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thedrifter
04-30-09, 07:34 AM
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Colonel talks frankly about Marines Iraq tour
Leader explains the complicated inner workings of the tribal leadership in Al Anbar
By CHRIS DAINES
The Orange County Register

Hearing about the inner workings of a Marines combat team inside Iraq is usually summed up in casualty numbers on the evening news for most people. On Tuesday Col. Patrick J. Malay, commander of Regimental Combat Team 5 spoke openly and frankly with Dana Point residents marking the unit's return to the states and his impending reassignment later this year.

Col. Malay thanked the Dana Point 5th Marines Support Group for the years of support the group has provided the Marines and their families.

Retelling experiences with tribal leaders in Iraq, Col. Malay explained how an effort to gradually transfer power to Iraqis and reduce military presence, they had to meet and grow to understand them.

"Their culture may sound foreign to you – but I tell you, it works," he said.

"When you got to know these guys and sit down and talk with them – they had some revealing statements for us about our culture and how they see us."

Throughout 2008 the team worked to gain confidence of the Jughavfi Tribe leader named Said. This man spent many years as a prisoner of war in Iran had all of his teeth pulled form his head and ended up deaf. His resilience and intelligence were what allowed him win control of the tribe, according to Col. Malay.

After some bureaucratic snafus, the Marines were able to secure hearing aids for Said. This allowed Said to communicate not only with U.S. forces, but also with his own family including his 7-year-old son whom he had never heard speak before. By always keeping your word and showing them how improved infrastructure will better their people's lives, Col. Malay said they were able to slowly build the confidence of Said and other Tribal leaders.

When asked by a member of the crowd if the Iraqi people would "ever be like us," Col. Malay simply said no. He then went on to explain that it would be wrong to think Western Democracy could be forced on the people with such a long history of tribal law.

Col. Malay said RCT5's goals were to defeat Al Qaida in Iraq, suppress insurgency and secure Al Anbar Province.

Securing the area involved building large sand berms around cities that would otherwise be easy to approach from any direction in the dessert. Doing this limited the number or insurgent strikes and allowed the Iraqis to control the flow of population in their own cities, according to Col. Malay.

This combined with expert intelligence gathering and cooperation with Tribal leaders and Iraqi police forces helped limit the number of attacks on Marines over the 13-month tour in Iraq. Col. Malay said the attacks diminished from 16 attacks a week when they arrived, to less than two a week when they returned last month.

He said the Marines faced a conundrum as their forces diminished, but he said a true anti-insurgency effort would only happen when the guns pointed at insurgents were held by Iraqis and not by U.S. Marines.

RCT5 was fortunate not to have a single casualty among its thousands of Marines during the tour, but two others stationed with them were killed and were honored for their service.

Contact the writer: 949-492-5135 or cdaines@ocregister.com

Ellie