Bush: We Won't Rush To Leave

[thedrifter]

Bush: We Won't Rush To Leave
Associated Press
January 17, 2005

WASHINGTON - President Bush says the U.S. military will pull out of Iraq "as quickly as possible," but he is not endorsing Secretary of State Colin Powell's statement that troops could begin returning home this year.

"The way I would put it is, American troops will be leaving as quickly as possible, but they won't be leaving until we have completed our mission," Bush said in a Washington Post published Sunday.

"And part of the mission is to train Iraqis so they can fight the terrorists. And the sooner the Iraqis are prepared - better prepared, better equipped to fight - the sooner our troops will start coming home," Bush said.

Powell told National Public Radio last week that he believes Americans could begin leaving Iraq this year as the Iraqis take on a larger security role. Powell, in his final days as the government's chief diplomat, said he could not give a timeline when all the troops will be home.

Bush said the U.S. military is "constantly assessing" if Iraqi security forces are up to the job, allowing the United States to begin pulling out. The president would not commit to significantly reduce troops by the end of his second term in 2009.





Bush said his priorities over the next four years are winning the fight against terrorism, spreading freedom and democracy, reducing the deficit and overhauling Social Security and the tax system.

White House counselor Dan Bartlett, who appeared on three talks shows on Sunday, said Bush's inaugural address on Thursday will stress those goals.

"It really is a liberty speech - how we promote liberty overseas, which is in our direct interest for security here at home, as well as liberty here at home," Bartlett told "Fox News Sunday."

"That means giving people more control over their lives, giving them a stake in the future of America by giving them more control and more power to make decisions on their own behalf," Bartlett said.

In the interview, Bush said the public ratified his approach toward Iraq when they re-elected him rather than Democrat John Kerry. Bush also said there is no reason to hold any administration official accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in the planning or conduction of the war.

"We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," Bush said. "The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me."

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The Senate's second-ranking Democrat took issue with Bush's claim that the country has given him a mandate.

"To suggest there is this broad mandate and the Democrats should slink away and reconsider all their values is just plain wrong," Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told "Fox News Sunday."

"I think we have to carefully try to find common ground with this president. Where we can't find it, we're going to stand our ground," Durbin said.

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said about a dozen of the 44 Senate Democrats are willing to work with the GOP leadership.

"There are a lot of Democrats who look at this last election, last several elections, and they see that this obstructionist agenda that was led by (defeated Senate Democratic leader) Tom Daschle has not been beneficial to them politically and it certainly hasn't been beneficial to the country," Santorum said.

The new Democratic leader, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, said Democrats can work with Bush if the president shows some "humility."

"I think we don't need arrogance here," Reid told ABC's "This Week" "We need the ability to work together."

Among the other issues discussed were:

-gay marriage. Bush said in the interview that he will not lobby the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The president said there are enough senators to support the proposal. Bartlett tried to stem any fallout from social conservatives, saying Bush was talking about the "legislative reality." Bartlett said the president will continue to push for the ban.

Santorum, a leading opponent of gay marriage, said he is confident the president won't "break faith with social conservatives. ... He's going to fight for this."

-Iran. Bartlett said the president is committed to working with allies in European to persuade Iran to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran has denied allegations of a secret nuclear weapons program, saying the country's nuclear activities are for peaceful energy purposes.

"It's critical that the entire world focus on this issue. It is a threat that we have to take seriously and we'll continue to work through the diplomatic initiatives that he set forth," Bartlett said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Begin Deployment To Iraq
The News and Observer
January 17, 2005

CAMP LEJEUNE - About 850 Marines and sailors began leaving for Iraq on Friday as part of an expected departure of 14,000 by April.

The Marines, who continued their departure Saturday, are expected to be away for seven months.

On Friday, dozens of Marines, some with family and some alone, waited in a Camp Lejeune gym for buses to arrive to take them to the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station, where they would fly out.

Sgt. Jamie Smith, 24, of Hampstead was seen off by his wife, their 2-year-old son and his parents from Yadkinville.

"I hate to leave my family, but I'm excited about going over and doing some business," he said.




Smith said he is concerned most about Iraq's summer heat, but said he thought he was doing the right thing by serving in the country.

This is the first deployment for Pfc. Brian Dunn, 21, of Rock Hill, S.C., who sat under a basketball hoop Friday afternoon with his mother and 16-year-old brother. Despite the seriousness of his mission, Dunn joked that his brother could borrow his clothes without him knowing.

The troops are among the first from the area to leave in what the military has said will be a deployment of about 14,000 service members from Lejeune's 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. It includes Marines and sailors from the New River, Cherry Point and Beaufort, S.C., air stations.

They are scheduled to replace about 20,000 service members under the command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Verdict Won't Change Defense Method <br />
Associated Press <br />
January 17, 2005 <br />
<br />
SAN ANTONIO - The &quot;just following orders&quot; defense didn't work for the alleged leader of the abuse of Iraqi detainees at...

[thedrifter]

15 Iraqi Guardsmen Feared Kidnapped
Associated Press
January 15, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents rocketed an Iraqi military bus west of the capital Friday and 15 Iraqi soldiers were missing and feared kidnapped, as insurgent violence and intimidation escalated ahead of this month's crucial national election.

A senior American officer acknowledged that violence and threats by insurgents might keep some people in Baghdad away from the Jan. 30 polls.

The bus was driving to a U.S. military post when it was struck by rocket-propelled grenades near Baghdadi, about 90 miles west of the capital, said an Iraqi National Guard officer who identified himself only as Lt. Col. Hesham.

He said the bus burst into flames but no bodies were found, raising fears the troops had been taken prisoner.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military announced Friday that two Marines and a 1st Infantry Division soldier were killed in separate clashes the previous day.

Iraqi police ambushed a group of gunmen in a Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad known as a stronghold of support for Saddam Hussein, killing seven, police Capt. Ahmed Ismael said. The fight occurred near the Abu Hanifa mosque, whose clerics are outspoken opponents of the election.




The bus attack was the latest in a growing number of assaults on Iraqi security forces as the country prepares for balloting. Iraqis will choose a 275-member legislature in the first election since the collapse of Saddam's regime in April 2003.

The Bush administration hopes the election will be a major step in the building of a democracy and set the stage for the withdrawal of American and international military forces.

Although Iraq's long-suppressed Shiite Muslim majority is expected to vote in huge numbers, Sunni Arab clerics are urging a boycott and Sunni insurgents threaten attacks to disrupt voting, fearing the loss of power to Shiites.

Despite the threats, U.S. and other foreign troops plan to stay in the background during the balloting, turning over primary security responsibility to Iraqi forces, which have been criticized for poor performance and training.

Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, deputy commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, said violence could keep some Baghdad residents away from the polls.

He warned of a further surge in bombings and other violence as the election draws near and said there was no guarantee Iraqi and American forces could stop a spectacular attack causing mass casualties.

"If I told you I could guarantee that, then I'd be a fool," Hammond told reporters Friday.

In Mauritius, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said conditions for elections in Iraq were "far from ideal." He said participation by Sunni Arabs was critical to ensure the new government is truly representative and urged Iraq's interim government to "intensity its effort" to draw in Sunnis.

Attackers in Iraq's north killed three officials of a party representing Iraqi Kurds, who also are working aggressively for a high turnout in the election, which is expected to pry power from Iraq's long-dominant Sunni minority.

Gunmen also killed an Iraqi election official in western Baghdad late Thursday, police said, marking at least the seventh such killing ahead of the vote. Attackers in a passing car shot Abdul Karim Jassem Al-Ubeidi as he headed home, police said.

Sunni militants claimed on Friday that they were behind Wednesday's assassination of a Shiite community leader who had promoted the election on behalf of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Ansar al-Islam said it killed Sheik Mahmoud Finjan because he was a "big supporter of the elections."

"We ... call upon all brother citizens not to participate in the elections because we are going to attack voting centers," Ansar al-Islam said in a statement posted on a Web site used by insurgents.

In Baghdad late Friday, insurgents fired two rockets near the Sadeer Hotel, which is used by Western contractors, and a third near the Ministry of Education, but caused no casualties. The blasts broke a lull of about two weeks in insurgent shelling of the city center.

Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Iraqi police patrol in the Amiriyah district on the western edge of Baghdad. Three explosions also were heard near the main road from central Baghdad to the city's international airport, police said.

In other developments:

-An Iraqi bus collided with a U.S. tank that was on patrol Friday, killing six of the bus passengers and injuring eight, the U.S. military said.

-Twenty-eight Iraqi prisoners escaped Thursday night as they were being transported by bus from the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad to another facility. A U.S. spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said 38 initially got away but 10 were recaptured. He gave no further details.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Insurgents Kill 16 in Attacks in Iraq

By SALLY BUZBEE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed eight Iraqi National Guard soldiers at a checkpoint in central Iraq (news - web sites) on Monday, and eight people died in a suicide car bombing at a police station north of Baghdad, as insurgents struck at security forces on the day exiles began to register for Iraq's national elections.


Some of the latest violence, including a series of weekend attacks along a highway southeast of Baghdad, occurred in provinces which U.S. and Iraqi authorities have deemed safe enough to hold the elections and appear to be attempts to scare the country's majority Shiites away from the Jan. 30 polls.


