whom I lunched was among the fatalities, but I will never know.

Nor will I ever know the identity of the assailants. Hearing about the attack in Baghdad, I surfed the internet for additional information. I found anti-war websites — among them, the indomitable Occupation Watch — that called the gunmen the "resistance." The London-based news service Reuters used the term "guerrillas"; another news source mentioned "insurgents." Returning to my room, I caught a BBC-TV newscaster who reported that the fighters were "insurgents, anti-Coalition forces, whatever you want to call them."

Of those three descriptions, the BBC's was the most accurate — if nothing else, the reporter captured the confusion over what to call the combatants who continue to kill American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. Despite their VC-like stealth, are they really "guerillas"? Even though they appear to be rising up against a foreign "occupation," do they deserve the term "insurgents?" Although they, and others, claim they are "resisting" the Coalition, does that make them a "Resistance?"

This is not mere semantics. The terms the media use to report on Iraq profoundly affect how Americans perceive this conflict and, by extension, how much blood and treasure they are willing to sacrifice on behalf of the Iraqi people. To put it another way, the degree to which America's conception of this war remains unclear and misleading constitute victories to those who would rob the Iraqis of their future. Moral clarity is crucial in this conflict.

Unfortunately, America lost this clarity within weeks of the war's beginning. As soon as Saddam's statue fell in Firdousi Square, both pro- and anti-war camps accepted the notion that the U.S.-led Coalition was an "occupying" power. The term is accurate in a legal sense, of course, enshrined in international conventions and recognized by the un, but supporters of the war should have avoided and, when confronted with it, vigorously contested its use. For there is another way of viewing the situation. Once, in a Baghdad restaurant, I overhead some Westerners and Iraqis discussing the conflict — when the Westerners asked what they thought of the "occupation," one Iraqi retorted, "What 'occupation'? This is a liberation."

Words matter. By not sufficiently challenging the term "occupation," Coalition supporters ceded crucial rhetorical ground to opponents of the war, and in the process fell into a dialectical trap. Simply put, the epithet "occupation" has a negative connotation — for example, "occupied France." Conversely, anyone who objects to being occupied and chooses to "resist" has our sympathies. (How many movies have you seen where the resistance fighters are the villains?) On an emotional level, skillfully manipulated by the Coalition's enemies, the situation in Iraq quickly boiled down to an easily grasped, if erroneous, equation: the occupation is bad; the resistance is good.

Since the Coalition represented the negative pole, its motives, means, goals, and very presence were prejudged as suspect. In contrast, since the "Resistance" reflected the positive pole, it received automatic validation, if not the admiration and actual support of people all over the world. If one side suffered the burden of proof, the other enjoyed the benefit of the doubt. "America is occupying my country — of course I must resist," the Baquba lawyer had stated, a declaration that, in the minds of the anti-war crowd from Baghdad to Seattle, seems fair, legitimate, and admirable.

In 2004, the June issue of Harper's featured an article entitled "Beyond Fallujah: A Year with the Iraqi Resistance." In the July 1 edition of England's Guardian newspaper, Seumas Milne, a bitter opponent of Iraq's liberation, wrote, "It has become ever clearer that [the insurgents] are in fact a classic resistance movement with widespread support waging an increasingly successful guerrilla war against the occupying armies." "Iraqi Resistance Breaks Away From Zarqawi," announced the July 5, 2004, Washington Times. The word "guerrillas" is used even more frequently: "ABC Footage Shows Iraqi Guerillas With Hostage," announced the website for ABC News on April 10. "Iraqi Guerrillas Gun Down Four Americans," declared the AP on June 21. "Guerrillas Seize Six Foreign Hostages In Iraq," read the AP headline for a July 21 article.

Let's unpack these terms for a moment. What do we mean when we say the "Resistance?" Like the word "occupation," it is technically true: the people planting IEDs, piloting car bombs, and beheading foreign workers are "resisting" the Coalition. But like "occupation," "resistance" is not a neutral word. It conjures images of heroic struggles for national liberation: the French "Resistance," for example, or the Viet Cong or Algerian FLN. The same holds true with the word "guerrillas" — it, too, evokes heroic rebels, flaunting their independence in the face of impotent U.S. rage: Che, Fidel, Uncle Ho, Daniel Ortega, Sub-Commander Marcos.

But apply these concepts to Iraq and you misrepresent the situation. The conflict there is not a mid-twentieth century colonial uprising. The anti-government fedayeen are not Fanon's "wretched of the earth." The gunmen are not "indigenous peoples" fighting an anti-imperialistic conflict. To view them through a Marxist-Chomskyite-anti-capitalist-Hollywood template is an exercise in false moral clarity. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in October, 2003: "The great irony is that the Baathists and Arab dictators are opposing the U.S. in Iraq because — unlike many leftists — they understand exactly what this war is about. They understand that U.S. power is not being used in Iraq for oil, or imperialism, or to shore up a corrupt status quo, as it was in Vietnam and elsewhere in the Arab world during the cold war. They understand that this is the most radical-liberal revolutionary war the US has ever launched — a war of choice to install some democracy in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world."

continued....

[thedrifter]

And this doesn't include the hundreds of foreign jihadists operating in Iraq. Their car bombs and kidnappings and beheadings form part of the "Resistance," too. In February, Coalition authorities intercepted a letter they believed originated from Jordanian terror-master Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Writing to unknown associates, this murderer — the man probably responsible for bombing the Jordanian Embassy, and decapitating Nicholas Berg — complained that "America has no intention of leaving, no matter how many wounded nor how bloody it becomes." Worse, he noted, the U.S. intends to pull its forces back to bases, replacing soldiers with Iraqis who "are intimately linked to the people of this region." He went on to write: "How can we kill their cousins and sons and under what pretext, after the Americans start withdrawing? The Americans will continue to control from their bases, but the sons of this land will be the authority. This is the democracy, we will have no pretext."

Zarqawi clearly prefers that democracy fail in Iraq, thus forcing the U.S. to adopt a higher profile in the country — all to justify his terror campaigns. Campaigns specifically directed, he goes on to reveal, at Iraq's Shia population, in order to spark a sectarian war between the two Muslim groups: "The solution, and god only knows, is that we need to bring the Shia into the battle because it is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidels and us."

So here, finally, we see in all their glory the anti-Coalition forces so admired by many on the left and in the media: ex-Baathists who kill American troops out of a sense of humiliation and dishonor, and foreign jihadists who wish to see the U.S. "occupiers" remain in the country in order to justify additional attacks against their fellow Muslims. What kind of "Resistance" is this? There is nothing romantic, Che Guavaresque, or progressive about the goals of these murderers: they are thugs, fighting for the most nihilistic of causes.

How, then, should we describe this war? What words and concepts define the situation more accurately? Since Iraq is now liberated, we might replace "occupation" with a word taken from the post-Civil War era: "reconstruction," as in, "the Coalition is reconstructing Iraq." We might then exchange the term "guerrilla fighters" for the more precise term "paramilitaries." Rather than noble warriors fighting to liberate their people, "paramilitaries" evoke images of anonymous right-wing killers terrorizing a populace in the name of a repressive regime — which is exactly what the fedayeen and jihadists are doing. Or we could simply dust off the venerable term "fascists." It was a good enough for the anti-Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. Why shouldn't we use it to describe similar enemies of freedom in Iraq?

I repeat — words matter. Terms like "paramilitaries," "death squads," and "fascists" clarify the nature of our enemy and underscore a fundamental point that the American media has inexcusably ignored: it is the Iraqi people who are under attack. They are the victims, their future is threatened, they are bleeding from wounds inflicted by pan-Arab Baathists and pan-Islamic jihadists. By calling these neo-fascists the "Resistance" the media reverses the relationship of assailant and defender and renders a terrible disservice to the millions of Iraqis who oppose, in ways large and small, these totalitarian forces. Hadeel gave her life resisting fascism. Yet to the Ted Ralls and Michael Moores of this world, she was a Quisling who deserved to die.

How did this happen? How did the media confuse the real forces of resistance — police officers, administrative workers, translators, truck drivers, judges, politicians and thousands of others — with men who plan car bombings, assassinate government officials, and rampage through religious shrines in their quest to reinstate tyranny? Part of the reason is the anti-American bent of the international media: many reporters will sacrifice anything — including journalistic integrity — to defame the U.S. effort in Iraq. Then there is the semantic problem of the word "occupation" and its pejorative connotation: in the rudimentary arithmetic of the media, anything that "resists" a negative must, by definition, be positive.

But there is another, more banal reason for the press' confusion we might consider. Reporters, like generals, are always fighting the last war. And in their need to fix upon a narrative, baby-boomer journalists returned to a decades-old script that pits indigenous Third World freedom fighters against aging imperialist powers. Iraq became Vietnam redux — Apocalypse Again — only with sand and kheffiyas instead of deltas and black pajamas. (Neoconservatives, of course, hoped the conflict would resemble World War II, with Baghdadis dancing in the streets, waving American flags, and strewing flowers on the liberators.) Or maybe — heaven help us — Gen-x reporters may have seen the conflict as a replay of Star Wars: after all, whenever the empire strikes back, we root for the rebels, right?

However it happened, today we suffer for our lack of clarity in this war. Unwilling to call our enemies fascists, afraid to condemn the brutal aspects of Iraqi and Arab culture, we have allowed the narrative to slip out of our control. Truth is made, not found, in Iraq. Gradually, in the war of ideas, the U.S. became the evil occupier, opposing the legitimate wishes of an indigenous "resistance." We forgot the lessons of Vietnam and the people whom our defeat abandoned to the Killing Fields, re-education camps, and desperate flotillas of boats: sometimes, the empire is on the side of right — and it is the rebels who deserve to be crushed.

