[From the diaries by susanhu. Exceptional diary.]
The soldiers that I know most closely served early in Iraq II in that western region that included Fallujah and Ramadi and also the town of Husayba. Husayba is where operation Steel Curtain is going down right now. Steel Curtain is being sold in the press as an attempt to breach the gushing flow of foreign fighters who enter into the Iraq fracas by crossing the Syrian/Iraq border. They are calling the fighters Al Qaeda fighters too…….what does that mean? Did Osama send them or is every pissed off muslim coming to fight the Americans in Iraq automatically in Al Qaeda now?
The Euphrates crosses the Syrian/Iraq border and runs through the border town of Husayba. If you have seen Al Qaim written in the press at times it is essentially the same area, Al Qaim = Husayba. Leaving Husayba, the Euphrates meanders through towns that include Ramadi and Fallujah on its way to Bahgdad. It isn’t a huge river but it is sufficient and feeds almost all of the large lakes that Iraq claims it’s own.
North of Husayba on the Syrian/Iraq border is what appears to be severely washed out land that resembles the badlands to me (I’ve seen photos). The deep trenches washed into the land though easily hide bands of whoever on foot.
South of Husayba on the Syrian/Iraq border is open desert. I think that often we like to think of people in this region of the world as being on foot or aboard a camel but the truth is that these folks really do have cars and trucks and such things, and they know how to drive them too. The southern Syrian/Iraq border can easily be crossed in a vehicle and makes having immediate access to water not much of an issue for incoming fighters.
The town of Husayba has an enormous mansion near it. The mansion has a three story marble water fountain. I don’t know how the home came to be or who inhabits it or why, and the fountain wasn’t operating when the soldiers that I know were there. It seems to stand over Husayba with some sort of authority. In the press they say that Husayba was once a thriving town of 30,000 but is now mostly deserted. Husayba is about 1/10th the size of Fallujah and if it is now mostly deserted where did its inhabitants go?
I’m sure that there are a few “bad guys” hanging out in Husayba but I’m sure that there are a few women and a few children too that have nothing to do with all this war and death that have found their way into their little town, and they probably don’t have any place else to go either.
Will the innocent also be murdered in Husayba as they were in Fallujah? Will anybody remember them or count them if they are? Will anybody be there to bury them properly before sundown, or will another “clean up crew” be called in to cleanse the place of all the bloated bodies?
Many think that water is the key to stopping the flow of fighters entering from Syria and I wish it were so and that easy. The parched fighter though crossing that border has only to dig 10 feet or so down in most areas of that particular desert to have water, and people familiar with the area have survived this way longer than Americans have been Americans. The water may be a bit sandy but I doubt that the fighter will care because he was super angry when he decided to fight in Iraq. He will kill as many American soldiers as he can before he enters Paradise avenging the murders of the innocent that fuel his righteous rage.
The story of what happens in Husayba will spread easily and freely into Syria and sow fresh seeds. Ten feet under the sand is all that is needed to sustain the seedlings. We will reap what we sow as usual and I have to ask myself honestly if it isn’t what somebody really wants….completely pissed off Syrians crossing that border to put an end to the evildoers because it is hard to honestly say that Husayba is populated by Iraqis or by Syrians! Where the borders meet the people meet! But according to the map it is officially in Iraq!
The borders drawn on maps in that part of the world are much less meaningful that the groupings of people, the tribes, the families that bind and motivate.
I love your description of the fighters surviving in that streach of desert for ‘longer than Americans have been Americans’…only 10 feet down, indeed.
The soldiers in the area all know that 10 feet down in the sand is water too…..survival if you find yourself stranded someplace. Such information though never seems to find its way into the press though and to our doorsteps.
Somehow, I get the idea that “crazy” would be a vast improvement over what is going on there right now. So many people telling so many stories and all I know for sure is that every time I think about it, I get an awful hollow feeling deep down in the pit of my stomach.
I swear, some days I am just ready to give up on the human race completely, or at least all of the parts of it that make me feel as if I’m not worthy of being cattle feed.
Another bit of insanity.
Didn’t “we” also destroy most of the bridges across the Euphrates? You know: in order to save them.
If bush/Cheney had their way then you, MilitaryTracey, Susanhu, and Boo too would be called al-Queda.
I’m fairly certain Scam Doulter has already called us that.
at the same time.
it’s really good, tracy. I’m going to send the URL to Pat Lang. He wrote a story about this “Steel Curtain” the other day …
Great Diary Tracy!