Underscoring these security concerns, Shiite politician Salama Khafaji, who survived an ambush in central Baghdad Sunday by gunmen wearing police uniforms, said she's canceled campaigning in the south after her staff discovered terrorist checkpoints on major routes.


"What we fear now most is terrorists wearing police uniforms," Khafaji told The Associated Press Monday. "The uniforms and body armor used by the police are available on the market for anyone to buy," she said.


She said the security situation was so bad that she had shelved plans to tour mainly Shiite cities in central and southern Iraq starting Monday. "We sent people out today to check roads in the area but they have reported back that terrorists have set up some road checkpoints."


"Generally I cannot go out and meet people or knock on door to get out the vote like they do in the West," she lamented.


On Monday, exiled Iraqis began registering to vote in their homeland's first independent election in nearly 50 years. Iraqis can vote abroad in 14 countries, including the United States, and there is a seven-day registration period that ends Jan. 23. Voting will begin Jan. 28 and continue until the Jan. 30 election in Iraq.


Officials estimate 1.2 million Iraqis are eligible to vote overseas. In Britain, many of the estimated 150,000 Iraqis eligible to vote were confused about the fledgling political process and unsure who to vote for.


"People keep calling us and asking us, 'Who should we vote for?'" said Jabbar Hasan of the Iraqi Community Association, a London-based group for Iraqi expats. "We say it is up to you, you decide. It is a new experience, even for the political parties."


The eight Iraqi National Guard soldiers' deaths occurred at a checkpoint outside a provincial broadcasting center in Buhriz, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Four other Iraqi soldiers were injured in the attack, said an official at the nearby Baqouba hospital, Ali Ahmed. The area is considered a hotspot of the insurgency as violence flares before the Jan. 30 balloting.


The suicide attack occurred at a police station in Beiji, about 155 miles north of Baghdad on the main supply route north. Eight people were killed and 25 were injured, according to a hospital official, but it was unclear if they were police or civilians.


In the Shiite holy city of Karbala south of Baghdad, meanwhile, police dismantled explosives placed in a car, said police spokesman Rahman Mshawi. The car was parked about 3 miles from two of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in the city.


Several of the bloodiest attacks in recent days have taken place in provinces that U.S. and Iraqi officials have classified as secure enough to hold elections.


Late Sunday, a police captain, Shakir Aboud, was killed and another policeman was injured when their car was hit by a roadside bomb in Numaniyah, 85 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to a morgue official in Kut's hospital.


The area around Kut has seen a recent flare-up in violence. In a separate attack, two Iraqi government auditors were shot to death late Sunday after armed gunmen stopped their car in Suwaira, near Kut.


The two Iraqis, who worked in the provincial auditing department in Kut, were shot while riding in their car in Suwaira, about 25 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to an official at a Kut hospital.


The town of Suwaira and the city of Kut lie along a main road southeast of Baghdad that, until recently, had served as a safer alternative route for Iraqis traveling from Baghdad to mostly Shiite southern Iraq.





The main road south had earlier been hit with violent attacks and kidnappings in an area dubbed the "triangle of death." Gangs of Sunni Muslim extremists had been targeting foreigners, government officials, security personnel and Shiite Muslims on the main highway.

But in recent days, the area around Kut and Suwaria have seen a flare-up in insurgent violence, apparently committed by insurgents seeking to block traffic south along the alternative route.

On Sunday, a total of 17 people were killed in the Suwaria and Kut area, including three Iraqi policemen and three Iraqi National Guard soldiers killed in separate attacks. As mourners gathered for the policemen's funeral, a suicide bomber killed another seven people — all civilians — and himself.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have classified Kut as among the areas that are secure enough to hold elections.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have insisted that the elections go ahead as scheduled. Interim President Ghazi al-Yawer said that if the elections were postponed for six months, there was no guarantee the violence would wane.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S. Arrests Dozens Ahead Of Iraq Vote
Associated Press
January 17, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops staged a series of raids in Mosul and elsewhere in northern and central Iraq on Sunday, arresting dozens, and insurgents stepped up their attacks two weeks ahead of national elections, ambushing a car carrying a prominent female candidate and killing 24 people in other assaults.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz conceded that U.S. and Iraqi forces cannot stop "extraordinary" intimidation by insurgents before the Jan. 30 vote.

Underscoring the precarious security situation, Salama al-Khafaji, was ambushed in central Baghdad by gunmen wearing police uniforms, but she escaped injury when her bodyguards returned fire, an aide said. It was the second attempt since May on the life of al-Khafaji, who is running on the favored slate endorsed by the country's main Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have insisted that the elections go ahead as scheduled, despite the persistent violence.

Interim President Ghazi al-Yawer said that if the elections were postponed for six months, there was no guarantee the violence would wane. The insurgents "might lay down for two or three months, then carry out attacks again," he said.





Most of the violence occurred around Kut, southeast of Baghdad, and the northern city of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city.

Near Kut, three Iraqi policemen were killed in one shooting and three Iraqi National Guard officers were killed by a hand grenade in another attack. As mourners gathered for the policemen's funeral, a suicide attacker blew himself up in the crowd, killing himself and seven others.

Gunmen also shot dead an Iraqi translator for a Filipino company working on water projects for multinational forces near Kut, a medical official said.

In Mosul, insurgents shot dead a member of a local government council. They also set off explosives as a U.S. convoy passed, damaging a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, but no casualties were immediately reported.

A mortar also damaged a school in Mosul to be used as a polling place. And four other mortar rounds blasted schools in relatively quiet Basra, in the south, also slated to serve as polling centers.

Early Monday, insurgents opened fire at a checkpoint in central Iraq, killing seven Iraqi National Guard soldiers, officials said. The deaths occurred at a checkpoint in Buhriz, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, near the troubled city of Baquoba.

Even in heavily Shiite areas of south-central Iraq, which is far more stable than Mosul or Baghdad, several election workers have been threatened and resigned in recent days, a senior U.S. Embassy official said Sunday in Hillah while outlining election preparations there.

"Most expect a high turnout if things seem quiet enough. There is some worry if you have a series of car bombs, people will think twice about coming," the official said.

Elsewhere in central Baghdad, insurgents attacked an Iraqi National Guard patrol on the east side of the Tigris river, then melted into the crowd in the open market area, sending shoppers running. Sounds of heavy machine-gun and automatic-weapons fire reverberated for nearly an hour along Haifa street on the western side of the river.

Wolfowitz, speaking in Jakarta, Indonesia, acknowledged that the security threat was worse than in last October's nationwide balloting in Afghanistan and that it was impossible to guarantee "absolute security" against the "extraordinary intimidation that the enemy is undertaking."

"There was intimidation in Afghanistan - the Taliban threatened all kinds of violence against people who registered or people who voted," he said. "But I don't believe they ever got around to shooting election workers in the street or kidnapping the children of political candidates."

An Associated Press poll of Americans indicated 53 percent are not optimistic that a stable government will take hold in Iraq.

Around Mosul, the U.S. Army's Stryker Brigade Combat Team detained 11 suspected insurgents, including an alleged cell leader, and seized weapons and bomb-making material in several weekend raids - part of the military's strategy to try to secure the city short of launching an all-out offensive.

The Mosul area has emerged as a major flashpoint between U.S. and Iraqi forces and the insurgents, raising fears the election cannot be held in much of the city.

U.S. and Iraqi officials are scrambling to recruit new police and election workers in Mosul after thousands of them resigned in the face of rebel intimidation. Similar mass resignations are believed to have occurred in other Sunni Muslim areas of northern, central and western Iraq.

With hours-long waits at gas stations across the country, the Iraqi government denied what it called "rumors" that the Oil Ministry planned to keep gas supplies low to deter car bombers. The government has indicated it plans to restrict much driving around the election.

But the long gas lines clearly were becoming a sore point.

About 300 followers of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began a three-day sit-in in front of the Oil Ministry in Baghdad to protest gasoline shortages. About a dozen entered the ministry and complained to Minister Thamir Ghadbhan, asking why U.S. troops have fuel for their vehicles and Iraqis do not.

Meanwhile, the ministry announced that Iraq expects to resume pumping crude oil from its northern oil fields to the Turkish export terminal of Ceyhan in 10 days. The flow of oil through the northern pipeline has halted since a Dec. 18 explosion by saboteurs.

Elsewhere, the body of a man was found in a street in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi with a paper on his back identifying him as an Egyptian citizen.

"This will be the punishment of anyone who deals with American forces," the paper read.

The fallout from an earlier crisis, the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, also continued to reverberate.

Many Iraqis criticized a 10-year prison sentence given to U.S. Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., the alleged ringleader shown smiling beside naked Iraqi prisoners in photos transmitted around the world.

Hussein Mohammed, a 22-year-old student in Baghdad, called the trial unfair and the sentence too light. "The judge should have been an Iraqi and meted out the death penalty," he said.

In other developments Sunday:

- Saddam Hussein's legal team claimed that it has witnesses willing to testify that the fallen dictator's regime was not responsible for gassing thousands of Kurds in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja in 1988. Chief lawyer Ziad al-Khasawneh didn't identify any of the potential witnesses.