Steven Vincent is a freelance investigative journalist and art critic living in New York City. He is blogging about Iraq at www.redzoneblog.com .


Ellie

[thedrifter]

No sand in the hot dogs at concrete beach party
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Linda McIntosh
San Diego Union-Tribune
December 18, 2004

CAMP PENDLETON - They call it a concrete beach party.

There's no beach in sight at the School of Infantry on base.

But there's a lot of concrete.

That's where newly recruited Marines in the Infantry Training Battalion take a break about halfway through their nearly two months of rigorous training.

The afternoon party is modeled after Steel Beach, a time at sea when a Navy ship goes on holiday routine. The steel deck takes on a beach atmosphere.

"It's like they're at a port of call," said Lt. Ryan Rupe, the school's chaplain, who runs the concrete beach parties. "They play football, grill hot dogs and play music. "They know the end of training at the SOI is coming and they're going to a unit that might be deployed. They're feeling those pressures."

The party is the brainchild of retired Navy Cmdr. Dudley Johnson. He came up with the idea about 2 1/2 years ago while serving as command chaplain at Camp Pendleton's School of Infantry.

"We wanted to give them a chance to rest and have a pause to interface with the chaplains and take a moment for a spiritual assessment of life," Johnson said.

About twice a month, parties are held for one of four companies in the Infantry Training Battalion. Each draws up to 300 Marines.

Before they hit the "beach," Marines take a hike through the backcountry of the base.

By the time they're done, retired Col. George Brown has the grills fired up and ready to cook hundreds of hot dogs.

After the Marines are gathered, the chaplain gives a 10-minute talk.

"It's about moral judgment and responsibility," said Brown, executive director of Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA, co-host of the event.

A few veterans and their wives often come to help cook and serve.

"There is so much community spirit," said Sharon Kohout-Lawrence, a veteran's wife and volunteer with Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA, who bakes hundreds of cookies for each concrete beach party.

Some Marines tell her it's the first time they've had a homemade cookie in a year.

She started baking for the Marines about six months ago after she attended a party and saw there were no homemade goodies.

"The first time, I thought, 'How am I going to make 160 cookies?'" she said.

The next time she made 300.

"There's nothing else I'd rather do - anything we can do to support them," said Kohout-Lawrence.

"It's their spirit that inspires me."

For information about concrete beach parties, or to become a sponsor or make a donation, call Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA, (760) 385-4921.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Wounded Marine gets complimentary ring <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
By SARA A. CARTER <br />
San Bernadino Sun <br />
Dec. 18, 2004 <br />
<br />
MONTCLAIR - With his...

[thedrifter]

Marine receives 40 years <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
December 18,2004 <br />
K.J. Williams <br />
New Bern Sun Journal <br />
<br />
CHERRY POINT - A Marine...

[thedrifter]

Iraqi Forces Detain 45 Crossing From Iran

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi police detained 45 men who illegally entered the country from neighboring Iran, and American troops said Sunday they captured eight Iraqis fleeing the scene of a roadside bombing.


Also, insurgents claiming to represent three Iraqi militant groups issued a videotape saying they had abducted 10 Iraqis working for an American security and reconstruction company.


The 45 detainees were captured Saturday at Mandali, on the Iranian border 60 miles east of Baghdad, police said. They had no identity documents but claimed to be Muslim pilgrims from Iran, Afghanistan (news - web sites) or Bangladesh. They ranged in age from early 20s to 60s.


U.S. soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division detained eight men fleeing a roadside blast late Saturday near Beiji, about 150 miles north of Baghdad.


Master Sgt. Robert Powell said the soldiers captured the men after witnessing the explosion, but said it was unclear if the patrol was the target. No Americans were hurt.


At least two unexploded homemade bombs were found in same area, the military said.


Roadside bombs are regularly used against U.S.-led coalition forces to deadly effect by anti-American insurgents.


The insurgents on the tape said they represent the Mujahedeen Army, the Black Banner Brigade and the Mutassim Bellah Brigade, all previously unknown groups. At least four had their faces covered by Arab head scarves and carried machine guns. Nine blindfolded hostages could be seen lined up against a stone wall and a 10th lying in a bed, apparently wounded.


The militants said they would kill the hostages if the company, Sandi Group, does not leave the country. They also threatened more attacks on its Iraqi operations.


Chad Knauss, an American and deputy chief operations officer of Sandi Group in Iraq (news - web sites), declined to comment on the claims. The company, based in Washington, employs 7,000 in Iraq.


Meanwhile, two Egyptians detained earlier this week by Iraqi and U.S. troops have been released, a diplomat said Sunday. Farouk Riyadh Mabrouk, head of the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Baghdad, said the two men — who are employed by the Egyptian-owned cell phone company Iraqna, were turned over to Egyptian authorities late Saturday.


When asked why the men were seized from their Baghdad home on Wednesday, Mabrouk would only say: "It was a big misunderstanding."


U.S. and Iraqi authorities have not commented on why the men were detained.


During the late night raid, U.S. and Iraqi forces also seized thousands of dollars, 15 personal computers and a range of communications equipment.


On Saturday, Ali Hassan al-Majid, the former general known as "Chemical Ali," and Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s last defense minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmad, appeared in the first in a series of interrogatory hearings held to gather evidence for eventual trials of Iraq's one-time Baathist leaders.


Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday that the 11 detained Saddam regime figures, plus the deposed dictator himself, would start appearing before court in the coming week — moving forward with the trials ahead of crucial national elections set for Jan. 30.


Al-Majid and Ahmad were accompanied by defense lawyers when they were questioned by an investigative judge in relation to crimes committed during Saddam's 35-year reign, which ended after U.S.-led forces toppled his regime last year.





Raad al-Juhyi, the head of a judicial panel quizzing the detainees, said they will face questioning over Saddam's Anfal campaign, a depopulation scheme that killed and expelled hundreds of thousands of Kurds from northern Iraq during the 1980s. The offensive includes the 1988 Halabja chemical weapons attacks that al-Majid has been accused of ordering.

The judges will also investigate the role of the detainees in the bloody quelling of a 1991 Shiite uprising following the U.S.-led Gulf War (news - web sites) to force occupying Iraqi forces out of neighboring Kuwait, plus the illegal imprisonment and executions of political opponents.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Face More Cunning Foe
Associated Press
December 18, 2004

FALLUJAH, Iraq - American troops face sporadic but cunning resistance from insurgents as they sweep the city of Fallujah more than a month after U.S. and Iraqi forces invaded the militants' stronghold, U.S. officials said Friday.

They characterized the insurgents who remain as less suicidal than those who fought the initial battle, using a newly discovered tunnel system or knocking holes in walls to move unseen and avoid American troops.

"Pretty much the ones who have wanted to be martyrs outright have been killed and the ones who remain are the smart ones, or the ones who have been able to avoid our clearing forces, so we continue to clear, to back clear, and to clear again," said Lt. Col. Daniel Wilson, deputy for current operations for the 1st Marine Division.

"We know that they're slithering around in the tunnels from one place to another," Wilson said.

The U.S. military claims that 1,200 insurgents were killed in the weeklong invasion to destroy what were believed to be the insurgents' main bases in Iraq. At least 50 Marines and eight Iraqi soldiers also died. No civilian casualty figures have been released.





Weeks later, the city is in ruins. The bodies of dogs lie in the streets, piles of rubble line the roads and what little infrastructure there was before the onslaught has been shattered.

The Marine officials said the insurgents are far weaker now, pointing to a 60 percent drop in the number of attacks in western Iraq from the week before the Nov. 8 invasion to last week. They said a cordon is keeping insurgents from coming back in large numbers and that the destruction of the guerrillas' Fallujah bases would help counter the new threats ahead of Iraq's Jan. 30 elections.

"It hinders their ability to interfere with the election process and it hinders their ability to discredit the government because they're not able to set up these bases like they had in Fallujah," Marine Maj. Jim West, an intelligence planning officer, said at a briefing with two other Marine officials. "They don't have a safe haven where they can conduct the horrific torture that they did."

Meanwhile, a government official said interim Iraqi authorities are discussing emergency measures to ensure representation in the National Assembly from the Sunni Triangle region if security fears result in low voter turnout in cities like Fallujah.

"If voting numbers are low in the triangle, we are considering whether to directly appoint leaders from that region to the National Assembly or give those who are elected veto rights," the Iraqi official said on condition of anonymity.

He declined to elaborate, but the measures being considered reflect government concern that the volatile security situation in cities like Fallujah and Ramadi could prevent ordinary Iraqis from voting.

Fallujah was believed to be the focal point for kidnappings and beheadings orchestrated by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror group al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi is believed to have slipped out ahead of the U.S. ground assault.

Rubble-clearing and reconstruction is under way in Fallujah to prepare for civilians to return soon. Iraqi officials have said that could come as early as next week. The officials who spoke Friday said they were thinking "sooner rather than later" but had not yet recommended that people go back.

"There's always the pressure to speed things up, we would really like to see it happen as quickly as possible as well, but not at the risk of the lives of the citizens and the residents of Fallujah," Wilson said.

They stressed that the final decision rests with the Iraqis, who have plans in place for humanitarian assistance, shelter, and water and fuel distribution.

In preparation for elections next month, the officials said there were several options to make sure people in Fallujah can vote. The city has been far too dangerous to get the registration process going.

