thedrifter
08-10-08, 06:18 AM
August 10, 2008
Guest column: U.S. troops achieve success in Iraq
I will not forget the meeting I had with Sheik Mohammed Abu Resha in spring 2005. The meeting was at Camp Fallujah in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. At the time, Al Anbar Province was one of the most militarily dangerous places on Earth. Two sheiks, Mohammed and Abdullah, had come to Camp Fallujah to talk to me, a contracting officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, about putting a sewer system in Ramadi, the capital city of Al Anbar. After we had finished our discussion and negotiations, Sheik Mohammed reached across the table and shook my hand. His robin's egg-blue eyes shone clearly and sincerely as he looked directly into my eyes. He said, "Ron, when you get back to America I want you to tell your countrymen thank you for all they have done for us." I promised him I would. It was after 4 p.m. when the sheiks left the Camp. Abdullah headed for Ramadi and Mohammed for Baghdad. On his way to Baghdad that very afternoon, Sheik Mohammed was killed by assassins.
Those were violent times in Iraq. Mortar shells rained in on Camp Blue Diamond, where I was first stationed with the Corps of Engineers, every day. One afternoon we watched a fire fight across the Euphrates River and saw U.S. Marines from the First Marine Expeditionary Force blow up several vehicles that were suspected to be suicide bombers.
I was talking to Matt Emmons, a buddy of mine, just a couple of days ago. He and I were together at Camp Blue Diamond. We were with the first cadre of Corps of Engineers people to arrive in Al Anbar. Matt has volunteered to go back to Iraq for the third time. He has been in touch with people in Al Anbar and reported to me that the province is completely different now than it was when we were there. No mortar attacks, rarely an IED, and construction projects get finished on time and with quality. Security at the camps is still tight but life at the camps has changed. Fast-food restaurants, large exchange stores with plenty of merchandise, and people travel freely around the province. The American military has come a long way in a short while.
We Americans should all be very proud of what has happened in Iraq. Millions of Iraqi people suffered unimaginably under Saddam Hussein. He had amassed the fifth largest army in the world. He had used weapons of mass destruction against Iranians and against his own people. He had 500 tons of yellow cake uranium with which he planned on making nuclear weapons. He attacked his neighbors and was undermining relations between Sunni and Shia Muslims to further spread his communist-leaning power.
The American Army and Marines defeated the Iraqi Army in minimum time with minimum casualties. Now we are winning the peace. The Iraqi people are more free than they have been in generations. They are taking over their own defense and they are hunting down and killing al-Qaida and other terrorists from their long-standing strongholds in Iraq. The American presence in Iraq has brought a new dynamic into the Middle East. It will be more stable in the future than it has been in the past. The hand of the international community in dealing with age-old problems in the Middle East has been enormously strengthened by what we have done.
As in every war, there have been human casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom. American military men and women have sacrificed and died for this effort. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that these brave young people have not died in vain. They crushed a terrible enemy and they have freed millions of people.
I spent 13 months in Iraq with our young soldiers and Marines. The one thing I came home with was a deep pride for these young Americans. They were there to win a war and get back home. And, God bless 'em, they've done it! Everyone of us should be thankful for these young people.
Don't ever forget that those who died did so because they love America!
On behalf of Sheik Mohammed, I'd like to thank my American countrymen for all that you have done. By the way, I heard Ramadi now has a sewer system for the first time in its 7,000-year history! You are fortunate to live in the greatest country on Earth. God bless America!
Ronald Wassom retired at the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in 1994 as an Air Force colonel. He volunteered in October 2004 to join the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help in the global war on terrorism. He served in Al Anbar, Province, Iraq, until November 2005. He has returned to Michigan.
Ellie
Guest column: U.S. troops achieve success in Iraq
I will not forget the meeting I had with Sheik Mohammed Abu Resha in spring 2005. The meeting was at Camp Fallujah in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. At the time, Al Anbar Province was one of the most militarily dangerous places on Earth. Two sheiks, Mohammed and Abdullah, had come to Camp Fallujah to talk to me, a contracting officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, about putting a sewer system in Ramadi, the capital city of Al Anbar. After we had finished our discussion and negotiations, Sheik Mohammed reached across the table and shook my hand. His robin's egg-blue eyes shone clearly and sincerely as he looked directly into my eyes. He said, "Ron, when you get back to America I want you to tell your countrymen thank you for all they have done for us." I promised him I would. It was after 4 p.m. when the sheiks left the Camp. Abdullah headed for Ramadi and Mohammed for Baghdad. On his way to Baghdad that very afternoon, Sheik Mohammed was killed by assassins.
Those were violent times in Iraq. Mortar shells rained in on Camp Blue Diamond, where I was first stationed with the Corps of Engineers, every day. One afternoon we watched a fire fight across the Euphrates River and saw U.S. Marines from the First Marine Expeditionary Force blow up several vehicles that were suspected to be suicide bombers.
I was talking to Matt Emmons, a buddy of mine, just a couple of days ago. He and I were together at Camp Blue Diamond. We were with the first cadre of Corps of Engineers people to arrive in Al Anbar. Matt has volunteered to go back to Iraq for the third time. He has been in touch with people in Al Anbar and reported to me that the province is completely different now than it was when we were there. No mortar attacks, rarely an IED, and construction projects get finished on time and with quality. Security at the camps is still tight but life at the camps has changed. Fast-food restaurants, large exchange stores with plenty of merchandise, and people travel freely around the province. The American military has come a long way in a short while.
We Americans should all be very proud of what has happened in Iraq. Millions of Iraqi people suffered unimaginably under Saddam Hussein. He had amassed the fifth largest army in the world. He had used weapons of mass destruction against Iranians and against his own people. He had 500 tons of yellow cake uranium with which he planned on making nuclear weapons. He attacked his neighbors and was undermining relations between Sunni and Shia Muslims to further spread his communist-leaning power.
The American Army and Marines defeated the Iraqi Army in minimum time with minimum casualties. Now we are winning the peace. The Iraqi people are more free than they have been in generations. They are taking over their own defense and they are hunting down and killing al-Qaida and other terrorists from their long-standing strongholds in Iraq. The American presence in Iraq has brought a new dynamic into the Middle East. It will be more stable in the future than it has been in the past. The hand of the international community in dealing with age-old problems in the Middle East has been enormously strengthened by what we have done.
As in every war, there have been human casualties in Operation Iraqi Freedom. American military men and women have sacrificed and died for this effort. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that these brave young people have not died in vain. They crushed a terrible enemy and they have freed millions of people.
I spent 13 months in Iraq with our young soldiers and Marines. The one thing I came home with was a deep pride for these young Americans. They were there to win a war and get back home. And, God bless 'em, they've done it! Everyone of us should be thankful for these young people.
Don't ever forget that those who died did so because they love America!
On behalf of Sheik Mohammed, I'd like to thank my American countrymen for all that you have done. By the way, I heard Ramadi now has a sewer system for the first time in its 7,000-year history! You are fortunate to live in the greatest country on Earth. God bless America!
Ronald Wassom retired at the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in 1994 as an Air Force colonel. He volunteered in October 2004 to join the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help in the global war on terrorism. He served in Al Anbar, Province, Iraq, until November 2005. He has returned to Michigan.
Ellie