- An armored Humvee flipped over and plunged into a canal in western Baghdad, killing an American soldier, the U.S. command said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

1/23 Marines patrol Iraqi villages, ensure security prior to elections
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 200511354158
Story by Cpl. Paul Leicht



AR RAMADI, Iraq (Jan 13, 2005) -- Handfuls of Iraqi children greeted the Marine patrol as it wound along muddy farm fields joining a quiet, palm tree-lined village. Handing out candy and a few soccer balls on the windy day, a few Marines traded friendly waves and clowning smiles as they marched along with the movement of their platoon.

Like their predecessors in previous conflicts, today’s Marine infantry in Iraq are reinforcing a good relationship between government and local civilians with foot patrols on the front lines of an insurgency.

The value of ‘boots on the ground’ patrolling operations is helping ensure security in Iraq prior to elections January 30.

“The main objective behind our patrols is to simply make a presence, police the area, improve relations and gather intelligence from sources about any insurgent activity in the area,” said Staff Sgt. William R. Gilman, 1st platoon commander, Company B, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, and a 33-year-old from Dallas. “Before this country can hold elections, it’s important that we help make the population feel more safe and secure. Villagers may be hesitant to go to the polls if they feel terrorists could attack them or their children. In addition to other operations, by patrolling on a frequent basis we are sending more than just a message of order and security.”

As part of the patrols, the efforts of Marine human intelligence teams and Arabic interpreters work to facilitate cooperation and understanding between the Marines and village leaders.

While visiting friendly contacts, village leaders and schools, the Marine reservists of “Bravo” Co. are also handing out more than sweets, toys and other supplies as they accomplish their mission.

“Hopefully our patrols spread more goodwill and show the Iraqi people that we—not the terrorists—are their best friends,” said 30-year-old Sgt. Kyle McCracken, squad leader, 1st platoon, “Bravo” Co., 1/23, and a native of Van, Texas.

Following recent terrorist attacks on Iraqi police and the insurgency’s voter intimidation campaign against civilians, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s said Jan. 11 that certain parts of his country may yet remain unsafe for nationwide polls.

The constant presence of the Marines on patrol is a potent step for success, ensuring regional security and the freedom of the Iraqi people.

“Whenever we come out here on patrol the kids are especially happy to see us,” said Pfc. William Marsh, rifleman and radio operator for 1st platoon, “Bravo” Co., 1/23, and a 19-year-old student from Katy, Texas. “We’re making a powerful stamp on the successful future of Iraq and that’s why it’s important for us to be here.”


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Group votes to allow 'welcome home' banner

By Associated Press

AUBURN, Calif. -- A Nevada County homeowners association suspended its policy against hanging banners to welcome home a member's son who served with the Marines in Iraq.
The Lake of the Pines Homeowners Association approved a "Welcome Home, Sean" banner after initially saying it would violate rules that banners must pertain to all residents.

"There was no question about their feeling that this is the right thing to do," board President Ralph Kenrick said about the hastily approved exception.

Hearing that association staffers denied the request by Gary Stokes on behalf of his son, U.S. Marine Corp. Pvt. Sean Stokes, Kenrick, a former U.S. Navy captain, called seven board members, including one vacationing in Hawaii, to override the rule.

Stokes is expected to return home Feb. 5.

"Seeing the sign, it's just going to fill his heart," said his father. "I want to support my son. That's the whole intent."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

US military not to overstay in Lanka: Wolfowitz

PK Balachanddran

Colombo, January 17, 2005|18:13 IST

The United States Marines — who came to Sri Lanka to do rescue, relief and restoration work following the tsunami catastrophe — would not overstay in the island, the US Deputy Secretary of Defence, Dr Paul Wolfowitz, said in Colombo on Monday.

The US Marines would "not stay any longer than they were wanted" Wolfowitz told a media conference at the end of his brief visit to Sri Lanka.

He further said that in Sri Lanka, the need for deploying military forces had now diminished because the work on the ground was progressing from the rescue and relief stage to the reconstruction stage.

He said that there were now, 700 US military personnel in Sri Lanka, who were mostly engineers.

There were also two positioning ships, which had water purification equipment capable of producing 3,000 gallons of potable water a day.

Given the speedy return to normalcy in Sri Lanka, the ships would be leaving for the Maldives, he said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Coast Guardsman aids Marines, gains experience <br />
Submitted by: 2nd Force Service Support Group <br />
Story Identification #: 2005114121425 <br />
Story by Cpl. G. Lane Miley <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP...

[thedrifter]

Sustaining our resolve in Iraq


By John E. Carey


Some respected leaders recently advocated an expeditious American withdrawal from Iraq. Others favored postponing the Iraqi elections. Many, watching the bloodshed in Iraq, search for quick and easy ways to halt it and spare lives.
Former senator and presidential candidate George McGovern has been among those saying Iraq will be around for thousands of years with or without American help. True enough. But Mr. McGovern and many others go a step further when they compare Iraq to Vietnam. Mr. McGovern has even said Vietnam is now an American trading partner, if not a friend. In his mind, apparently, America's decision to withdraw from Vietnam in 1975 resulted in a happy ending.







Comparing Iraq to Vietnam seems problematic. Believing it is OK to fight a war halfway and then depart precipitously and without fully understanding all potential outcomes and results is irresponsible and sadly distorts history's lessons.
Ask the Vietnamese living here in America. They are torn by their deep loyalty and love for the United States and the belief they were devaluated in 1975 when America executed the "cut and run." The Vietnamese here now love the fact Americans helped them hold off the tide of the communist North for years. They deeply value their freedom and their lives here in a country that has largely accepted them.
But the Vietnamese in America are reticent to tell you what they believe in their hearts and what they discuss in small gatherings among family and friends: that America ultimately let them down in 1975, creating chaos and bloodshed in Vietnam and Southeast Asia for years.
When America left Vietnam in 1975, the communists came south, sweeping away the former South Vietnam, and imprisoning or killing untold numbers of freedom-loving Vietnamese. More than 900,000 South Vietnamese were sent to concentration camps. Millions lost everything: homes, family, jobs and all possessions. A vast migration called the Vietnam Diaspora ensued. Something like 3 million people left Vietnam, many in small, undependable boats.
Many of these "boat people" succumbed to starvation, the ravages of the sea or murdering pirates. Those that made it safely to other lands spread to all corners of the Earth. Vietnamese people now live in France, Norway and nearly every other European country. They settled in Australia and every other country that would have them. Almost 2 million people from Vietnam now live here in the United States, and the majority are now productive, legal citizens.
But the journey of these refugees was seldom easy. No one should minimize the agony of the trip to escape the communists. Many Vietnamese were refugees for years. Many of the "boat people" made it to the Philippines, only to be interred in an infamous "camp" on Palawan Island.
These refugees lived a life in limbo. Palawan wasn't quite a prisoner of war camp but it was a long way from the freedoms of the former South Vietnam. And Palawan fell well short of the goal: freedom and a home in America.
During the Diaspora, some Vietnamese refugees among the survivors spent 10 to 15 years trying to get to other countries. Many were forcibly returned to Vietnam.
And what was left behind in Southeast Asia? In Vietnam: communism, repression and a loss of freedom. The economy in Vietnam is just now recovering from 25-plus years of communist repression. After 1975, more than 2 million people were killed by the communists in Cambodia. Southeast Asia was in turmoil for years after the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.
If you ask the Vietnamese who fled their homeland after the war ended in 1975, they'll tell you that the lesson of American commitment is to stay the course. If that is not possible, they'll beg American leaders to carefully consider all the implications of an American commitment gone bad: a withdrawal with haste and little regard for the plight of the allies.
So, what might the delay in the elections in Iraq mean? Would the insurgents be emboldened? The answer is undoubtedly: yes. The insurgents, who are also the terrorists, are looking for any sign of the erosion of America's will. Any indicator of an early withdrawal of American forces means the insurgents are on the right track. The insurgents want America out of Iraq so they can work their will on Iraqis without American intervention.
And if America leaves Iraq, what happens to the freedom-loving Iraqis? The Kurds are trapped between Turkey, a nation that has little use for them, and the Sunnis, including remnants of Saddam Hussein's former Ba'ath Party, whose members openly despise the Kurds. Saddam once tried to wipe them out with chemical weapons, as if the Kurds were so many cockroaches.
The Sunnis, roughly 20 percent of the Iraqi population, held power in Iraq for decades during Saddam's rule. They controlled the military, the police and other important social institutions, to the detriment of all others. They fear their past sins will be avenged by the majority after the elections.
The Sunnis also fear their power will be totally and forever lost in the election and therefore want the elections delayed and America out of Iraq. The Shi'ites want the elections, which they see as an opportunity to recapture their rightful place as leaders of their own Iraqi destiny.
So what happens if the elections are delayed or America decides to leave Iraq before peace and stability are restored? Chaos? Probably. Civil War? Maybe. A nation partitioned into three or more parts? Quite possibly. Bloodshed? Definitely.
When America departs a war-torn land, we know bloodshed follows. American lives are saved while countless others die.
The insurgents in Iraq learned the real lesson of Vietnam: Any sign of a lack of American resolve or a hasty American withdrawal can mean short-term chaos but a long-term victory for those leading the insurgency.

John E. Carey is a retired U.S. Naval officer and president of International Defense Consultants Inc.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Under Fire, Alongside The Fallen
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Jan 16, 2005 7:32 pm US/Mountain

RAMADI, Iraq (CBS) What's it like to be fighting in Iraq, nearly two years into the war? 60 Minutes wanted to find out and joined up with the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment in one of the most hostile places in Iraq today. Correspondent Scott Pelley and a 60 Minutes crew spent two weeks with the Marines in November, and have just returned from another week.