West said it was possible a polling station would be set up outside Fallujah for residents who have not yet returned to the city.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Why Would Someone Sign Up for This?
The Virginian-Pilot
December 18, 2004

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. - For a middle-of-the-night bus ride into a spooky world full of biting gnats and even meaner drill instructors who scream so hard they lose their voices?

For 12 weeks of sweat and tears without a single cigarette, can of soda or glimpse of television?

Why would anyone volunteer to trudge 42 miles shouldering a full rucksack and M-16 rifle, of course in a 54-hour exercise with just hours of sleep and four meals to sustain them?

They do it, in large part, for the moment when they finally are allowed to call themselves Marines.

For one group, that moment came Thursday. Marching onto the massive parade field in front of thousands of teary relatives muddy camouflage clothes and smelly boots replaced by crisp, tan-and- olive uniforms and patent leather shoes these men and women celebrated a transformation that will define the rest of their lives.




But these days, graduating from Parris Island marks more than just a rite of passage. It signals an almost inevitable trip to Iraq, where just last month, in the bloody streets of Fallujah, 83 Marines died.

Since the war in Iraq began in March 2003, more than 350 Marines have been killed 28 percent of U.S. fatalities. The Army has accounted for nearly 53 percent of American deaths in Iraq.

While family members are outwardly concerned about whats next, most of the teenaged and 20-something Marine hopefuls at Parris Island last week had other pressing worries: passing the swim test, qualifying on their rifle, seeing their loved ones again.

They were moved to enlist, they say, by a combination of factors. As freshmen and sophomores in high school, some watched their country endure the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and wanted to do something in response. Others are interested in money for college. Most say they sought discipline and a chance to do meaningful work.

They want to make their families proud. They want to make a difference. And they want to wear the uniform of what they see as the most demanding, elite branch of the U.S. military.

Service rivalries aside, Marine boot camp is generally accepted as being harder than that of the Air Force, Army or Navy. It is three weeks longer than the Armys training. Its physical standards are stiffer, its drill instructors legendary.

It all starts with receiving, when recruits arrive before dawn in buses or vans.

From the time they are driven onto the base, recruits are told to keep their heads down and eyes closed. The less they know about the bases layout, the less likely they are to try to escape.

They pull up in front of the recruit receiving building, unmistakable for the 72 pair of yellow footprints painted onto the asphalt outside. It is on those outlines that they stand in their first formation.

It is 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, and Staff Sgt. Edgardo Borrero is the drill instructor on duty. A barrel-chested Marine with a thick Spanish accent and a flat-brimmed, Smokey the Bear hat perched on his crew cut, Borrero looks straight out of central casting.

He bounds onto the bus to greet about 40 recruits in T-shirts and jeans, some with shaggy hair or Afros.

Lets go! he screams. Get on the yellow footprints! Fast! Fast! Get on my yellow prints!

The men women recruits are trained separately, by female drill instructors run off the bus and line up, shoulder to shoulder, on the yellow feet. They carry no luggage, just packets of paperwork, and their fear is palpable.

Instructed to keep their shoulders back and chest out, they listen to Borreros memorized speech.

You have taken a first step to become a member of the worlds finest fighting force, the U.S. Marines, he shouts. He instructs them on military laws they must now obey such as disrespect through words, gestures or facial expressions not being tolerated.

You will now become a team. You will train as a team. The word I will no longer exist in your vocabulary. You will now refer to yourselves as this recruit.

Say, Yes sir, Borrero shouts.

Yes sir, they answer.

Scream, Yes sir! he repeats.

Yes sir! they yell.

Just after 3 a.m., Borrero marches them into the building through the heavy silver hatches that he tells them are one-way in. Then they are sent to a long wall with a row of 10 phones.

The recruits make mandatory calls home, following a script posted above the phones. Its a one-way conversation: This is recruit (state your name). I have arrived safely at Parris Island. Do not send any food or bulky items. I will contact you within 3-5 days via postcard with my address. Bye.

Then its into the barber chair, where a civilian shears each head like a sheep, down to the skin.

There is no turning back.

For 19-year-old Kenneth Andrew White of Virginia Beach, memories of the receiving process are still fresh.

White has been a recruit for nine days. Early Wednesday morning, he is one of hundreds of men in running shorts, T-shirts and New Balance sneakers being put through the rounds of physical training.

White, who joined the Marines with his 18-year-old brother, Princess Anne High School graduate Kenneth Alexander White, has a large double bar kind of like an equal sign across his olive T- shirt . The sign, he explains, indicates that he is overweight and needs to drink plenty of water. Recruits who are underweight or have light skin and need sunscreen have the same T-shirts .

White, who wants to train as an aviation mechanic, says he felt he needed more discipline in his life and didnt want the easier training standards offered by the Air Force, which his mother served in.

White says has already learned some discipline.

Right now weve got bugs flying all around, he says, referring to the ubiquitous sand gnats that were leaving small red bites up and down his sweaty arms as he stood at-ease, with his hands clasped behind his back.

Im not scratching.

He figures he will be stationed in Iraq within a year, but that doesnt scare him.

The way were trained, I figure if we keep smart, we can protect ourselves, he says. We all our life ends some time. Take it where it leads you.

Little Joe Gibson, Jr ., an 18-year-old graduate of Salem High School in Virginia Beach, has made it a third of the way through boot camp. Hes in his fourth week of training, which means lots of time on the confidence course and its variety of ropes, logs, bars and walls at different angles and heights.

Gibson, whose father spent 20 years in the Navy and works for the military now as a civilian electrician, long imagined himself on stage, not a ropes course. He has been writing songs, singing and rapping since kindergarten. Although he still dreams of being a rap producer and R&B singer, Gibson says he took his fathers advice to do something as a back up to a music career.

I know, during the long run, all this should benefit me, Gibson says.

His advice to friends back home thinking about the Marines: Mentally and physically, be prepared for everything. Dont come down here thinking its going to be easy.

Gibson admits he doesnt relish the thought of combat.

To be honest, Im real scared to go to Iraq and have to fight in a war, he says. But thats my job .

Moments later, Gibson tackles the Slide for Life, a sloping rope suspended over a pool of murky water. He starts out on top of the rope, pulling himself along hand over hand, but cant manage the transition to flip upside-down.

Standing in the chest-high water, he gets a chance to test his pipes. A drill instructor orders him to put his hands on top of his head and sing the Marine hymn. His smile gone, Gibson starts:

From the halls of Montezuma ...

On a different part of Parris Island, Stephanie Anderson works on the core trade of the Marines: shooting the M -16A2 rifle.

All Marine recruits, regardless of what job theyll end up with, spend three weeks at boot camp mastering the rifle. The Army gives all soldiers a week of rifle training, although those in the infantry get advanced training.

Anderson lies on the ground and rehearses shooting from the prone position. With each shot, she marks down where she thought the bullet hit the target 500 yards away, then waits until a recruit behind a bunker circles the bullet hole and raises the target again.

Anderson, 18, graduated this year from Southampton High School. A three-sport athlete, Anderson says she wasnt ready for college , and the idea of being one of the few, the proud, appealed to her.

Service in Iraq doesnt scare her.

I felt called to it, just to help out and be a part of it, she says of the U.S. mission there.

She has struggled with homesickness and the constant barrage of criticism and orders from her tough-as-nails drill instructors. The first week, she says, you cry and youre scared and youre away from home and depressed.

But eventually, you get this shell. You become stronger inside. You learn manners. You just become disciplined, more than you ever believed you could b e.

Down behind the line of fire, Gunnery Sgt. David Bauman nurses the frog in his voice and memories of another recruit he trained.

Like most drill instructors, Baumans vocal chords have taken a beating. Instructors dont call them drill sergeants work 120 to 140 hours a week for 12 weeks at a time, following a company of recruits from receiving through graduation. Most instructors get frog voice during the process, and rely on Cepacol lozenges, Halls cough drops and tea with honey to get them through.

They consider that a small price to pay for the privilege of molding recruits into Marines.

Bauman, who was born in Portsmouth and graduated from Green Run High School in Virginia Beach, has been a Marine for nine years and a drill instructor for two. He did it, he says, because he wanted to make a difference. He hoped to reach just a few recruits profoundly, in a lasting way.

One recruit in particular sticks in Baumans mind Dimitrios Gavriel, a 29-year-old financial planner with an Ivy League degree. He worked on Wall Street, and lost two friends in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

Gavriel gave up a six-figure salary to become a Marine grunt earning less than $20,000 a year.

Have you seen the pay scale recently? Bauman recalled asking him.

Gavriel died last month, one of the 83 killed in Fallujah. Bauman says the news hit him hard, but that theres value in Gavriels death.

Its beneficial for new recruits to hear about him, Bauman says. I tell them, He was my recruit. Its going to happen. It makes them understand why were here on the rifle range.

Thursday afternoon, two Hampton Roads teenagers reap the rewards of enduring 12 weeks at Parris Island. Their families the Merkels from Virginia Beach and the Coffmans from Newport News gather a few yards apart in the stands at the parade deck to watch their sons get the eagle, globe and anchor pins that identify them as Marines.

Jeff Merkels parents, Fran Matthews and J.D. Merkel, say their son was inspired to join after watching his best friend become a Marine. He also realized he needed focus and direction in his life, they say.

J.D. Merkel, drafted for Army service in Vietnam, says he wasnt crazy about Jeffs decision because of the war in Iraq. But its his life, he makes his own decisions, Merkel says.

As the men march onto the field, their movements sharp and precise, the Merkels and Coffmans get teary-eyed. Cici Merkel, Jeffs 12-year-old sister, points out her brother as the short one with the glasses, five men from the end.