What’s the difference between the Al-Queda and the Taliban? I hear more and more about the Al-Queda than the Talbina.. but then the agenda on this occupation changes more times than a daily diapering.
But then again – we hear more about how Sheehan and CodePink are combatants… Momma’s rather than Osama nowadays.
amazing how those chickenhawk republicans are so afraid of some moms, huh?
Yes, that woman who does the CNN weekend news faithfully said “Al Qaeda” in her reports about “Steel Curtain.” Propagranda.
Propagranda … better than most of my typos.
There truely is only one reson “they” want to be there and that is so “they” can say the Syrians “attacked” us in Iraq and then “they” can invade Syria also. No doubt in my mind on that one. Cheney has to be going out of his freaken mind seeing he wanted us in Syria by August.
Bring the troops home NOW! Hey Tracy, in case you didn’t see the earlier threads, Cindy is speaking here tonight. I am going to be a combatant mom/grandma tonight!
I will be with you in spirit.
I was just reading this when susan frontpaged your diary and rightly so. I keep wondering just exactly what is the strategy for ‘winning’ in Iraq. People in charge seem to go from one incompetent and stupid idea to the next except they all seem to be the same old strategy-go from one place to the next and give it some catchy name like ‘steel curtain'(oh please)so it sounds good to the media and the brain dead public. Make it look like we’re really doing something instead of just destroying another town or city and making more and more enemies-foreign fighters my ass-we’re the fucken foreign fighters.
As someone else mentioned about blowing up bridges in that part of the country-8 bridges I believe which was supposed to solve the problem of the ‘horde’ of foreign fighters sneaking into Iraq-guess that was one more strategy that didn’t work. And I still wonder what blowing up 8 bridges did to all the people who lived there and used those bridges daily, what did that do to endear us to them? For some reason the blowing up of all those bridges has really haunted me.
I think I’m kinda rambling here also so I think I’ll hit post.
“We are the foreign fighters.” I love that!
I find myself with even more questions about what is happening in Hasayba. According to Lang our forces will clear the town and Iraqi forces will hold it after that. The Iraqi forces that will hold Hasayba are Kurds though from the Pesh Merga. Having Kurdish Iraqi forces “holding” Hasayba couldn’t possibly ignite anybody’s Sunni anger in the area now could it? People that exited their homes under white flags are estimated at 400 and they were taken to a safe place, but how many others didn’t understand what was happening or didn’t trust that they would be okay if they turned themselves over to the Americans and will by killed during this?……and then Kurdish forces are going to hold this Syrian border town after that? Sounds like a recipe for a disaster from hell to me. Hope I’m wrong!
Records 12 separate battles all named after one river – the Isonzo (the last is more popularly called Caporetto). As you can see, this website actually provides a list, “First Battle of the Isonzo, Second Battle of the Isonzo,” etc. We’re getting to that point in Iraq, with battles waged over and over for particular towns and cities. I suppose one day the nightmarish absurdity of this war will be made manifest by lists similar to those in the link.
Who the hell comes up with these stupid names for these stupid ops. The first time I heard this on one of the “news” networks it pissed me off just for the name of it. Makes me think of Berlin in the early 60’s. I was born in 54 so I remember it well. Maybe I’m the only one that feels this way?
No you’re not the only one and I’ve mentioned this before if not here at least to people I talk to..and alluded to this in my post up thread. As I said I think it’s part pr ploy so it sounds good and our media can have a catchy name to latch onto-cause it’s all about marketing war to the general public, just like a war video game. Makes it sound like we’re really doing something when we’re not.
If the public and the media wants a names I’ll give them one-‘Operation Tiger by the Tail and the Tiger is Winning.’
a catchy name to latch onto
I’m probably not a typical American, but every time I hear those pompous video-game-like names, I get the giggles.
They’re such lame names. A joke.
I’m not sure but I think the name “Steel Curtain” was used to describe either the offensive or defensive line of the Pittsburg Steelers football team.
With no artillery to inhibit movement across those “badlands” between the border and Husayba, no matter how many times the US “takes” the town, it will revert as soon as they depart. Even if they leave Iraqi forces there, they will have to stay there permanently and in such numbers as to make the whole exercise pointless; a provocation that will ultimately fuel more violence instead of reducing it.
Lest anyone mistake my comments as some sort of inherent support for the Bush regime’s agenda in Iraq, I categorically reject the entire venture as “the worst strategic catastrophe in US history” as someone else said not long ago, (I can’t remember who).