The battalion, known as 2/5 Marines, is on its second tour in Iraq. For these men the resistance has turned out to be far deadlier than the invasion itself.

Last week Secretary of State Colin Powell called the war "a raging insurgency." That's what the Marines are fighting, under fire in Anbar province - the heart of the resistance.

Every morning the colors rise outside Whiskey Company, 2/5 Marines. To the flag, the Marines chain the dog tags of the men who died under the Stars and Stripes.

In the war to topple Saddam, the battalion lost one man. In the war on the insurgency it's lost 14 - most of them from Whiskey Company.

Cpl. Jake McCloskey won a purple heart for wounds suffered in September.

He says his second tour has been a lot harder than the first. "It's an enemy I can't identify right away. Last time uniforms made it a lot easier. These guys hide, they hide with the regular populous and it's very difficult to find them."

With 60 Minutes cameras present, a patrol in Ramadi was hit with a rocket propelled grenade, seemingly from nowhere.

Pfc. Josh Johnson was badly wounded.

2nd Lt. John McKinley, the patrol's commander, says, "Right now he's unconscious. Sounds like it came from the north, sir. From over our head. Roger, it sounded like it came from over our heads, don't know if it was a mortar or an RPG. Did it come from the north? Hey, how is he doc? What have we got. Hey let's not lose our minds here. Let's see this, roger, he's bleeding pretty bad out of his leg right now. We definitely need to get him out of here. He's definitely an urgent right now."

They did get him out. Johnson, with shrapnel in both legs, was medevaced to a combat hospital. He's home now, in the United States, making a full recovery-one of about 150 men wounded in the battalion since September. His comrades never found the man with the RPG.

"It's three dimensional. Every direction up, down, left, right, below you," says McCloskey. "I mean there's always a possibility that somebody could pop out somewhere, there's an IED [roadside bomb]. Sometimes you can't see them. A lot of times you can't see them so you've got to be constantly looking for something that maybe the day before that wasn't there." He figures you can tell if something isn't right two times in ten.

Whiskey Company corporals Jack Evers and Joseph Terwilliger told us if the Marines don't know what's about to happen, the people in town usually do.

"Most times before it happens the general populous is gone. They'll go inside and they lock up their shops and they leave, and nine times out of ten the people left out there are the insurgents or whoever it is attacking us, and it's us versus them at that time," says Terwilliger.

"Just drive by a group of locals and then ten minutes later you can drive back by and the same guy is walking by you, can be pointing an AK [automatic rifle] at you, or shooting an RPG, or setting an IED out alongside the road. So they're guerrillas out here."

The Marines look out on Ramadi from a base called Hurricane Point. Once the grounds of a palace, it is now home to several hundred Americans.

They venture out into the city only in combat patrols, magazines locked, chambers loaded, ready to fire. They leave the gates sealed in armored Humvees or ducking below the steel plate that they've welded on to open trucks.

In some parts of Iraq, children chase and cheer as Humvees go by. But you don't get much of that here. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, home of Iraq's Sunni minority, the once powerful supporters of Saddam.

60 Minutes joined the Marines along the main drag that they call Route Michigan with the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Randall Newman. His men run patrols to show presence, to search for weapons and to defend the offices of the U.S.-backed governor. The building is scarred by mortars, rockets and snipers.

"Ramadi is a town, advertised population coming in about 358,000," says Newman. "So I think if I've got my numbers right that's somewhere around the size of Kansas City. Off in the distance, you see that tall building you see with the charred-out window…that was where a sniper was that worked on us about a month ago."

The Marines have to defend this state capital from behind sandbags and bulletproof windows they pulled from Humvees.

"It's difficult when you're fighting an insurgency to probably say who owns anything on any given day," says Newman. "To win this type of fight, requires patience, presence and persistence."

Persistence to get past what has become the signature weapon in this war: what the military calls an IED, for improvised explosive device. It means a roadside bomb. Several Marines have not survived the drive on Route Michigan. So when they're leaving the base, the superstitious squeeze good luck charms.

Then they dash down Michigan-fast-scanning for trash or dirt that might hide a bomb. There's a feeling of determined resignation in the Humvee. It's either your day or its not. For a patrol on Route Michigan joined by 60 Minutes, the luck ran out.

The shockwave from an IED stopped a 60 Minutes camera. The wounds were relatively minor. The armored Humvee held up. But it's more hazardous in the open trucks. Marines have customized them themselves and call these weld wagons "Frankensteins."

From Hurricane Point to the governor's office is the gauntlet run where most of the IEDs on Route Michigan have been set. In fact, there was a time not too long ago when there were as many as a dozen IEDs on this road in just one day. Marines have nicknamed one intersection the "Axis of Evil" because of all the IEDs they've encountered there.

In November, 60 Minutes went on several combat patrols with Whiskey Company and their commander, Capt. Pat Rapicault.

He's an unusual Marine. Born in France, he came to the United States as a student. His accent is part France, part Mississippi. His men tease him about it and some of them call him Frenchie.

Rapicault, 34, and married, may have been born to be a Marine officer. He was first in his class in Ranger school. When we met him he'd already lost six men. And there was something we noticed about him. As he talked with us he never took his eyes off the potential threats to his Marines down the road. He told us the enemy was always watching, so you could never look away.

"We're constantly under observation from those guys. They know where we go. They know where we like to setup," he says. He avoids any kind of repetitions. "Change your route, change the buildings you use. Otherwise they come at you, booby trap those buildings and try to blow them up."

Rapicault "leads from the front," as the Marines like to say, and he's focused on getting the rest of his men home. Most often, Rapicault's men never see the enemy-they don't truly know who he is or what he's fighting for. They have never seen the enemy like this-that watches for an approaching American patrol and prepares to set off a roadside bomb. Iraqi photojournalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad embedded himself with the insurgents and took pictures of them setting up their IEDs.

Abdul-Ahad describes the IEDs. He says the insurgents take a "couple of big mortar shells or artillery shells, they wire it with some explosive. They take the wire into the edge of the street and they hide behind a building." Then they "kind of put their heads into the ground and try to listen to the tanks coming."

The insurgents usually use cell phones, using local kids in the neighborhood as spotters for U.S. tanks.

"And they have spotters everywhere," he says. But he adds, "Most of the insurgency is - if I can use this word - is pathetic. Pathetic in the term that when they are waiting for the tank, and the tank is five meters away, and they kind of put the wires together and nothing happens, because it's an old battery or something. And that happens in some of the cases, you know. But other cases, they do kind of detonate things and do cause lots of damage."

Abdul-Ahad told us that some of the fighters he met were religious extremists from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Syria, but he claims that many others weren't fanatics at all. For example, a businessman was fighting because he despised the foreign occupation and its chaos.

"He wanted to end the occupation. And this is why he decided to sell off his business to fund a small cell of fighters, and to fight the Americans in Fallujah," Abdul-Ahad says.

In Ramadi the enemy has been pressing a vicious and effective campaign against American attempts to reach out to Iraq - especially undermining public works projects and the government.

Newman says Anbar province is on its third governor in just over a year. The first governor quit because insurgents kidnapped his family and threatened to kill them.

The mayor's office was recently attacked with an IED that destroyed the building.

Shortly after Newman's Marines delivered supplies to a hospital, a doctor was murdered. Newman says the killing was because the hospital accepted supplies from the Americans.

Even the Iraqi man who collected the trash on the base was murdered.

"They will try and target anyone, with fear and intimidation," says Newman.

Newman says the fear and intimidation is difficult to work against. "We're making headway slow but sure."

The headway is slow. For example, there won't be enough security for the election two weeks away, so the local government is keeping the location of polling places secret until the last minute.

Still, even with all the resistance, Whiskey Company's commander Pat Rapicault told us that its better to save Ramadi block by block than flatten it like Fallujah.

"I think the biggest difference between here and Fallujah is we could very well go ahead and do the same thing, bomb every building we get contact from, but then again that's not the purpose we were here for. We're trying to get this country rebuilt, this being the capital of the province."

Rapicault had warned us the enemy is adapting. And, sure enough, as the Marines got better avoiding IEDs, the insurgents turned to suicide bombers. We were with Rapicault's men heading down Route Michigan, nearly back to Hurricane Point, when a car packed with explosives pulled up next to one of Whiskey Company's Humvees and exploded.

His target, a fully armored Humvee, was destroyed. A Navy corpsman treated two survivors, but three Marines were killed, including the man who helped explain what combat is like, the captain some called, Frenchie, Pat Rapicault. In his company of about 160 men, there are now nine names in steel under the flag.

In recent days, Ramadi has been more settled. They're not sure why. At Hurricane Point the Marines are no longer fresh. Many have been to war twice now. But there is still determination. They go out the gate with purpose. They may not always know who they're fighting, but the commander told us they know what they're fighting for.

"Once the first drop of blood was shed by a Marine from this battalion and from the Marine battalion before us, we had too much invested in - in this city, in this country, in this cause - to turn our back on it. To do so would disrespect our fallen warriors that preceded us here."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

For One Contractor, A Road Too Hard
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jackie Spinner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 17, 2005; Page A01

BURNET, Tex. -- At night, after their work was finished and the desert moon had risen over their camp, some of the civilian truckers who hauled military supplies across Iraq would gather at their base in Kuwait and watch videos.