Kimberly Coffman cant contain her emotions. With a red face and tears flowing, the proud mother screams with joy when the recruits stand at attention. She pumps her fist in the air.

Afterward, she grabs Timm Coffman and holds him close.

cont

[thedrifter]

Theres an ache, I cant explain it, she says. Theres something that happens between a mother and her son. Im so proud of you I just cant even stand it. Its terrible to worry and wonder.

Matthews asks first about her sons foot he suffered a hairline fracture during training and then about his hair.

Younger sister Cici mocks her brothers thick, military-issue spectacles nicknamed BCGs, or birth control glasses, because theyre so ugly.

He looks like a geek because of the glasses, Cici says. No offense.

Merkel, 20, says he doubted at times that hed make it to graduation, but he had a lot of fun, too like basic warrior training and shooting moving targets at night and with a gas mask.

Merkel, who worked for four years at the McDonalds restaurant across from the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, says he couldnt wait to head to the golden arches.

The first thing Im going to do, he says, is go to McDonalds and get myself something to eat.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Powell Optimistic On N. Korea, Iran
Associated Press
December 18, 2004

WASHINGTON - On two troubled fronts, North Korea and Iran, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday diplomacy appears to be making headway toward ending their nuclear weapons programs, without the need to repeat the use of force that toppled Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

In a 25-minute Associated Press interview, Powell calmly assured North Korea and an anxious international community that "we have no hostile intent, we have no intention of invading."

As for Iran, Powell said he did not know of any American military action being contemplated. "Obviously, at the Pentagon they are always thinking about the unthinkable, but there are no military plans," he said.

Nearing the end of his term as America's top diplomat, Powell said he had not decided what do to next. "Doors will open and I will go through some of them," Powell said, while stressing he remained interested in improving the education of American children.

"I'm interested in any child being left behind, African-American, Hispanic-American, or any white Americans in Appalachia. I have always had an interest in making sure that all young people are educated so they can take advantage of the opportunities that exist in this country," Powell said.




"I still have some treadwear left on me," he said in a wide-ranging discussion of world trouble spots, including the Middle East. There too, Powell was upbeat.

He said Israel had shown flexibility toward the Palestinians in advance of their Jan. 9 elections and that the United States was prepared to work with whomever is chosen to succeed Yasser Arafat as their leader.

"There is no question that in Europe and in other parts of the world, the Arab world, the Muslim world, there is a negative view towards some of our policies," Powell said.

"Our policies in Iraq and some of the issues associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have caused us to get negative ratings," he said.

"But I don't believe it is against America. I think it is against these policies. And if these policies turn out to demonstrate to the world that they are the correct policies" attitudes will change for the better, Powell said.

And yet, he gave no ground on the war against Iraq, saying he never opposed using force against President Saddam Hussein.

Powell said he advised seeking support in the United Nations before the invasion but all along held the view that "if you can't solve it peacefully and the problem is still there, and it does require military action, then get a coalition to undertake that military action and that is what we did."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Dems Demand Answers on Lack of Iraq Armor

By MAURA KELLY LANNAN, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO - The incoming deputy leader of Senate Democrats demanded answers Saturday from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as to why U.S. soldiers in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) lack protective equipment for themselves and their vehicles.


"We can, and we should, armor every Humvee and every truck our troops use in Iraq and Afghanistan," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in his party's weekly radio address. "No more excuses, no more delays. We can save hundreds of lives and prevent thousands of serious injuries."


Congress has given the Bush administration all the defense spending it has requested, yet there are still 3,500 Humvees without protective armor and about 44,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan without adequate body armor, Durbin said.


"The Pentagon (news - web sites) says the lack of protective equipment is a matter of 'logistics,'" Durbin said. "No, it's not. It's a matter of leadership."


Durbin said Rumsfeld ignored warnings from top military experts that success in Iraq would require far more troops and that they were likely to meet strong resistance.


"Those responsible for planning this war were not prepared for the reality on the ground, and many of our soldiers have paid the price," said Durbin, who will become the Senate's minority whip in the new Congress next month.


Durbin said the "most valuable gift" America's troops received this holiday season may be a soldier's question to Rumsfeld at a town-hall meeting in Kuwait this month about why American soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq scavenge in junk piles for steel plates to protect their Humvees and trucks.


"It's a question a lot of us have been asking for some time now," the senator said.


"Secretary Rumsfeld, we have the Army we want. Now let's give them the equipment they need," he said.


An increasing number of Republicans have joined Democrats in criticizing the lack of armor and other aspects of Rumsfeld's conduct of the war. The secretary, however, drew support Friday from the Senate's top two GOP officials, Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.


As Democratic whip, Durbin replaces Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada, who was elevated to minority leader following Sen. Tom Daschle's loss in the November election.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

America Supports You: Soldier's Creativity Colors Troops Lives
By Spc. Kelly Hunt, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

FORT HOOD, Texas, Dec. 17, 2004 -- One Texas National Guard soldier said she has found a unique way to support soldiers deployed overseas: Spc. Amy Pinkston is using her talent for making jewelry to raise money for care packages delivered to troops through the United Service Organizations.

"My hobby is making bracelets and I wanted to find a way to help my fellow soldiers," Pinkston said. "I combined my hobby with my desire to help them, and came up with the Freedom Bracelet to try and raise money to support our troops."

Pinkston's homemade patriotic Freedom Bracelets are sold through her personal business, Colorbox Creative, and feature red, white and blue Czech glass beads, with an optional sterling silver awareness ribbon charm.

The bracelets are made for adults and children and also come as an ankle bracelet. Pinkston can personalize the jewelry by integrating a loved one's name into the design.

"Every little bit of support helps," she explained. "When you're over there and you don't have the ability to go to Wal-Mart for your bag of Cheetos, a care package from home really helps."

For Pinkston, 30, it's all about building and maintaining troops' morale. "In the different units I've been in, if the group's morale is down, the whole thing falls apart," she said. "I think care packages really help. Even in basic training, if you get that little piece of mail, it helps you get through."

Pinkston, a Medford, Wisc., native, chose to support troops through Operation USO Care Packages because of the high reputation of the organization. "The USO is one of the longest standing military supporters and they support all branches of the military," Pinkston, who served 2½ years on active duty, explained.

The USO care packages cost $25 each and with a personal goal of 200 care packages to meet, Pinkston is working hard to accomplish her goal.

"I wait until I've collected enough money and then I'll donate two, four or six care packages at one time," she said. "I want to donate $5,000, so I'll have to sell 1,000 bracelets. Two hundred care packages will hopefully cover a small battalion or a large company."

Pinkston has sold more than 85 Freedom Bracelets since her idea became a reality last July. She said support for her cause is growing slowly, but surely.

"Someone e-mailed me once and said they wouldn't buy a bracelet because they didn't support the war," Pinkston said. "I e-mailed her back and said 'These troops are away from their families and we need to support those soldiers making the sacrifice.'

"They're losing a year or two of their normal lives," she continued. "I know a soldier who will be away for the first two years of his child's life and I think it's so sad when people don't support them.

"We have to support the soldiers who are sacrificing everything so you don't have to," she said.

Pinkston said she will continue working hard to reach her goal as long as soldiers are deployed to Iraq and as long as there is a need to support the troops.

"I'll probably still sell Freedom Bracelets even after I reach my goal," she said. "So long as we have troops over there that need supplies, I'll continue to try my best to get it to them.

"Supporting troops is really my big thing because I know it is hard being over there," Pinkston said. "The important thing is to help them as much as possible because if they weren't over there, we might all have to get in line."

(Army Spc. Kelly Hunt, assigned to the 4th Public Affairs Detachment, reports for the Fort Hood, Texas, Sentinel.)

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines forgive grieving dad who set van on fire <br />
<br />
A father who reacted to news of his Marine son's death in August by setting three Marines' van on fire apologized to them, saying he meant no harm....

[thedrifter]

Guard Triples Enlistment Bonuses
USA TODAY
December 17, 2004

WASHINGTON - In response to continued recruiting difficulties, the National Guard is tripling the cash bonuses it will pay for some new recruits and for current Guard soldiers willing to re-enlist, the Guard's top general said Thursday.

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, unveiled new initiatives intended to boost the Army National Guard's lagging personnel rolls. Blum briefed reporters at the Pentagon.

Among the initiatives:

* A $15,000 bonus for new Guard recruits who have served in the military, triple the previous figure.

* A $15,000 bonus for Guard soldiers who will re-enlist for six years, also three times the previous amount.

* A $10,000 bonus for recruits who have never served in the military, up from $6,000 and now the largest bonus the Guard has offered such recruits.

"These are big incentives. We're putting our money where our mouth is," Blum said.





The Guard and Army Reserve are struggling with recruiting problems related to the Pentagon's reliance on part-time military personnel to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 40% of the 148,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are Guard and reserve soldiers. In peacetime, Guard and reserve troops usually train one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. But thousands are now serving full-time combat tours of a year or more.

"We're in a more difficult recruiting environment," Blum said. "There's no question."

The National Guard's new measures come on the heels of a second consecutive month of poor recruiting results. In November, the Army Guard fell about 1,000 recruits short of its goal of 3,925. The shortfall follows an even larger gap in October, when the Army Guard missed its target by more than 30%. The military's recruiting year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

The Army Guard needs to recruit 63,000 new soldiers this year. Last year, it missed its target of 56,000 by almost 7,000 recruits.

