thedrifter
02-28-08, 08:02 PM
‘You can’t win this war with bullets’
Company B taking the humanitarian approach to winning over Shulla
By Geoff Ziezulewicz, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, February 27, 2008
BAGHDAD — The men of Company B didn’t know what they would face when they entered the Shulla district in northwest Baghdad for the first time last year.
Arriving in November with the rest of 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, the soldiers were the first to patrol the Shiite slum of about 350,000 since April 2007.
“All reports we had got were, ‘You don’t go into Shulla without making some kind of [enemy] contact,’” company commander Capt. Jeremy Ussery said of those apprehensive first days.
The unit had no formal transfer-of-authority from their predecessors and only about three days with them on the ground, said Ussery, of Monticello, Fla. Then, the Company B “Bulldogs” stepped onto the Shulla streets.
“When we walked in there, people looked at us like, ‘Wow, we haven’t seen you guys in a while,’” Ussery said.
But over the months, soldiers say things changed and that a softer-handed approach is paying dividends.
“People call it the touchy-feely stuff,” Ussery said. “Well, touchy-feely stuff wins insurgencies.”
On a foot patrol with 1st Platoon this month, the soldiers were mobbed like rock stars, picking up curious kids in their wake as they walked the impoverished streets and chatted with local men.
As far as enemy contact, Ussery said the company has had a few small-arms attacks and one roadside bomb found during a route clearance by another unit.
This increased presence, and the Mahdi Army ceasefire imposed by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr last year, are the main reasons for a drop in violence here, Ussery said. The enemy now is rogue Mahdi Army elements and common criminals, he said.
The unit that oversaw Shulla before Company B had more enemy contact, and when that unit stopped patrolling, the area became an even bigger haven for trouble, Ussery said.
“If you don’t have coalition forces in a place, where are the bad guys going to go?” he said.
“It’s little things,” 1st Lt. Nicholas Stout said of the friendlier approach soldiers are taking here. “We’re not running people off the road or breaching doors with explosives. We’ve presented ourselves as people and not just robots with guns kicking down doors.”
Almost immediately after arriving, Ussery said the company organized a program to get blankets to about 2,000 Shulla orphans.
Goodwill gestures like that spread by word-of-mouth, he said.
Ussery said the fact that 90 percent of Shulla’s people are al-Sadr supporters doesn’t matter at this point, as long as they’re interested in moving forward.
“We are willing to support anybody who’s willing to support peace,” he said. “That’s way, way different than what we did 18 months ago.”
While a necessity at this stage of the war, Ussery said it can be hard as a soldier to reconcile with former enemies in the Mahdi Army ranks.
“If people are reconcilable, we swallow our pride,” he said. “If I go after every dude that’s tried to attack an American in the past five years, we’ll be fighting for 30 years. You can’t win this war with bullets. It’s impossible.”
Slowly, the area is reintegrating back from the sectarian gashes inflicted upon this city in recent years.
Ussery said a local leader told him that 21 Sunni families recently moved back in.
“We haven’t found them yet,” he said. “If I was a Sunni, I wouldn’t want to go back to Shulla yet.”
As 1st Platoon finished up a foot patrol recently, Stout, the platoon leader, stopped and bought five bags of bread for his men to eat on the ride back to base.
The mob of kids struggled to help close the heavy Humvee doors as the soldiers got ready to leave.
“This right here is winning,” Stout said.
Ellie
Company B taking the humanitarian approach to winning over Shulla
By Geoff Ziezulewicz, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, February 27, 2008
BAGHDAD — The men of Company B didn’t know what they would face when they entered the Shulla district in northwest Baghdad for the first time last year.
Arriving in November with the rest of 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, the soldiers were the first to patrol the Shiite slum of about 350,000 since April 2007.
“All reports we had got were, ‘You don’t go into Shulla without making some kind of [enemy] contact,’” company commander Capt. Jeremy Ussery said of those apprehensive first days.
The unit had no formal transfer-of-authority from their predecessors and only about three days with them on the ground, said Ussery, of Monticello, Fla. Then, the Company B “Bulldogs” stepped onto the Shulla streets.
“When we walked in there, people looked at us like, ‘Wow, we haven’t seen you guys in a while,’” Ussery said.
But over the months, soldiers say things changed and that a softer-handed approach is paying dividends.
“People call it the touchy-feely stuff,” Ussery said. “Well, touchy-feely stuff wins insurgencies.”
On a foot patrol with 1st Platoon this month, the soldiers were mobbed like rock stars, picking up curious kids in their wake as they walked the impoverished streets and chatted with local men.
As far as enemy contact, Ussery said the company has had a few small-arms attacks and one roadside bomb found during a route clearance by another unit.
This increased presence, and the Mahdi Army ceasefire imposed by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr last year, are the main reasons for a drop in violence here, Ussery said. The enemy now is rogue Mahdi Army elements and common criminals, he said.
The unit that oversaw Shulla before Company B had more enemy contact, and when that unit stopped patrolling, the area became an even bigger haven for trouble, Ussery said.
“If you don’t have coalition forces in a place, where are the bad guys going to go?” he said.
“It’s little things,” 1st Lt. Nicholas Stout said of the friendlier approach soldiers are taking here. “We’re not running people off the road or breaching doors with explosives. We’ve presented ourselves as people and not just robots with guns kicking down doors.”
Almost immediately after arriving, Ussery said the company organized a program to get blankets to about 2,000 Shulla orphans.
Goodwill gestures like that spread by word-of-mouth, he said.
Ussery said the fact that 90 percent of Shulla’s people are al-Sadr supporters doesn’t matter at this point, as long as they’re interested in moving forward.
“We are willing to support anybody who’s willing to support peace,” he said. “That’s way, way different than what we did 18 months ago.”
While a necessity at this stage of the war, Ussery said it can be hard as a soldier to reconcile with former enemies in the Mahdi Army ranks.
“If people are reconcilable, we swallow our pride,” he said. “If I go after every dude that’s tried to attack an American in the past five years, we’ll be fighting for 30 years. You can’t win this war with bullets. It’s impossible.”
Slowly, the area is reintegrating back from the sectarian gashes inflicted upon this city in recent years.
Ussery said a local leader told him that 21 Sunni families recently moved back in.
“We haven’t found them yet,” he said. “If I was a Sunni, I wouldn’t want to go back to Shulla yet.”
As 1st Platoon finished up a foot patrol recently, Stout, the platoon leader, stopped and bought five bags of bread for his men to eat on the ride back to base.
The mob of kids struggled to help close the heavy Humvee doors as the soldiers got ready to leave.
“This right here is winning,” Stout said.
Ellie