They watched the same two or three clips over and over again, fast-forwarding through some scenes, rewinding to replay others, pausing to stare at the screen. In each, they noted the way the victim's hands were bound. They counted the seconds between the time his neck was cut open and when he stopped struggling. They would tie each other up and practice how to escape a similar fate at the hands of anti-American insurgents.

Allen Petty, who went to Iraq to drive a truck for KBR, the Houston-based subsidiary of Halliburton, said he soon was able to calculate how long it took a beheaded man to die: "Between seven and 15 seconds."

"There's a reason we watched those videos," explained Petty, 32. The truckers figured there was little they could do to ensure they wouldn't be kidnapped, so they tried to prepare for how to escape if they were.

Watching the videos, Petty said, "was our weapon."

But by the end of August, Petty, who went to Iraq to earn enough money to build a house for his wife and six girls, had had enough.

He had dodged roadside bombs, mortar fire, rocket-propelled grenades and bullets as he drove his unarmored flatbed between U.S. military bases in Iraq. He had lived that unnerving fear of being kidnapped by men in black hoods. And he was earning no more than he made driving a truck in the United States, with an extra run to Mississippi thrown in.

So four months into a one-year contract, Petty came home to his family in Burnet, population 4,735. He was a broken man, said his wife, Sylvia Petty, profoundly different from the person who had left Texas in May hoping to return free of debt.

"He brought the war home," Sylvia said. "His character changed. He is at the bottom of the barrel."

Allen Petty returned to the same life he had tried to escape, only this time without a job. His former employer would not rehire him.

He was jumpy, nervous, depressed -- exhibiting signs of traumatic stress months after he returned -- but was unable to seek professional help. KBR offered counseling in Houston, 226 miles southeast of here, but the family said there was no way they could afford the gas to get there and back.

Sylvia said her husband seemed crushed by the weight of having failed to provide for his girls.

The Petty family rang in the New Year sad and depressed. The girls looked up at their father, Sylvia recalled, and asked when he would find a job. He couldn't look back at them. "Nobody wants your daddy," he told his daughters.

"It's been the most awful week," Sylvia said, "and things keep getting worse."

When Allen Petty signed up for a year in Iraq with KBR -- the largest U.S. government contractor there, with more than 30,000 employees and subcontractors -- he expected to bring home $80,000 to $100,000, more than three times what he made driving a truck in Texas.

Some of his friends thought he was insane to risk his life for a paycheck, but Petty said he and his wife, both on their second marriages, prayed about it and decided it was their only hope. They were barely getting by on his $30,000 income, they said in interviews in May. They had no savings whatsoever, no insurance, and they owed Sylvia's mother $6,000 for their wedding less than three years before.

"This is a beautiful town, but we're not making it here," Sylvia said at the time. "I told him, 'Baby, you have to go.' " During Allen's first weeks and months in Iraq, the couple found ways to cope. Allen didn't tell his family everything he was going through; Sylvia avoided the news. Allen sent money home, and Sylvia repaid her mother about a third of what they owed her.

Sylvia planted flowers outside the corner house on Main Street that they rent from her parents. She bought the children treats and planned a cruise for the family. She was able to afford more healthful food for herself and the children. She lost 25 pounds, and her face was tanned from working in the garden.

Allen bought handcrafted wedding rings in Kuwait. He purchased a laptop computer so they could communicate by e-mail and instant message.

In retrospect, the couple now say they should have been saving more. But it was the first time they had had a little extra money, and it felt so good not to worry about the bills.

In July, the money started to dry up, the family said. The couple put half of Allen's paycheck in their savings account but kept having to dig into it to pay expenses.

"Most of this money went to backed-up bills, and what was left went to food and clothes and dental needs for the kids," Sylvia said. "There was no money ever left over because everything in the savings had to be transferred into the checking every month."

According to the family's bank statements, Allen earned between $2,000 and $4,000 a month during his time in Iraq, far short of the $8,000 to $12,000 monthly sum he said he had expected.

"KBR led people into their job opportunities with false promises," Sylvia said.

But Allen acknowledged that his expectations were probably unrealistic and that KBR recruiters had stressed at the outset that the job was no way to get rich. At least, he said, he expected to get paid more than he would in the United States, particularly as the security situation in Iraq worsened, making his job even more dangerous.

Stephanie Price, a spokeswoman for KBR, confirmed that Petty's pay was reduced when the State Department cut pay levels for Kuwait-based contractors in July. She said their base salaries were cut 15 percent "to reflect current threat levels in that country."

But truck drivers based in Kuwait who traveled into Iraq -- as Allen typically did -- were still eligible for hazardous duty pay, an increase of 55 percent of their base salary, Price said, adding that KBR raised truckers' pay in August to "reflect the hard work and dedication of those who put their lives on the line daily as they drive through hostile areas to deliver needed military supplies."

Price said that as of Jan. 6, 68 employees of KBR and its main subcontractors had been killed in Iraq. She said the company does not release the number of employees who were wounded. One employee is still missing.

Allen, who drove mostly in southern Iraq, said his convoy was attacked on at least five out of every six runs.

"They did warn us. You'd take rocks. IEDs were the biggest concern of all," he said, using the initials for improvised explosive device, the military jargon for a roadside bomb. "There were things like small-arms fire, wild bullets. One of the scariest nights was when the military stopped the convoy and we sat in the dark for two hours."

After Allen returned home, Sylvia said she knew he was hiding his fear from her. But at least "he knows where the enemy is," she said. "For me, the fear is everywhere. That fear of the unknown has to be the worst feeling in the world."

By August, as kidnappings of foreigners escalated and after his pay had fallen, Allen started to pray harder about whether he should stay. "I didn't tell my family it was getting so bad," he said. "But I talked to God, and he told me it was time to come home."

Sylvia said the children were initially excited when they heard their father was coming home. But soon, she said, the meaning of it sank in.

"The kids are just so heartbroken," Sylvia said. "Naomi, she is really super-smart. Over breakfast, when she found out, she said: 'It's over, isn't it? We're not going to get our house. What are we doing wrong?' "

It was late September, and the air was just starting to turn crisp. As her husband sat in an overstuffed chair and turned his head toward the window, Sylvia twisted her hands in the fold of her shirt, hiding the fingernails she had clipped the night before. While Allen was away in Iraq, she had her nails manicured for the first time since they were married.

Her husband went to Iraq with hopes of earning money for a house, but Sylvia had smaller dreams. She wanted her refrigerator to be full, her girls to have blankets on their beds, her rotting teeth to be fixed. She wanted to be able to afford to take 2-year-old Lydia to the doctor for a persistent ear infection. She wanted to look nice for her husband.

The night before, she and Allen had argued. They both were frustrated, uncertain about what lay ahead.

Sylvia was thinking about starting a home jewelry business. Allen offered to get a job at McDonald's. "I said, 'I can't see you in a silly hat flipping burgers,' " Sylvia recalled.

Allen said he was considering going back to work overseas, but only if he could be gone for 30 days at a time -- and not be in a war zone. He recently had read about job opportunities with UNICEF, he said.

The family now lives on about $80 a week in child support that Sylvia's former husband sends for the older children. "I know it's not right," Sylvia said, "but we don't know what else to do."

Sylvia wants her husband to understand what it was like to be left, to care for the children alone, to manage their dreams, to watch it all disappear.

"I knew it was over when the water hose broke," she said. "The neighbors saw the flowers outside dying. The water hose breaks, and you can't get a new one. We're back to barely making it."

Allen doesn't want to talk about what happened.

He spends the nights when he cannot sleep looking at the pictures and video footage he took in Iraq. There's the one of a buddy waving as he passed Petty's truck on an Iraqi highway. There are images of burning limbs, bleeding bodies, dead civilians, dead soldiers, rubble. Allen stares at each photo.

He recalled a hand-printed sign that someone had put up near the lounge where the civilian contractors hung out in Kuwait. He wrote it down because it spoke to him. He fetched it from a scrapbook.

It read: "I got no medals, patches or awards. You tell your story so loved ones can hear. I've been cautioned to keep quiet my job to fear. No one knows us; we're just hurting, bleeding and dying. We're just contractors."

Days after he returned from Iraq, Allen said, he felt a tingling in his chest. He struggled to breathe. Sylvia took him to the hospital, where he was kept for a week while doctors ran a battery of tests. They said he had a heart abnormality that was probably there before he went to Iraq but had gone undetected.

Now, even if he wanted to go back, he could not, Allen said, sounding somewhat relieved.

Sylvia said she is angry with KBR.

"This was KBR," she said. "This was the big time. I'm just so disappointed no one took responsibility for the little guy."

"No," Allen interrupted. "It's not really KBR. The military calls the shots. KBR is the military's customer."

One of the girls banged a chair, and Allen jumped. He pulled the baby to his chest.

"I forget what she looks like, and then I see her, and she's beautiful," he said. "She has these curls. It amazes me."

He looked off.

"My mind wanders," he said. "I'm here, but I'm not."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

January 17, 2005

No evidence exists to show WMD materials were moved

By Katherine Pfleger Shrader
Associated Press


As the hunt for weapons of mass destruction dragged on unsuccessfully in Iraq, top Bush administration officials speculated publicly that the banned armaments may have been smuggled out of the country before the war started.
Whether Saddam Hussein moved the WMD — deadly chemical, biological or radiological arms — is one of the unresolved issues that the final U.S. intelligence report on Iraq’s programs is expected to address next month.