Blum said that the Army Guard is supposed to have 350,000 soldiers but now has 340,000. For many years, Blum said, Guard commanders had covered shortfalls in troop levels by padding their rosters with soldiers who had exited the Guard. Blum said he has banned that practice to have an honest accounting of how many Army Guard soldiers are available across the country.

The Army Guard and Army Reserve have been under great strain since 9/11. Almost a third of the Guard -- 102,876 soldiers -- is mobilized for duty around the world. Since the war on terrorism began, Blum said, the Army Guard has averaged about 100,000 soldiers on active duty every day.

In addition to strains on personnel, the war effort has taken a toll on equipment.

Blum said that the National Guard will need $20 billion over the next three years to replace equipment that is outdated, damaged or has been left in Iraq for units rotating through. Part of the need for the additional expenditure, Blum said, is the Army Guard's unique mission as a state and federal force.

In peacetime, Guard units remain under the control of their state's governor. Those troops are needed for homeland security and disaster response. Among the new equipment needs are trucks, radios and aircraft so that units can train and be available for state missions.

To bolster its rolls, the Guard is adding 1,400 new recruiters, bringing its force to a total of 4,100 across the nation. The Guard has added 480 so far. All 1,400 should be in place by February.

The Army Reserve, another part-time force, is also under strain.

On Monday, Lt. Gen. James Helmly, the Army Reserve's top general, told The Dallas Morning News that Army Reserve recruiting was in "precipitous decline." Helmly said that the downturn, if not reversed, could generate discussion of a return to a military draft.

The Army Reserve said it received approval this week to offer bonuses identical to those Blum outlined Thursday.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraq Insurgents Kill 3 Foreigners
Associated Press
December 18, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents killed at least three foreigners on Friday in Mosul, a northern city that became a stronghold after Fallujah fell to U.S. and Iraqi forces. Militants also set ablaze a pipeline near the capital, a rare attack on oil infrastructure in a populated area.

The U.S. Embassy confirmed the name of an American contractor taken hostage six weeks ago in Baghdad - a man who has not been seen or heard from since - identifying him as Roy Hallums, a 56-year-old worker for a Saudi company that does catering for the Iraqi army.

His wife, Susan Hallums of Corona, Calif., said in a telephone interview Friday that she has not heard from the kidnappers.

"I want to plead for his life and send out prayers and hope that he will be released," said Hallums, who is separated from her husband, the father of their two daughters.

The continuing bloodshed has dissuaded Iraq's political parties and coalitions from organizing public rallies ahead of the country's Jan. 30 parliamentary elections, the first free vote since the overthrow of the monarchy 45 years ago.

The violence has been so widespread that preparations for the election have barely begun in the three central provinces that include Baghdad, Mosul and the battleground cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.




Although the election campaign officially kicked off Wednesday, so far only the Iraqi Communist Party - which is part of the U.S.-installed interim government - was known to have held a public gathering.

"We are endeavoring to establish a democratic, federal country ... that enjoys security and peace and in which religious, national and sectarian fraternity will be established," Minister of Culture Mufeed al-Jazairi told several hundred activists waving the party's red banners in Baghdad on Friday.

Only hours earlier, insurgents lobbed rocket-propelled grenades at an Australian compound inside Baghdad's Green Zone, the heavily fortified complex that houses the interim government and the U.S. Embassy.

One of the rounds struck the area where Australian troops are housed, spokeswoman Lt. Helen Suttie said in Canberra. There were no casualties, she said.

Australia has more than 900 soldiers stationed in the region. The troops in the Green Zone are part of a 120-strong contingent providing security for Australian diplomats and officials.

Also Friday, a government official said that Saddam Hussein's defense minister, who surrendered to U.S. forces last year, will join another notorious general - known as Chemical Ali - in the dock when judicial proceedings against top figures of the Baathist regime open next week.

Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmad gave himself up in September 2003 at a coalition military base in Mosul. He was not considered to be a war crimes suspect and many had expected that he would be freed after being questioned.

In contrast, Ali Hassan al-Majid, who earned the nickname Chemical Ali after using poison gas to kill thousands of Kurds in the 1980s, is considered a leading defendant.

"Chemical Ali and Sultan will be the first to face the hearings," the official, who is familiar with the proceedings, told The Associated Press.

In Mosul, third-largest city with over 1 million inhabitants, attackers ambushed a car and killed all four of its occupants. The bodies of the four men, including one whose head was almost severed, were seen lying on the road alongside their burning car.

Police Capt. Zeid Waseem said police received reports that three of the dead were foreigners but their nationalities were not immediately known.

However, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a group of Turkish Embassy guards, on their way from Turkey to Baghdad, came under a terrorist attack in Mosul and that several were killed or wounded. It could not immediately be confirmed if the embassy guards were the people ambushed in the car.

Insurgent attacks in Mosul have increased dramatically since the U.S.-led operation last month to retake Fallujah from the guerrillas, and efforts by the multinational forces and the interim government's troops to pacify the city have met with little success.

On Thursday, Gen. George W. Casey, commander of the multinational force, said his troops would mount a "concerted effort" throughout the region to boost security ahead of elections.

South of Baghdad, an explosion and fire on an oil pipeline near the capital's Dora refinery sent thick black billowing smoke pouring into the sky.

U.S. troops sealed off the area. Insurgents regularly attack the country's oil infrastructure, but they usually pick remote desert locations.

Hallums, the American hostage who was identified Friday, was seized in an attack Nov. 1 after a gunbattle in which an Iraqi guard and one attacker were killed.

Hallums, Filipino accountant Robert Tarongoy, a Nepalese worker, Inus Dewari, and three Iraqis employed by the Riyadh-based Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company were taken away after the gunfight. The Iraqi hostages and the Nepalese were freed later.

"As far as we know, Hallums is still being held captive along with the Filipino and we have no reason to believe otherwise," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Bob Callahan. "We are operating on the assumption that Hallums is still alive."

Twelve Americans have been kidnapped or are missing in Iraq. At least three Americans have been killed - all beheaded in abductions claimed by an al-Qaida-linked group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Four U.S. civilians working for Florida-based Cochise Security Inc. were wounded Saturday by a car bomb attack in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, said military spokeswoman Sgt. Cynthia Weasner.

Two of the Americans suffered minor wounds; the other two were taken to a military medical facility, the military said. Three Cochise employees were killed by car bombs near Beiji in two attacks in April.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Struggling to Wrap Up Santa Duties

By P.J. Huffstutter Times Staff Writer

CHICAGO — Toys fill the gymnasium — boxes of teddy bears press against a weapons cabinet, bags of dolls and games are stacked high — but it isn't Christmas as usual at this Marine Corps Reserves training center.


This year, the program that has put toys into the hands of millions of kids and let the nation see the softer side of Marines for close to 60 years — Toys for Tots — is missing many of the men and women who are its driving force.


"We had 270 reservists helping us with Toys for Tots last year," said Maj. Rick Coates of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment.


"This year, we're lucky to have 20 people. Everyone else is in Iraq (news - web sites)."


Ten members of the battalion have died there since October.


With overseas deployments stretching on, and reservists and active-duty military being tapped for repeat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites), Marine officials say many Toys for Tots groups throughout the country are struggling to find enough people to staff the charity effort.


Last year, Toys for Tots, which is run by the Marine Corps Reserves, distributed 15 million donated toys to 6.6 million children.


The Toys for Tots Foundation, based in Quantico, Va., also routinely kicks in an additional $30 million to $40 million worth of toys to nonprofit organizations nationwide.


At the Chicago training center where Coates is based, more than 150,000 gifts to needy children are collected, sorted and given away each year.


Military officials say they hope there will be just as many toys this year. But they worry about a shortage of Marines who can move the toys out of the donation bins and help place them under Christmas trees.


"With the mobilizations, the units need help," said Maj. Tom Nelson, national Toys for Tots coordinator. "So we're turning to civilians, retirees, anyone willing to help out for a good cause."


Such pleas are being issued in Washington and California, where scores of the Marine units have been tapped for duty.


In Boston and surrounding areas of Massachusetts, retired Marines in their 70s and 80s volunteered to fill the gap, and have spent the last few weeks lifting and sorting Tickle Me Elmo dolls and Tonka trucks.


So many reservists have been deployed from Corpus Christi, Texas, that eight reservists are handling a workload carried by 80 last year.


In Illinois, all but one of the state's Marine Corps Reserves units has been activated.


Overseas deployments have dwindled the number of toy-toting reservists from one of the battalion's companies in Waukegan, Ill., from 145 to five.


"I'm happy that we even have five," 1st Sgt. Joe Thornton said. "We're calling some of the units in Wisconsin for help, but they're pretty spread thin too."





Marine units run about 179 of the more than 480 Toys for Tots sites across the country, Nelson said.

The remainder are organized by military retirees or civilian groups.

The program was founded by Los Angeles reservist Maj. Bill Hendricks in 1947, after his wife sewed a Raggedy Ann doll. She asked him to find a group that would give the doll to a needy child. When Hendricks couldn't find a home for the doll, his wife told him that he needed to start such an organization.

The process has remained relatively consistent, even though the volume of toys and participants has skyrocketed. People and businesses drop toys into boxes, which are delivered to the Marine reservists or picked up by them.

The military personnel and other volunteers sort through the donations, and bag them together for charities, churches and other social organizations that have requested toys.

In Chicago, when the phones at the Joseph J. McCarthy training center began ringing with requests this fall, most of the reservists with the field service support battalion were in Iraq, stationed in the Babil province south of Baghdad.

Coates, who in civilian life is a logistics manager for Sears, is one of the few battalion members left behind and is helping to lead the program.

