thedrifter
10-06-07, 05:48 AM
Published: 10.06.2007
Iraq safer now, Marine says
Resident of Tucson in '80s credits work of police, U.S. forces
BLAKE MORLOCK
Tucson Citizen
Col. Clark Metz left Baghdad in early September for two weeks' leave in the United States.
In the weeks before he left, the Green Zone was getting hit two or three times a day with mortar and rocket attacks. The attacks have gone down to once in the week since he's been back.
"We are seeing a direct correlation between the increase of Iraqi police being trained and a drop in violent incidents," Metz said.
It's the proof on the ground that Iraq is, in fact, getting safer, Metz said.
Metz considers himself a Tucson resident, though he hasn't lived in Arizona in 13 years. He has a bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Arizona, having spent the 1980s in Tucson. He hopes to come back when he retires in three years.
He's the senior Marine officer in Baghdad and the liaison in the city for the Marines in Anbar province. Whatever they need from the capital city, it's Metz's job to get it.
He said the Marines deserve respect for what they've accomplished in what had been the Sunni Triangle - the main pocket of resistance to the U.S. occupation. What was a deadly mix of Sunni tribes and al-Qaida fighters has become a much different place in the past year, Metz said.
"You are safer walking the streets of Ramadi or Fallujah than you are in Los Angeles," he said.
The reason is twofold. First, al-Qaida fighters proved to be rotten guests and violently overstayed their welcome with the Sunni tribes. But when the Sunnis decided to kick out al-Qaida and foreign fighters, the Marines stepped in with enough tact and toughness to persuade tribal leaders to switch sides.
"When you look at Marines, every one of them wants to fight," Metz said. "There's a tremendous respect for toughness in that part of the world."
This is not to say that the success in Anbar means the rest of Iraq will simply become subdued. The problem in Iraq is still the rift between Sunnis and Shiites. Sunnis and Shiites represent different sects of Islam.
"The problem we don't have in Anbar is, we don't have Sunnis and Shia trying to kill each other," Metz said.
Then, in the north, there's the problem between the Kurdish people of Iraq and the government of Turkey. Metz served alongside the Turks in the 1990s and said the Turks truly despise the idea of an autonomous Kurdish state in northern Iraq. The Kurds aren't a free and sovereign people, but they are operating above the ethnic tensions in the rest of the country, and that could make the Turks nervous.
"The enmity the Turks feel toward Kurdish separatists . . . I'm not saying you can smell it, but you can pick it up and put it in a bag," Metz said.
To a degree, the Marines' success in Anbar can be replicated in other parts of Iraq where ethnic tensions are not so fierce, Metz said. The key is to understand the culture and be a presence with Iraqi forces on the ground.
"The Marines in the field just live with the (tribal) bosses," he said. "Marines have a saying about themselves: No better friend. No worse enemy."
Applying that motto may help the U.S. expand on limited success in Iraq.
Ellie
Iraq safer now, Marine says
Resident of Tucson in '80s credits work of police, U.S. forces
BLAKE MORLOCK
Tucson Citizen
Col. Clark Metz left Baghdad in early September for two weeks' leave in the United States.
In the weeks before he left, the Green Zone was getting hit two or three times a day with mortar and rocket attacks. The attacks have gone down to once in the week since he's been back.
"We are seeing a direct correlation between the increase of Iraqi police being trained and a drop in violent incidents," Metz said.
It's the proof on the ground that Iraq is, in fact, getting safer, Metz said.
Metz considers himself a Tucson resident, though he hasn't lived in Arizona in 13 years. He has a bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Arizona, having spent the 1980s in Tucson. He hopes to come back when he retires in three years.
He's the senior Marine officer in Baghdad and the liaison in the city for the Marines in Anbar province. Whatever they need from the capital city, it's Metz's job to get it.
He said the Marines deserve respect for what they've accomplished in what had been the Sunni Triangle - the main pocket of resistance to the U.S. occupation. What was a deadly mix of Sunni tribes and al-Qaida fighters has become a much different place in the past year, Metz said.
"You are safer walking the streets of Ramadi or Fallujah than you are in Los Angeles," he said.
The reason is twofold. First, al-Qaida fighters proved to be rotten guests and violently overstayed their welcome with the Sunni tribes. But when the Sunnis decided to kick out al-Qaida and foreign fighters, the Marines stepped in with enough tact and toughness to persuade tribal leaders to switch sides.
"When you look at Marines, every one of them wants to fight," Metz said. "There's a tremendous respect for toughness in that part of the world."
This is not to say that the success in Anbar means the rest of Iraq will simply become subdued. The problem in Iraq is still the rift between Sunnis and Shiites. Sunnis and Shiites represent different sects of Islam.
"The problem we don't have in Anbar is, we don't have Sunnis and Shia trying to kill each other," Metz said.
Then, in the north, there's the problem between the Kurdish people of Iraq and the government of Turkey. Metz served alongside the Turks in the 1990s and said the Turks truly despise the idea of an autonomous Kurdish state in northern Iraq. The Kurds aren't a free and sovereign people, but they are operating above the ethnic tensions in the rest of the country, and that could make the Turks nervous.
"The enmity the Turks feel toward Kurdish separatists . . . I'm not saying you can smell it, but you can pick it up and put it in a bag," Metz said.
To a degree, the Marines' success in Anbar can be replicated in other parts of Iraq where ethnic tensions are not so fierce, Metz said. The key is to understand the culture and be a presence with Iraqi forces on the ground.
"The Marines in the field just live with the (tribal) bosses," he said. "Marines have a saying about themselves: No better friend. No worse enemy."
Applying that motto may help the U.S. expand on limited success in Iraq.
Ellie