But intelligence and congressional officials say they have not seen any information — never “a piece,” said one — indicating that WMD or significant amounts of components and equipment were transferred from Iraq to neighboring Syria, Jordan or elsewhere.

The administration acknowledged last week that the search for banned weapons is largely over. The Iraq Survey Group’s chief, Charles Duelfer, is expected to submit the final installments of his report in February. A small number of the organization’s experts will remain on the job in case new intelligence on Iraqi WMD is unearthed.

But the officials familiar with the search say U.S. authorities have found no evidence that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein transferred WMD or related equipment out of Iraq.

A special adviser to the CIA director, Duelfer declined an interview request through an agency spokesman. In his last public statements, he told a Senate panel last October that it remained unclear whether banned weapons could have been moved from Iraq.

“What I can tell you is that I believe we know a lot of materials left Iraq and went to Syria. There was certainly a lot of traffic across the border points,” he said. “But whether in fact in any of these trucks there was WMD-related materials, I cannot say.”

Last week, a congressional official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said suggestions that weapons or components were sent from Iraq were based on speculation stemming from uncorroborated information.

President Bush and top-ranking officials in his administration used the existence of WMD in Iraq as the main justification for the March 2003 invasion, and throughout much of last year the White House continued to raise the possibility the weapons were transferred to another country.

For instance:

• Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in early October he believed Saddam had WMD before the war. “He has either hidden them so well or moved them somewhere else, or decided to destroy them ... in event of a conflict but kept the capability of developing them rapidly,” Rumsfeld said in a Fox News Channel interview.

Eight months earlier, he told senators “it’s possible that WMD did exist, but was transferred, in whole or in part, to one or more other countries. We see that theory put forward.”

• Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed concern the WMD would be found. However, when asked in September if the WMD could have been hidden or moved to a country like Syria, he said, “I can’t exclude any of those possibilities.”

• And, on MSNBC’s “Hardball” in June, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said: “Everyone believed that his programs were more active than they appeared to be, but recognize, he had a lot of time to move stuff, a lot of time to hide stuff.”

Since the October report from Duelfer, which said Saddam intended to obtain WMD but had no banned weapons, senior administration leaders have largely stopped discussing whether the weapons were moved.

Last week, the intelligence and congressional officials said there was evidence indicating that somewhat common equipment with dual military and civilian uses, such as fermenters, was salvaged during post-invasion looting and sold for scrap in other countries. Syria was mentioned as one location.

The U.S. intelligence community’s 2002 estimate on Iraq indicated there were sizable WMD programs and stockpiles. The officials said weapons experts have not found a production capability in Iraq that would back up the size of the prewar estimates.

Among a series of key findings, that estimate said Iraq “has largely rebuilt missile and biological weapons facilities damaged” during a 1998 U.S.-British bombing campaign and “has expanded its chemical and biological infrastructure under the cover of civilian production.”

Although the U.S. had little specific information, the estimate also said Saddam probably stockpiled at least 100 metric tons, possibly 500 metric tons, of chemical weapons agents — “much of it added in the last year.”



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Cannoneers provided fire during Fallujah push <br />
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division <br />
Story Identification #: 200511511131 <br />
Story by Lance Cpl. Miguel A. Carrasco Jr. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Jan....

[thedrifter]

Wolfowitz, Fargo visit disaster area
Submitted by: MCB Camp Butler
Story Identification #: 200511521471
Story by Lance Cpl. Joel W. Abshier



ROYAL THAI NAVAL AIR BASE, UTAPAO, Thailand (Jan. 15, 2005) -- The Deputy Secretary of Defense Honorable Dr. Paul D. Wolfowitz and Commander U.S. Pacific Command Adm. Thomas B. Fargo visited the base compound here Jan. 15.

Lt. Gen. Robert R. Blackman, the commanding general of Combined Support Force 536 and III Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa, Japan, talked to Wolfowitz about Operation Unified Assistance, the tsunami relief operation being conducted in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

“(Servicemembers and relief agencies) have been here for two and a half weeks,” Blackman said. “In that short time (this operation) has come together very quickly.”
More than 18,000 Marines, Sailors, Airmen, Soldiers and Coast Guardsmen with CSF-536 are working with international militaries and non-governmental organizations to aid the affected people of Southeast Asia after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake Dec. 26 triggered devastating tsunamis.

A total of 89,000 gallons of water and 2,400,000 pounds of food and supplies have been delivered and more than 260 patients have received medical support, according to a CTF-536 report.

“If one thing is going to come out of all this, it is the international cooperation between the countries involved,” Wolfowitz said. “Everyone is committed to making sure all of us do what we need to do.”

After the briefing, Wolfowitz and Fargo flew to Banda Aceh, the most devastated area in Southeast Asia, to see the relief efforts and visit the victims of the tsunami, according to Blackman.

“You cant open up the lens of a camera wide enough to really appreciate what is being done to help these countries,” Blackman said.

International efforts to minimize suffering and mitigate loss of life resulting from the effects of the earthquake and tsunami continue as the combined support force of host nations, civilian aid organizations and U.S. Department of Defense work together to provide humanitarian assistance in support of Operation Unified Assistance.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Eight Iraqi National Guardsmen Gunned Down

By SALLY BUZBEE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed eight Iraqi National Guardsmen Monday at a checkpoint northeast of Baghdad, and eight people died in a suicide car bombing at a police station outside the capital as insurgents struck ahead of national elections.


Meanwhile, expatriate Iraqis in 14 countries began registering for the upcoming vote.


Also Monday, a suicide car bomber struck a U.S. military convoy in Ramadi, a Sunni insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad. There were no reports of casualties, apart from the driver.


Elsewhere in Ramadi, officials Monday found four bodies — three civilians and one Iraqi soldier. They bore handwritten signs declaring them collaborators, a hospital official said.


Although Ramadi has long been a flashpoint for the insurgency, some of the latest violence has occurred in provinces that U.S. and Iraqi authorities have deemed safe enough to hold the Jan. 30 elections.


Some of the attacks appear aimed at scaring the country's majority Shiites away from the polls.


In a statement Monday, the top U.S. general in Iraq (news - web sites), Gen. George W. Casey, predicted violence on election day but said U.S. and Iraqi authorities would do "everything in our power" to ensure that Iraqis can vote in safety.


Shiite politician Salama Khafaji, who survived an ambush Sunday in central Baghdad by gunmen wearing police uniforms, said she canceled campaigning in the south after her staff discovered terrorist checkpoints on major routes.


"What we fear now most is terrorists wearing police uniforms," Khafaji told The Associated Press on Monday. "The uniforms and body armor used by the police are available on the market for anyone to buy."


She said the security situation was so bad she had shelved plans to tour mainly Shiite cities in central and southern Iraq starting Monday.


"We sent people out today to check roads in the area but they have reported back that terrorists have set up some road checkpoints," she said. "Generally I cannot go out and meet people or knock on door to get out the vote like they do in the West."


On Monday, exiled Iraqis began registering to vote in their homeland's first independent election in nearly 50 years. Iraqis can vote abroad in 14 countries, including the United States and Britain, and there is a seven-day registration period ending Jan. 23. Voting will begin Jan. 28 and continue until Jan. 30.


Officials estimate 1.2 million Iraqis are eligible to vote overseas. In Britain, many of the estimated 150,000 Iraqis eligible to vote were confused about the fledgling political process and unsure who to vote for.


"People keep calling us and asking us, 'Who should we vote for?'" said Jabbar Hasan of the Iraqi Community Association, a London-based group for Iraqi expatriates. "We say it is up to you, you decide. It is a new experience, even for the political parties."


Also Monday, the U.S. command said two American soldiers died following a weekend accident when their Humvee flipped over into a canal in western Baghdad.


The slaying of the eight Iraqi National Guardsmen occurred at a checkpoint outside a provincial broadcasting center in Buhriz, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Four other Iraqi soldiers were injured in the attack, said Ali Ahmed, an official at the nearby Baqouba hospital. The area is considered a hotspot of the insurgency.


The suicide attack occurred at a police station in Beiji, about 155 miles north of Baghdad on a main supply route. Eight people were killed and 25 were injured, according to a hospital official. U.S. officials said seven of the dead were police.





In the Shiite holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, police dismantled explosives placed in a car, said spokesman Rahman Mshawi. The car was parked about three miles from two of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in the city.

Late Sunday, a police captain, Shakir Aboud, was killed and another policeman was injured when their car was hit by a roadside bomb in Numaniyah, 85 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to a morgue official in Kut's hospital.

The area around Kut has seen a recent surge in violence. In a separate attack, two Iraqi provincial government auditors were shot to death late Sunday after armed gunmen stopped their car in Suwaira, about 25 miles southeast of Baghdad, an official at a Kut hospital said.

Suwaira and Kut lie along a main road southeast of Baghdad that, until recently, had served as a safer alternate route for Iraqis traveling from the capital to mostly Shiite southern Iraq.

The main road south had earlier been hit with violent attacks and kidnappings in an area dubbed the "triangle of death." Gangs of Sunni Muslim extremists had been targeting foreigners, government officials, security personnel and Shiite Muslims on the main highway.