Searching for manpower, he and the rest of the reserves have posted fliers in local grocery stores, called up veteran groups, and cajoled military families and friends.

Some volunteers have come forward.

Bridgette Lappen of Evanston stopped by the training center three weeks ago after hearing about the battalion's plight on the radio.

Work at her company had slowed for the holidays, so she offered to spend a few hours helping with clerical work.

She's worked every day since, and up to eight hours per day.

"How can you not want to be here?" she asked. "They've lost so much, and they need us."

Amid the public's clamor for holiday help, Coates and the remaining Marines also have had to wrestle with the grim realities of war.

In October, the battalion had its first casualty. In November, six were killed in one week. Another died on Thanksgiving Day. Two more were killed last week. The funerals are tentatively set for this week, a day or two before Christmas Eve.

As Coates walked through the center's gymnasium, winding his way through towers of toys nearly 10 feet tall, he greeted two Marines.

They were wearing formal dress uniforms. "You dressed for Toys for Tots or a funeral?" Coates asked.

One Marine showed Coates a tightly folded American flag and replied, "Funeral."

The pair left and changed into their fatigues. Within a few minutes, they returned to the gymnasium and started packing Scooby Doo blankets and hula hoops into boxes.

Now, the Marines say, they average 18-hour days. This week, they expect to be busy around the clock.

"We're going to be just like Santa, delivering toys at the last minute," Coates said. "There's no alternative. We have to get this done."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

US marines do not recommend return of residents to Fallujah

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - The US military cannot recommend to the Iraqi interim government the return of residents to Fallujah, where insurgents are still holed out in the battle-scarred city.


"At some point we'll make a recommendation, we haven't reached that point," Lieutenant Colonel Dan Wilson, a deputy commander of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, told reporters in a military base near Fallujah late on Friday.


Thousands fled Fallujah last month ahead of a massive US-led onslaught to wrest control of the city from Sunni Muslim insurgents and the fighting has left much of it in ruins.


The Iraqi interim government said on Thursday that residents could begin returning to the city, west of Baghdad, as early as next week, saying that basic services and aid had been restored.


But US Marines, backed by a small Iraqi force, are still trying to crush the remaining insurgents holed up in the city.


"We foresaw that in this phase of the operation it could take weeks to clear out the remaining pockets (of insurgents). We did anticipate such difficulties ... but we never tied this to a timeline," the officer said.


"There is a lot of potential for danger in this town," he added.


"Unfortunately the insurgents are not cooperating like we would like them too, and we have to either capture them or kill them," he said.


Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Hajem al-Hassani told AFP on Friday that Fallujah's displaced residents "could return before the end of the month".


He also played down the impact of fighting in the city, describing it as "small confrontations".


Wilson said the marines "would really like to see it (the return) happen as quickly as possible.


"But not at the risk of the lives of the citizens and inhabitants of Fallujah."


But he added: "This transition is not going to happen overnight."


Some US officers complained that the recruitment of Iraqi troops was moving at a slow pace and that the quality of the forces was not up to par.


But according to Major Jim West of the First Marine Expeditionary Force "every day that goes by, the Iraqi national forces are getting better, stronger, and in parallel the Iraqi insurgents are getting weaker."


West and Wilson insisted however that fighting that broke out Friday in Fallujah, which left six marines dead, was not an example failure.


"We are not talking of a setback, but just about insurgents hiding in houses for a chance to kill a soldier," Wilson said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

To Marines, bridge is like 'big Lego set'


By Ron Jensen, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, December 19, 2004


AS SINDIYAH, Iraq — For a few Marines, the weapons of choice are sledgehammers, wrenches and elbow grease — lots of elbow grease.

They are the Marines of Bridge Company A, part of the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, and their singular status in the Corps makes up for a lot of sore muscles and aching backs.

“That is the best part about it,” said Lance Cpl. Aaron Allen. “We are the only active-duty bridge company in the Marine Corps. That is a lot of motivation.”

The Corps has two bridge companies in the reserves. They’ve been to Iraq and served six-month tours. Combat Marines typically spend seven months in Iraq. Bridge Company A came for 12 months.

They have built bridges, or taken them out, across Iraq for more than 10 months, about 25 or 30 of them, sometimes traveling hours from their home at Logistics Support Area Anaconda, 40 miles north of Baghdad.

When they do that, they work around-the-clock in 12-hour shifts until the job is complete.

The bridge they are building now on the Tigris River, near the village of As Sindiyah, is not far from Anaconda, so they can spend their nights on base.

This is their toughest bridge to date: a Mabey-Johnson bridge put together in sections and then assembled on the river. It’s the first floating bridge the company has built in Iraq.

“It’s like a big Lego set to us,” said Staff Sgt. Marcellus Pickering.

For more than a year, a simple assault bridge has shouldered the heavy traffic load.

“This bridge is not meant for what it’s doing,” Pickering said, motioning toward the assault bridge that heaved and rolled each time a truck crossed.

The current bridge can support only one vehicle at a time, so convoys must stop on both sides of the river to cross, creating stationary targets.

When the Marines finish the new 340-meter bridge, convoys will be able to cross without stopping. They began work on it in November, and its expected completion date has not been announced due to security reasons.

While not exactly complaining, the bridge-building Marines don’t cheer every time they have to create something to cross a river.

“I don’t like building bridges,” said Cpl. Landon Genard, who is not alone in his sentiments.

No one seemed overjoyed by fastening 700-pound galvanized steel sections together with a 1,000-pound transom beam, driving in metal pins the size of a forearm with sledgehammers and twisting giant nuts and bolts to hold everything together.

“That galvanized steel is frickin’ heavy,” said Lance Cpl. Eric Laird, who has been with the company since he enlisted two years ago.

When a crane brought a section of the bridge to the Marines, they manhandled it into place.

“It’s like a big puzzle you’ve got to put together,” said Cpl. Philip Maxfield. “Nothing goes together perfectly. You’ve got to wiggle it.”

Once it had been wiggled into place, the pounding started. Sledgehammers slammed into steel, then again, until the pin slipped into place.

The best job in the company might be piloting one of the bridge erection boats, or BEBs. Each has two 250-horsepower engines that operate independently, allowing it to maneuver on the water much like a tracked vehicle does on land.

“This is the only boat that can rotate on its own axis,” said Lance Cpl. Brian Harvey. “You can sit in one spot and spin.”

The boats push the floating sections into place so they can be fastened together. When one completed section broke away from a mooring recently, the boat’s pilots raced to their boats like firemen responding to a call. They roared into the river and caught up with the fugitive piece of bridge, gently shoving it back to shore.

The bridge at As Sindiyah is a multi-service effort. Air Force engineers designed the abutments and the roadway leading to the bridge on each side. Soldiers from the 502nd Engineer Battalion have provided security and often operated the crane that moves the heavy bridge pieces into place.

The Marines said they enjoy seeing the finished product, but don’t revel in that sense of accomplishment too long.

“We all take a bridge picture and move on,” said Pickering. “That’s about it.”

One reason the Marines don’t spend too much time enjoying their handiwork is because they don’t know how long the bridge may be around.

Allen recalled one time returning to Anaconda after building a bridge south of Baghdad.

“When we came back, we were all beat. They gave us a day off,” Allen said. “When we woke up, they told us [the bridge] was blown up.”

Other times, the Marines know they made a difference.

Laird recalled a bridge on Main Supply Route Tampa. Until that bridge was built, no supplies could get to the bases in northern Iraq by truck.

“We made it happen,” he said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Deadly Car Bombs Hit Najaf, Karbala

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Car bombs rocked Iraq (news - web sites)'s two holiest Shiite cities Sunday, killing at least 62 people and wounding more than 120, while in downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen carried out a brazen ambush on car, pulling out three election officials and executing them on the pavement in the middle of morning traffic.


The bombs exploded an hour apart. First, a suicide blast ripped through parked minibuses at the entrance to the Karbala bus station. Then a car bomb shattered a central square in Najaf, crowded with residents watching a funeral procession. The city police chief and provincial governor were among the group but were not hurt.


Also Sunday, a militant group claimed to have kidnapped 10 Iraqis working for an American security contractor, threatening to kill them unless the company pulls out of Iraq.


The violence was the latest in an insurgent campaign to disrupt the crucial Jan. 30 elections, the first national polls since the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).


While many have feared that voting in the Sunni areas of northern and central Iraq will be hampered — if not impossible — because of the spiraling violence, Sunday's attacks highlighted that even the strongholds of Iraq's Shiite majority in the south are vulnerable. Shiites have been strong supporters of the elections, which they are likely to dominate.


The car bomb in Najaf detonated in central Maidan Square where a large crowd of people had gathered for the funeral procession of a tribal sheik — about 100 yards from where Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi and police chief Ghalib al-Jazaari were standing.


Youssef Munim, head of the statistics department at Najaf's al-Hakim Hospital, said 47 people were killed by the explosion and 69 were wounded. Two more dead and 21 other wounded were taken to the nearby al-Zahraa Hospital, according to nurse Mohanad Abdul Redha.


"A car bomb exploded near us," al-Zurufi said. "I saw about 10 people killed."


Al-Jazaari believed he and al-Zurufi were the targets of the attack, in which he said three explosives went off at about 2:45 p.m. Both men were unhurt. It was not immediately clear what the other explosions were from.


Residents were pulling bodies of the dead from damaged shops at the square, which is about 400 yards from the Imam Ali Shrine, the holiest Shiite site in Iraq.


