PDA

View Full Version : Sleep well, sheepdogs have the watch



thedrifter
04-03-06, 10:23 AM
04/02/2006
Gil Spencer: Sleep well, sheepdogs have the watch
Gil Spencer , Of the Times Staff

As popular support for the war in Iraq wanes among bank tellers, store clerks, secretaries, college professors, journalists and others, at least one group of Americans remains bullish on the effort. Ed Fullmer is proud to speak on their behalf. Make that Lt. Col. Edward Fullmer, U.S.A.R.
Fullmer is a Media borough policeman and has been in the U.S. Army Reserve for 25 years. His work has taken him to such hot spots as Haiti, Nicaragua, Kosovo and, most recently, Iraq.

In 2001, he returned home from Kosovo after a relatively successful year of keeping the peace there with the 358th Civil Affairs Brigade. His last day of active duty was Sept. 11.

He was home that morning when a friend called and told him to turn on the TV.

"I saw the second plane hit the tower," he recalled. "I knew at that point, based on my experience in the military, we were going somewhere. Someone was going to pay for that."

Among those who did was Saddam Hussein. Having refused to obey numerous U.N. cease-fire agreements after the first Gulf War and his well-documented use of WMDs, Saddam’s torture cult became the No. 2 target on America’s hit parade.

His removal from office had been official U.S. policy for almost a decade, after 9/11 it became a fait accompli. It no longer was a matter of if, but when. His time came in March 2003.

Fullmer’s unit was attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. After the quick fall of the regime and Baghdad, it was Fullmer’s job to help secure the country. But what he saw there led him to believe it wasn’t going to be easy.

He was in Basra where some of the mass graves were discovered. He recalled seeing the femur bones of children sticking up out of the sand. At the prisons, he saw the torture rooms and cells.

At many of the prisons torture chambers were located in the middle of the facilities so that others could see and hear the cries of their fellow prisoners.

"They would start torturing people around dusk when the other prisoners were going to sleep to keep them up all night with the screams," he said. "There were lights so they could see it."

He saw a torture cell in al Hilla that boasted a large hook hanging down from the ceiling. Victims wrote on the walls in their own blood what had been done to them.

He heard stories of wood chippers being used to chop up bodies, witnessed the mass graves, and saw battle-hardened Marines driven to tears by what they saw.

"I have never seen so much evil in one place in my life," he said.

You don’t see all that, Fullmer said, and believe America’s presence in Iraq is a bad thing.

"We have to show the Saddam Husseins of the world that you can’t just go in and kill 350,000 of your own people and get away with it."

Training Iraqis to protect themselves has taken longer than Fullmer would have hoped. Vetting police recruits and military personnel wasn’t easy in the aftermath of the initial invasion. Chaos, looting and the burning down of police stations destroyed thousands of records that might have made the job of identifying the bad guys easier.

But now, after three years, real progress has been made. Trust has been built up. He said the greatest fear Iraqis have now is that we’ll "desert them and leave them to fend for themselves."

He said 90 percent of Iraqis "love" American soldiers and what they have sacrificed to free them from Saddam. Still, in a country of 22 million that leaves 2.2 million "who want to kill you."

So should we stay or should we go?

Fullmer does not hesitate.

"We should be there," he says. For better or worse, Iraq is now the frontline in the war against Islamic terrorism. And the way he sees it, we can fight them there or we can fight them here.

"I’m 100 percent sure of that," Fullmer said and, he adds, that’s the view of almost every other soldier in his unit.

Saturday, he was at the firing range at Fort Dix. He said in the army you could usually tell by your training schedule, if you’re going to be redeployed soon. If it includes shooting practice, gasmask training and radio work, you’re close.

How close are you? I asked him.

"Well, we’ve got gas masks tomorrow, radios tonight and shooting today..and that’s all I can say about that."

He has a wife (two ex-wives) and three "wonderful" stepchildren.

As a cop and a soldier, Fullmer compared himself to a sheepdog. He said the world is full of sheep who don’t realize how many wolves there are out there. But when the wolves are at the gate, who ya’ going to call?

"I think the majority of people realize this is a just cause," he said, adding. "I’m proud to be a sheepdog."

Gil Spencer’s column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail gspencer@delcotimes.com

Ellie