On Sunday, a total of 17 people were killed in attacks in the Suwaira and Kut area, including three Iraqi policemen and three Iraqi National Guardsmen. As mourners gathered for the policemen's funeral, a suicide bomber killed another seven people — all civilians — and himself.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have classified Kut as among the areas that are secure enough to hold elections.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have insisted the elections will go ahead as scheduled. Interim President Ghazi al-Yawer said if the elections were postponed for six months, there was no guarantee the violence would wane. The insurgents "might lay down for two or three months, then carry out attacks again," he said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

January 14, 2005

Navy to choose next builder of Marine One fleet

By Lolita C. Baldor
Associated Press


The Pentagon gave the Navy the green light Thursday to choose a company to build the next presidential helicopter fleet, a decision with international and political implications.
A final selection is expected after stock markets close on Jan. 28. The Navy will determine whether Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. or Connecticut-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. will supply the next Marine One, the highly visible aircraft that shuttles the president on short trips.

Navy spokesman Lt. John Schofield said the Pentagon review board did not discuss or offer an opinion on which contractor the Navy should choose.

Winning the $1.6 billion contract for 23 aircraft won’t make or break Lockheed or Sikorsky parent United Technologies Corp., both industry giants. But the contract has become a bellwether of competing interests: the outsourcing of American jobs versus how open the U.S. military market is to foreign contractors.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are among those who have lobbied President Bush to choose Lockheed’s US101, which is based on a British-Italian AgustaWestland aircraft, now owned by Finmeccanica.

The two European countries have been staunch allies in Afghanistan and Iraq, and choosing the US101 could quell complaints about the U.S. military market.

“There’s a view that if Britain and Italy can’t get this through, that this basically shows the U.S. market is closed,” said London-based Merrill Lynch aerospace analyst Charles Armitage.

He said there is a general consensus that the US101 is probably a better helicopter, while Sikorsky may have the political edge in the United States.

“Some people would undoubtedly view the president using an Italian-British helicopter similar to having his Air Force One be a (French) Airbus A380,” said Paul Nisbet, aerospace analyst at JSA Research. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think Sikorsky has that in their favor.”



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines recycle care packages for Iraqis
Submitted by: 31st MEU
Story Identification #: 20051150329
Story by Cpl. Matthew R. Jones



AL ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq (Jan. 3, 2005) -- Throughout the country Multi-National Forces are attempting to rebuild the nation with specially trained personnel and enormous government contracts.

In the city of Husaybah, the Marines of Company B, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit are using their own comfort items to better the welfare and ease the tension for locals in a hostile city.

The Marines of 3rd Platoon have decided that using extra items they’ve received in care packages from the U. S. is a good way to reach out to the surrounding communities.

“We have received a tremendous amount of (care packages) from people back home,” said Staff Sgt. Jeff V. Escalderon, platoon sergeant. “In fact, there was so much that we could not use it. Instead of throwing it away we decided to put together packages and give it to the locals.”

The unit hopes that these small gifts will buoy the locals populations perception of the coalition forces working towards stability in the area.

“It is the Division’s motto of ‘No better friend, no worse enemy’,” said Escalderon. “We are here to help them and better their conditions, until they prove they don’t deserve our help.”
Marines from the company have been giving small items they have received, such as candy and small toys, to the children since the beginning of the war last year, said Cpl. Sean D. Salome, team leader.

“When we come in it often scares the children,” added Salome, 20, from Rochester, NY. “But, if we have something to give them, they relax.”

However, during this deployment the Marines have expanded the packages to include hygiene gear, such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, soap, as well as many other items received in care packages, added Escalderon, 35, a native of Santee, Calif.

The Iraqis have been more willing to cooperate with the coalition forces since the unit has began to offer these small items to better the welfare of the locals.

“It has really helped with the locals perception of us, showing them we are the ‘good guys,’” said Escalderon. “These people are used to only bad things happening when people with guns show up at their door. We are trying to show them we are friendly and want to help them.”

The benefit of the packs has also been noticed in the city while on patrol. Often local children will follow the Marines as they patrol through the city in hopes of receiving some of the goodies offered by the unit. The children will no longer follow as the patrols enters into areas of the city that are hostile towards coalition forces, added Escalderon.

“Also, they often will point out (improvised explosive devices) to us as well as houses where insurgents live,” said Escalderon.

The only obstacle the Marines have faced while giving out the items is space. The Marines must take all their combat equipment needed for the patrols. Once the Marines have their required load then they can take the gifts, said Escalderon.

Over 300 pounds of items have been given to the local Iraqis during the company’s patrols through the hostile city.

The city has no major projects funded through coalition contracts and the Marines hope these small packs are changing the attitudes of the local Iraqis.

“The Iraqis never ask for the packs,” added Escalderon. “It is something we give them to help ease the tensions in the area. We would love to do more but we do not have the capabilities to do so.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines look for few good men and true

A rigorous screening process that included a lie detector test has weeded out eight of the 30 candidates shortlisted for posts in a new anti-poaching team being established on the southern Cape coast.

Two of the eight were rejected because of drug habits, and the others failed questions relating to links to poachers, gangs and criminal intent.

The team is the Marines - an acronym for "Management action for resources of inshore and nearshore environments" - who will be one of the key elements in the new anti-poaching initiative replacing Operation Neptune.

Operation Neptune had mixed success over the past five years in attempting to stop poaching along the southern Cape coast - particularly of perlemoen.

It will officially cease at the end of March. The police will supply crime prevention staff to keep Operation Neptune afloat until the replacement initiative, Operation Trident, starts in April.

Trident will be managed in terms of an agreement between the Overstrand Municipality, the Marine and Coastal Management directorate of the Department of Environmental Affairs, and the police.

The new operation promises to offer more dedicated investigation of crimes, more visible policing - this is where the Marines come in - and research into environmental factors affecting perlemoen.

The Marines are employed by the municipality, which has local authority jurisdiction from Rooi Els to Pearly Beach.

But the new force of 46, backed by 20 more fisheries inspectors who will now number at least 70 in the Overberg region, will patrol the coast from Gordon's Bay to Rietfontein, near Cape Agulhas.

In terms of the new agreement, the police will assist the Marines, but only where major criminal activity on the land is involved - for example, with big gangs of poachers.

The Marines, who will have an annual budget of R15 million, will employ some 40 "foot soldiers" on the ground, according to the municipality's head of nature conservation Craig Spencer.

There were more than 200 applications for the 30 posts offered, Spencer added.

They were all screened and a shortlist of 30 was compiled. These candidates were subjected to two further screenings: a standard interview and a lie-detector test.

Of the 30, eight had failed, including two who were shown to use drugs.

"We don't want anyone with a drug habit, particularly because of the close association between drugs and perlemoen poaching."
Most of those selected for the Marines so far have a background in law enforcement and anti-poaching work, Spencer added.

Because of the large number of perlemoen-poaching boats operating around Dyer Island, Marine and Coastal Management deployed its new marine patrol vessel, the 47m Lilian Ngoyi, to the area for a month.

Although it was sent last week on an inspection on the West Coast, it will be going back to Dyer Island next week.

This was confirmed by Marcel Kroese, the directorate's acting head of monitoring, control, surveillance, who said the vessel had had "a big deterrent effect".

Although the area around Dyer Island is particularly treacherous with many reefs and rocks, the Lilian Ngoyi was highly effective because of its state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, he said.

It was able to sit offshore, monitor activity, and deploy its own fast inflatable craft when needed.

"The number of reports we had about poaching vessels operating there illegally dropped from 16 in a week to just one a week.

"To deter the poachers is just as good as catching them."
Spencer agreed, pointing out that an eight-man Marines team operating in the Gansbaai district last month made nine arrests, seized 2 627 perlemoen, issued 16 spot fines, and prevented 486 divers - who were clearly about to poach perlemoen- from entering the water.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraqi Archbishop Seized, Vatican Demands Release

By Maher al-Thanoon and Philip Pullella

MOSUL/VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Iraqi Catholic archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped at gunpoint on Monday and the Vatican (news - web sites) demanded his quick release and deplored what it branded an act of terrorism.


Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, was believed to be the highest-ranking Catholic prelate to be abducted in Iraq (news - web sites), where churches have been the target of a bombing campaign that has rattled the tiny Christian minority.


"We have received news of the kidnapping of the ... Archbishop of Mosul, Basile Georges Casmoussa," Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told Reuters.


"The Holy See deplores this act of terrorism in the firmest manner and demands that the worthy pastor is swiftly freed unharmed to continue to carry out his ministry."


Casmoussa was kidnapped by gunmen in two cars in the northern al-Majmoua al-Thaqafiya district of Iraq's third largest city soon after 5 p.m. (0900 EST), a local Christian official said.


The archbishop was on his way to visit some families from his congregation when the attack took place, he added, but was not clear whether the motive was political, sectarian or financial, in a country where kidnapping for ransom is common.


Most of Iraq's Christians, who make up some three percent of the 25 million population, belong to the early Assyrian and Chaldean churches.


WESTERN LINKS


While Christians had little political power under Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), they were free to worship and did not feel threatened by sectarian violence.


But Iraq's 650,000 or so Christians have been trickling out of their ancient homeland since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 as insurgents step up attacks against both Muslim and Christian holy places in an apparent bid to inflame sectarian tension.