The blast sheered the facades off surrounding buildings and brought down part of a two-floor building on a main thoroughfare. Dozens of men clambered over the rubble, digging for survivors.


The bombing in Karbala, about 45 miles northwest of Najaf, destroyed about 10 passenger minibuses and set fire to five cars outside the crowded bus station. Firefighters tried to put out the blazes as ambulances ferried burned and bleeding casualties to the nearby al-Hussein hospital.


Ali al-Ardawi, assistant for the hospital's director, said 13 people were killed in the attack and 33 injured.


It was the second bombing in Karbala in a week. On Wednesday, a bomb went off at the city's gold-domed Imam Hussein Shrine, killing eight people and wounding 40 in an apparent attempt to kill a top aide to Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.


The shrine, located near the bus station, was hit by a March 2 suicide bombing that killed 85 people and wounded 100. The holy sites in Najaf and Karbala, south of Baghdad, house the tombs of Shia Islam's most revered saints.


Insurgents on Sunday also carried out a new attack on election officials, when about 30 militants hurling hand grenades and firing machine guns attacked a car carrying five employees of the non-governmental Independent Electoral Commission as they were driving to work on Baghdad's central Haifa Street, the scene of repeated clashes between security forces and insurgents.


Pistol-wielding gunmen — their faces uncovered — pulled three of the employees out of the car and forced them to kneel in the road, while the traffic behind them on the thoroughfare braked to a halt and panicked drivers tried to reverse away from the ambush site.





The gunmen punched one of the men as he lay on the ground, then the militants shot all three men at point-blank range. The two other passengers in the election employees' car escaped unhurt.

The commission identified the slain men as Hatem Ali Hadi al-Moussawi, deputy director for the commission's Karkh office, and two of his office employees — Mahdi Sbeih and Samy Moussa. The commission condemned the killings as a "terrorist ambush" and said one gunman was killed in the confrontation.

The commission "urges the Iraqi people and all its political, religious, religious and social leaders and the authorities to condemn this inhumane crime," it said in a statement.

A police official said the ferocity of the clashes prevented police from nearing the area. The attackers, most of whom were seen brazenly roaming Haifa Street without anything covering their faces, later set fire to at least one vehicle before fleeing the area, witnesses said. U.S. and Iraqi National Guard forces cordoned off the area after the attacks. A U.S. military spokesman had no immediate details.

Also, insurgents claiming to represent three Iraqi militant groups issued a videotape showing what they said were 10 abducted Iraqis who had been working for an American security and reconstruction company.

Masked insurgents in the video said they represent the Mujahedeen Army, the Black Banner Brigade and the Mutassim Bellah Brigade, all previously unknown groups. Nine blindfolded hostages could be seen lined up against a stone wall and a 10th was lying in a bed, apparently wounded.

The militants said they would kill the hostages if the company, Sandi Group, does not leave the country. They also threatened more attacks on its Iraqi operations.

Chad Knauss, an American and deputy chief operations officer of Sandi Group in Iraq, declined to comment on the claims. The company, based in Washington, employs 7,000 in Iraq.

Insurgents detonated two roadside bombs and a car bomb targeting U.S. forces in the volatile city of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, in three separate attacks during a two-hour period Sunday. Three soldiers were wounded in one roadside bomb blast, while there were no casualties from the others, according to military spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Hastings.

Gunmen attacked homes of Kurdse in the Arab-majority town of Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, killing four Kurds, according to Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin, chief of the Kirkuk Iraqi National Guard.

___

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Al-Qaeda tells fighters to strike Saudi oil targets: website

DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda told its fighters to attack oil sites and foreign targets in Saudi Arabia, according to a website statement, as the de facto leader of the oil-rich kingdom vowed to eradicate terrorism which he said was tarnishing the image of Islam.


"We call on all the mujahedeen to target the sources of oil which do not serve the Islamic nation but serve the enemies of the nation," said a statement attributed to the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi wing of the terror network.


Last week Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) issued a call to his fighters to strike oil targets in Iraq (news - web sites) and the Gulf, according to an audiotape broadcast on an Islamist website said to be from the top terror mastermind.


The desert kingdom, the leading member of OPEC (news - web sites), sits on a quarter of the world's proven oil reserves and is the number one crude exporter.


The Al-Qaeda statement dated Saturday also urged militants to "strike all foreign targets and the hideouts of the tyrants to rid the peninsula of the infidels and their supporters.


"In the next few days there will be new (operations) in the jihad (holy war) against the tyrants and the enemies of Islam," it warned.


Since May last year, Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of deadly attacks in the ultra-conservative kingdom which have been blamed on supporters of the Saudi-born bin Laden.


In the latest attack claimed by Al-Qaeda's Saudi branch, gunmen stormed the US consulate in the commercial capital of Jeddah on December 6, killing five non-American staff and losing four of their number.


Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz reiterated his government's determination to eradicate terrorism in the kingdom which he said was tarnishing the image of Islam, the local press reported Sunday.


"The deviant group... committed more than terrorism. They tarnished your Islam and distorted your belief before the rest of the world," the kingdom's de facto leader told a group of Saudi dignitaries.


The term "deviant group" is used to refer to sympathisers of Al-Qaeda.


"We will track them (the terrorists) for another 20, 30, 50 years. We shall not leave them," the prince said.


In Thursday's purported bin Laden audiotape posted on an Islamist website, the Western world's most wanted man called on his fighters to strike Gulf oil supplies and warned Saudi leaders they risked a popular uprising.


It was the first purported statement from the Al-Qaeda leader, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, since a videotape broadcast on October 29 in which he threatened new attacks on the United States.


Thursday's lengthy message also warned Riyadh's rulers that "the people have woken" and laid the blame for deadly unrest gripping the country on the royal family.


Saudi national oil giant Aramco said Saturday it was "on alert all the time."


Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi has said that Saudi Arabia plans to increase its oil production capacity to 12.5 million bpd from the current 11 million over the next few years.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Debate: How to Preserve the All-Volunteer Military
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Correspondent
December 15, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - The Pentagon's increasingly controversial decisions to extend the tours of duty for enlisted personnel and to deploy National Guardsmen and reservists to combat zones have prompted some people to predict the end of the all-volunteer military. But Tuesday, several military experts suggested options for making sure the U.S. does not have to eventually reinstitute a draft.

America hasn't had a draft since 1973, but during the recently concluded presidential campaign, Democratic candidate John Kerry accused President Bush of conducting a "backdoor draft" through a stop-loss policy that forces some troops to remain in the military even after their contractual obligations are over. Also, earlier this month, eight soldiers sued the Pentagon in federal district court over the stop-loss provisions.

"Effectiveness ... depends not just on smart bombs," Lawrence Korb of the liberal Center for American Progress explained Tuesday, "but also on smart people." While the Pentagon's stop-loss policies are intended to maintain an adequate military force, Korb said restrictions on stop-loss and adjustments on minimum tours of duty would do more to boost the numbers. Stop-loss policies, he said, "should be used as little as possible and no more than once."

Korb said he would create two new active divisions amounting to 86,000 troops, double the number of special forces and add 10,000 support forces to serve as military police, civil engineers and in other support roles.

When asked how he would pay for such troop increases, Korb said the Department of Defense should cut money from the national missile defense and F/A-22 Raptor fighter jet programs.

Panel moderator Michele Flournoy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies opened Tuesday's discussion by recognizing that, "It's too early to say whether we have a crisis here," but added that the all-volunteer military "will be front-and-center in upcoming discussions."

She said the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq "have put tremendous strains on the forces." Korb echoed her comments. The United States, he said, has been so focused on lowering troop numbers and increasing technology that it has been unable to fully man Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Thomas Donnelly of the conservative American Enterprise Institute said he agreed with Korb that increasing active-duty troops was a good idea. But he said 86,000 troops wasn't enough. He didn't offer a number, but implied that he would like to see an increase of more than 100,000 troops on the active roster.

"Regular, conventional units are doing an excellent job," he said, adding that there's "too much concentration on the tactical level ... [while] in the Middle East the more important issue is the construction of a theatre Army."

Donnelly said he is skeptical of the Defense Department's ability to pay for an increase in troops, saying, "I don't think the budget math adds up properly." He added, however, that the military build-up during the Cold War set a precedent for the ability to recruit and sustain a larger military.

While Korb and Donnelly agreed that a buildup of active duty forces was needed, Christopher Preble of the libertarian Cato Institute said a complete restructuring of military strategy was necessary.

Instead of a draft or a "further mobilization of the National Guard and Reserves," Preble said the best solution "is to revisit all military deployments." With hundreds of thousands of troops currently stationed in 120 countries worldwide, Preble said troop deployments need to be concentrated only in areas where there is a potential for combat.

He said a reduction of worldwide forces would allow for those existing troops to be concentrated in hot areas like Iraq without having to spend more money recruiting and training new soldiers.

The Pentagon also finds itself currently answering questions about the disproportionate casualties suffered by National Guardsmen in Iraq. According to a USA Today analysis released Monday, the death toll for active duty troops in Iraq is one for every 402 soldiers deployed while the death toll for Guardsmen is one for every 264 deployed.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Two men, two answers to war's realities
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tri-City Herald

This story was published Sunday, December 19th, 2004

Two stories out of Pasco in five days illustrate a national divide in the military attitudes of the country.

In the first, Emiliano Santiago, 27, intends to ask the federal courts to enjoin the Department of Defense from sending him to Afghanistan.

His reason is straightforward: He signed an eight-year contract with the Oregon National Guard when he was 19 and completed his term last June.