On Aug. 1 five churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul were bombed in coordinated attacks that killed 12 people. Five Baghdad churches were bombed on the Oct. 16 start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Eight were killed in two church bombings on Nov. 8.


Midnight Mass was canceled last Christmas, as several cities were under curfew and Iraq's Christian religious leaders feared renewed attacks.


Last month the Vatican's foreign minister warned that anti-Christian feeling was spreading in Iraq and other Muslim countries because of the war on terrorism.


Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's second-ranking diplomat, said anti-Christian feeling existed where political strategies of Western countries were believed to be driven by Christianity.


Washington justified invading Iraq by saying Saddam had developed weapons of mass destruction and claiming there were links between Baghdad and al Qaeda. No such weapons have been found nor hard evidence of pre-war al Qaeda links.


Pope John Paul (news - web sites) strongly opposed the invasion.


Casmoussa is a member of the Syrian Catholic church.





There are two Syrian Catholic dioceses in Iraq -- one in Baghdad and the other in Mosul.

According to the Vatican yearbook, Casmoussa was born in the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh.




Ellie

[thedrifter]

January 14, 2005
Letters from home: America's Battalion makes it mail call to mail call



by Cpl. Rich Mattingly
Combined Joint Task Force - 76


BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Even as their thoughts remain securely on the task of securing Afghanistan, the Marines and Sailors of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment have found reassurances that "life goes on" back home to be increasingly important during the holiday season.

"With being half a world away from family and loved ones, and at what seems to be the furthest edge of the battle area, mail for the platoon is a driving force," said Staff Sgt. Timothy Ledbetter, platoon sergeant with India Co., 3/3 during a recent mail drop to Camp Blessing. "It greatly improves morale and it brings a little bit of home to the troops."

Letters from home are a time-tested tradition when it comes to American service members deployed to combat zones. Even with the modern technology that allows deployed troops to make satellite phone calls and, more often than not, access to e-mail and other instant-gratification forms of communication, the Marines of America's Battalion said nothing beats a hand-written letter.

Marines at America's Battalion's farthest outlying posts recently received a much-needed lift when mail arrived just in time for Christmas.

"It brings the morale level up big-time whenever a bird comes and drops off mail for us," said Lance Cpl. Louis Ihrig, a scout observer for India Co., 3/3.

Mail headed for the large area America's Battalion currently covers in eastern Afghanistan funnels through Bagram Airfield, where Pfc. Matt Cole from Concord, N.C., administrative clerk, handles well over a thousand pieces of mail each week. Cole says that the mail keeps him very busy, especially as holiday packages fill his "mail hooch" to the rafters.

"I'm doing my job as fast as I can because I know how important getting stuff from home is," said Cole, who is responsible for sorting the mail of well over 1,200 Marines, Sailors and other service members attached to the Battalion.

Cole mentioned that he has also learned that mail has a much higher status as a force-multiplier than he first imagined.

"A couple of things I've learned while sorting the mail is that I'm not allowed to have a trash can in the mail room, just in case something were to get thrown away accidentally. Also, I've learned that no one, not even a four-star general, can bump mail off of a flight to one of our bases," said Cole.

Letters and packages can take up to a month to reach deployed Marines and Sailors in Afghanistan, but the length of time just makes it that much more worthwhile when it arrives.

"Supplies, food, candy, anything we can't get here is always great to get in the mail," added Ihrig. "No matter how long it takes to get here, it shows us that people support us."

And it's not just friends and families that have been supporting the deployed Hawaii Marines. Thanks to Web sites like http://www.anysoldier.com , http://www.adoptaplatoon.com and http://www.adoptasniper.com , America's Battalion's troops have gotten some extra attention.

"I signed my squad up to receive care packages on the internet and we've gotten deluged with mail," said Lance Cpl. Tim Davis, India Co. fire team leader from Enfield, Conn. "It's awesome to get that kind of support when we can't usually get a lot of things here that they send to us.

High on the list of "must-haves" for Marines and Sailors were baby wipes, foot powder and any reading material.

With the help of regular mail delivery, morale remains high and Marines can remain informed even when deployed half a world away.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Navy Studies Casualty Care on Fallouja's Brutal Battleground <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
By Tony Perry <br />
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer <br />
January...

[thedrifter]

Fathers help Marines gear up
Organization sends supplies to boost the Corps' core equipment

BY PETER BACQUE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

A Henrico County man is helping raise about $100,000 to buy military equipment and personal supplies for his son's Marine unit in Iraq.

"There are some things they don't have," Preston Smith said, "and there are some things they need, obviously, to make things a little safer for them."

Among the gear Smith wants to send his son's heavily armed company are telescopic rifle and machine-gun sights, infrared filters for Humvee headlights, hands-free radio transceivers, personal GPS sets and vehicle tow straps.

"A lot of stuff that people would think, 'What? He doesn't get that?'" said Smith, who is an official with a Richmond investment management firm. "No, he doesn't."

Yes, he does, the Marines say.





"The Marine Corps is not going to send a unit into harm's way without the appropriate equipment," a spokesman for the Corps' headquarters said.

"That's not to say that individual Marines won't want to purchase additional gear," said Marine Capt. Dan McSweeney at the Pentagon. "I have."

Smith's shopping list also includes some of that additional gear: 2,000 flashlight-size batteries, 1,000 pairs of socks, 4,000 sets of toothpaste and brushes, 12,000 packaged moist wipes, 24 rolls of duct tape and toilet paper.

"I've been raising some money here and gotten some very nice dollars," Smith said, "and we're going to be throwing it into equipment and shipping it to them."

But, he said, "it's not enough."

Smith's son is Lance Cpl. Parke F. Smith II, 22, who is assigned to Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion of the 4th Marine Regiment. He is a graduate of the Steward School in Henrico and attended Hampden-Sydney College before enlisting in the Marine Corps.

Among Smith's donors is C.F. Sauer IV, president of the C.F. Sauer Co. food-flavoring firm here.

Sauer made a "handsome" cash donation, as well more than $1,000 in products, such as flashlights, batteries and duct tape from Sauer-owned Pleasants Hardware, company officials said.

"It was the right thing to do," Sauer treasurer Michelle Rader said. "It was for a good cause."

Smith is working with the father of another Weapons Company Marine, Steve Schulz of Friendswood, Texas. Schulz's 20-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Steven K. Schulz, is Parke Smith's vehicle commander.

Knowing the unit was going to be sent back to Iraq, his son called him three months ago and told him the Marines of Weapons Company were allowed to put optional equipment on their USMC-issue weapons, Schulz said.

"Could you buy me a scope?" Schulz recounted his son asking. "I said, 'Sure.'"

Then his son told him, "Gonzalez needs a scope."

"My son gave me a list," Schulz said, of materiel the Marines need. "One thing led to another."

Schulz set up Supplied to Survive, a non-profit Texas corporation, to collect money and donations to help equip the Marines in Weapons Company and its parent battalion.

"I want the best chance for my son to come home -- and all the Marines -- in one piece," Schulz said during a phone interview from his office in Houston.

"If I have to put things on my personal credit card and my friends' personal credit cards," the industrial sales manager said, "that's what we're going to do."

The public has been openhearted -- and opened their wallets -- for Supplied to Survive, Schulz said. "Pretty much nobody has told me no."

Donors have come from all over the United States and even include a Canadian company, Supplied to Survive says.

While they like support from the folks back home, the Marines are distinctly unhappy with the idea that anyone might think the Corps does not take care of its men and women.

"We will always send Marines into combat with all the necessary gear to accomplish their mission," said Sgt. Jennie E. Haskamp, a spokeswoman for the Marines' base at Twentynine Palms, Calif.

But "items viewed as mission critical are identified by higher commanders and not by a single Marine's 'wish list.'"

Some of Supplied to Survive's assertions on its Web site, such as that Marines have to pay for their own uniforms and socks, spring from an incorrect understanding of how the service works, the Marine Corps said.

All Marines buy their own uniforms, boots, socks and underwear and personal-care items, Haskamp explained, but the Corps also gives them a clothing allowance to pay for those things.

With its Marines deploying to Iraq for seven months, the base at Twentynine Palms has launched a community services program called Desert Mail Call "to send monthly supplements of these and other comfort items, and the public is welcome to contribute in this way," Haskamp said.

However, the Corps emphatically does not endorse organizations like Supplied to Survive, Haskamp said.

Backpedaling late this week, Schulz said in an e-mail that, "In no way does Supplied to Survive, or me personally, want any negative lack-of-equipment issues tied to our group. We augment equipment and supplies with after-market gear. The Marines [equip] their troops properly for combat."

Critics have said the Bush administration is trying to fight the war in Iraq on the cheap, but the Supplied to Survive supporters say they are not taking a position on the conduct of the war in Iraq.

"This whole thing is not a political push; it's not a political statement," Smith said. "We've got kids, and they need stuff. We're looking to get stuff to them.

"This isn't something where we're blaming people," he said.

America's armed forces, sent where the country orders them to go, appreciate the efforts homefolks are making for deployed service members, Haskamp said.

"When those servicemen and women receive a package from home, it is tangible proof that there are people that care about them, support them and believe in what they are doing," she said.


Contact Peter Bacque at (804) 649-6813 or pbacque@timesdispatch.com

Ellie