But under its "stop-loss" program, the military is extending the service contracts of some personnel unilaterally, Santiago's among them. During the recent presidential election, and since, this is referred to by some as a "back door draft" that threatens the concept of the all-volunteer military.

The second story is of Manuel Oscar Zepeda, 24, who has just returned from a tour in Afghanistan with the U.S. Marines. He's recruited other family members to join the service out of a sense of patriotism.

According to The Associated Press, about 7,000 active-duty soldiers have had their contracts extended and up to 40,000 reservists also could be ordered to stay longer.

Meanwhile, the Army National Guard has announced it has fallen 30 percent below its recruiting goals in the last two months and will offer new incentives, including enlistment bonuses of up to $15,000 to try to shore up the numbers.

Bonuses may make a difference. But involuntary extensions of some troops' terms of service could speed up the very thing they are intended to circumvent: Return of the draft.

If the military services continue to extend commitments that troops don't think they made, keeping the volunteer in volunteer service could be more difficult. And with troops at risk in numerous places around the world, it's clear the government must maintain the forces it has and, in all probability, expand them.

Two servicemen from Pasco reached different conclusions about how to respond. Their stories are playing out across the nation as American soldiers grapple with a lack of foresight and planning in echelons far above them.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Back from the battle
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Elizabeth Kenny
ekenny@seacoastonline.com
Dec. 19, 2004

Capt. John "Brad" Adams grunted as he sat poised on a bench press, struggling to lift two and a half pounds with quadriceps that had carried the Marine through Fallujah, through war.

He returned to his Portsmouth home months before the rest of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, after the Humvee he was riding in was attacked and shrapnel shot through the right side of his body.

Adams now represents the often untold story of soldiers who return home from war, said the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard's department head of physical therapy Andrew Tomas, who sees combat wounds almost daily.

"The wounds these soldiers get don't heal like you see in the movies," Tomas said Wednesday, as he reflected on the dozen sailors, soldiers and Marines who visit him each week with combat wounds.

"In the movies, someone is shot and the next scene they are healed," he said. "It's unfortunate that is not what really happens."

What really happens takes place inside the Naval Branch Health Clinic each day, as the wounded walk through the door and treat their injuries.

About six months after the United States invaded Afghanistan, Tomas' job changed. He no longer worked solely on patients with lower back pain or on a shipyard worker's ankle that was twisted on the ice.

He began to see combat wounds.

"Punctures, holes in people," Tomas described.

For every American soldier killed in Iraq, nine others have been wounded and survived - the highest rate of any war in U.S. history, The Associated Press reported.

On Oct. 23, Adams, 33, became part of that statistic. His life was changed when the Humvee he was traveling in was struck by a bomb just east of Fallujah.

If Adams' life were a movie, the next scene would have to fast forward, past the months of rehabilitation, struggle, pain and scars.

The next scene in the movie would have to be filmed in the future, because on Wednesday the Marine captain was not healed.

Instead, Adams pulled back clothing to reveal 2-inch-long scars on his arm, leg and hip, where shrapnel shot through his thigh and came out through his groin.

His foot, covered in a soft cast, had been struck by shrapnel that blew a 3- to 4-inch hole through it. Surgeons installed a cement spacer inside the foot so it wouldn't collapse.

But it's the nerve damage in his wrist that has been the hardest to overcome, Adams said, lifting his two arms and showing how his uninjured wrist flexes to a 90-degree angle.

Meanwhile, his right wrist, which suffered nerve damage from the shrapnel that shot through his upper arm, tilts to about 10 degrees.

"It's coming, but it will take time," he said.

He completes physical therapy at the shipyard twice a week, performing a wide range of exercises to regain strength in his right arm, wrist and leg.

Before each session, Adams spends about 20 minutes on a cardio machine to get his heart pumping.

Although he releases loud grunts and his face grows red as he pushes himself to complete his last set on the machines, Adams said he knows "physical therapy is the key to getting better."

His goal is to be able to deploy when his battalion is shipped off again. He said he doesn't want to complete the remainder of his service behind a desk. He would much rather return to Iraq with the rest of his fellow Marines.

"My doctors are telling me I'm coming along superbly," he said.

"It will be good to get back in my boots," he added with a smile.

Tomas said many of his patients have goals they want to meet, whether it's strapping boots on and returning to war, or wanting to go to the grocery store independently.

By mid-November, 10,369 American troops had been wounded in battle in Afghanistan or Iraq, and 1,004 had died, the AP has reported. Those figures show a survival rate of roughly 90 percent.

Tomas attributed the survival rate to the new types of body armor given to troops.

"Because (Adams) had body armor, he had no trunk damage, just limb damage," he said.

Even months after rehabilitation and recovery, Tomas said many patients don't leave the clinic with a happy ending.

"People are not the same after they have metal going through them," he said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Christmas comes early for platoon
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Keith Rogers
The Review Journal
Dec. 19, 2004

James DeLozier started Christmas shopping in September for his brother's platoon in Iraq, shortly after the 36 Marines arrived in Qaim to stop insurgents from infiltrating across the Syrian border.

The wish list put together by his brother, Sgt. Ken DeLozier, 25, a Chaparral High School graduate, and others in Alpha Company's 2nd Platoon didn't include the usual fare of toilet paper and lip balm.

Instead, they asked for combat gear accessories -- $20,000 worth of stuff like goggles, fire-resistant gloves, ammunition pouches, helmet kits with padding, tactical vests, long-sleeve latex shirts and machine-gun slings.

They even wanted voice-activated radios with headsets and laser-targeting attachments for M-4 rifles, if that would be possible.

Long before the need for armor upgrades gained attention when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld held a town hall meeting with troops in Kuwait this month, James DeLozier set out on a fund-raising campaign for his brother's unit.

In October, one of the members of that unit lost both legs when a roadside bomb exploded alongside a convoy of Humvees.

The corporal was the only one seriously injured, DeLozier said. The other Humvees, including the one his brother was in, missed running over the detonator by 4 inches.

That's when the issue of installing armor hit him. Two months later, Rumsfeld told a National Guard soldier: "You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

But he doesn't blame Rumsfeld for the $4.1 billion armor-upgrade problem and the lag in upgrading general-issue combat equipment.

"It comes down to this. You get what you pay for," DeLozier said. "During the 1990s the military was repeatedly slashed and cut because we weren't in war time. People forget that Clinton made cuts then and went to the lowest bidder on military equipment, and they gave us substandard equipment."

With their goal in sight, DeLozier and his mother, Denise Howard, "the guiding force behind this," set out to make sure the 2nd Platoon had the most effective gear to do the job.

While she wrote letters to Congress and the president calling for upgraded armor, DeLozier continued to raise money for the Christmas list by persuading his employer, the Outside Inn, to adopt the platoon and host tax-deductible projects such as raffles, yellow-ribbon sales and a slot tournament.

Now, DeLozier said Thursday at his Las Vegas home, "They have all the equipment they need. This is just top-of-the-line."

A sequence of calls last week to public affairs officials for the Marine Corps at the Pentagon, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Central Command eventually were deferred to the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad, Iraq, which in turn referred questions back to the Department of Defense. The Baghdad center said the Defense Department "is responsible for ensuring our forces are equipped properly."

Only one military spokesman offered comment on how common the practice is for troops to obtain commercially available equipment and why those items are not in the standard, government issue.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nick Balice, a duty officer at U.S. Central Command in Florida, said all units are not equipped identically because their missions vary.

"It's not totally unusual for soldiers and Marines to buy off-the-shelf equipment. While it performs the same function, they want something of a different design," Balice said.

For a guy who borrowed $2,000 from a friend for a down payment on a house, raising $20,000 in 2 1/2 months seemed like an insurmountable task for DeLozier.

But it wasn't long before the first thousands of dollars came in and he began receiving boxes from such out-of-state gear manufacturers as Blackhawk and Diamondback.

"The first shipment of $12,000 (in equipment) is already over there. They got that two weeks ago," he said, adding that the remaining shipments, making enough for five gifts for each Marine, will be sent as soon as orders are filled.

"This was basically a love gift to my brother and his platoon. The whole thing is I don't want to make it political," DeLozier said.

To accomplish the fund-raising task he set up a nonprofit organization, obtaining all the required credentials from city, state and federal agencies to legally receive tax-deductible donations.

He got businesses to donate services and items for a raffle. At the video poker bar where he is a midnight shift bartender, he sold 215 yellow ribbons for $10 apiece. He raised another $1,000 after expenses through a slot tournament.

He said a lot of people who had heard about the tournament and the raffle made donations, including relatives and friends in Wisconsin. A company from Wisconsin, DOWCO, donated $8,000 and Architectural Forest Products offices in Las Vegas and Wisconsin donated $2,000 each.

In comparison, an annual broad-based effort by Las Vegas businessman Phil Randazzo through his Nevada Benefits Foundation raised about $11,000 from sales of T-shirts and wristbands at a rally Dec. 11 to honor the families of Nevada's military personnel who have been killed supporting the nation's war on terrorism.

The money goes to four Pentagon-designated charities including Wounded Warriors and Homes for our Troops. About $2,500 will help pay for food and utility bills for families of local citizen-soldiers who are deployed.

About 3,000 service personnel, families, friends and veterans attended the Operation Holiday Cheer rally, where nonperishable food and items also were collected.

DeLozier said he applauds such grass-roots efforts because they parallel his initiative for his brother's platoon. If it wasn't for a steel rod that doctors put in his leg after a car accident at age 16, DeLozier said he too would have joined the Marines, like his father and his grandfather.

"I tried three times but they wouldn't take me," he said.


Ellie