A sandstorm was swirling across the tarmac of a US military airfield in Qatar last week. The only thing better then getting pelted in the kisser with tiny grains of sand that pepper your face at 50 miles per hour is the 120 plus degree heat. You know the expression, “it’s a dry heat”. Yeah, well so is a Texas barbecue pit. Qatar, at least in terms of heat and dust, is the starting point of hell. How people live in an environment like this is beyond comprehension, but they do.
I came to Qatar on my way to Iraq. I was among the first to board a New Jersey National Guard C-130 that was revving its engines in preparation to take us north. Another lesson learned–be the last to board, not the first. The C-130 is an old workhorse of an aircraft. It was introduced into the Air Force in 1954, one year before I was born. One of its great features, apart from being able to haul stuff into tough areas, is the tail ramp that allows soldiers or vehicles (or both) to be easily loaded and off-loaded.
Qatar
Anyway, I move to the front of the cargo/passenger section. Two rows of seats, one on the right side of the plane and one on the left side of the plane, run the length of the aircraft from the bulkhead to the tail. You sit in a piece of canvas and cargo net. You either face the side of the plane or you are against the outside skin looking at the middle. You are up close and personal with the people on either side and, of course, knee knocking with the gal or fellow across from you.
Once on board, you sit sweating and waiting. Any benefit from the shade of the aircraft is quickly eliminated by the proximity of other profusely sweating bodies. My group, about 15 folks, settled into our seats. Another bus pulled up and disgorged a platoon of Marines. Fully kitted in their combat gear–body armor, weapons, helmet, and uniform–they were really hot but managed not to sweat so much.
I think it had something to do with their youth. Kids under twenty five don’t sweat as much as a fat bastard who is over fifty. The Marine unit had at least four women. Each one lugging the same equipment load as their male counterparts. They were heading to Western Iraq, the vicinity of the now infamous Haditha.
As the plane engines cranked louder, crew members circulated passing out foam ear plugs. One does not want to be deaf before you get into combat. Anticipating this contingency, I pulled out the Sonic II ear plugs I acquired and used during CIA training at Camp Peary in 1986. They still worked. While jamming the plugs into my ears it suddenly dawned on me that the damn ear plugs were older than many of the Marines on my flight.
The take off from Qatar was uneventful. Once we got altitude the heat let up. The landing in a combat zone is another matter. If you like a roller coaster you would love the combat landing in a C-130 Hercules. I never knew an old propeller aircraft could pull Gs. Another lesson learned.
As the Marines began to disembark, I asked a couple of the baby-faced boys if this was their first trip in. “No sir, it is our second.” And for some, it marked their third trip to the sandbox. For being so young, they were, appropriately so, very serious and professional.
One note for non-military folks about personal hygiene side on-board the C-130 (this is like astronauts how they pee in space). When the plane was designed the creators did not anticipate that men and women would share the same space. If you need to take a piss (if you’re a guy, that is) you can go up to the bulkhead and relieve yourself into a small urinal attached to the wall. There is no door or curtain. Women, on the other hand, have to troop back to a throne located neat the exit ramp. The toliet basin, which is attached to the side of the aircraft, has a shower curtain arrangement. If nature calls, you climb up, pull the curtain around you, and do your business. Of course your head is poking above the curtain. You look like someone is a school carnivale dunking booth only your pants are around your ankles. I’m happy to report that after more than three hours on the plane no one had to use the facilities.
As we keep sending our sons and daughters into the teeth of the insurgency in Iraq, we are discovering that we have forgotten the horror of fighting an insurgency. When tight knit units, like these Marines, lose friends and colleagues, they normally are not thinking like philosopher warriors. The Marines train these kids to kill (and well they should). They are not trained to operate as police officers. Entirely different rules of engagement.
Insurgents don’t play fair either. They do not show up in clearly marked uniforms. They look like civilians and hide in the midst of populations. Sometimes the locals are witting and supportive and sometimes they are coerced. Both situations currently exist in Iraq.
I do not know who is personally responsible for the killings at Haditha, but it certainly appears that some Marines lost control and are probably guilty of manslaughter. Fortunately, this has not been a common event. But that offers small comfort. In the war for the hearts and minds of the Iraqis we do not have the luxury for any mistakes like this.
We must also accept that Americans as a whole share some responsibility for the actions of these soldiers. We sent them to war. We put them square in the middle of the battle. We cannot simply sit idly on the sidelines clucking our tongues over the awful thing that was done. We are complicit. If we think we can deal with this by simply “punishing” the guilty and move happily on with the rest of our lives, then we have ignored our societal obligation to the soldiers we ask to go to war to fight on our behalf. If young Marines have murdered Iraqi civilians, who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, then they must be held accountable. But, in punishing them, we must remember that we still have an obligation to these soldiers. Leaders we selected put sent these young men and women to war (and yes, I realize Al Gore probably won the election). We have an obligation to help make them whole and return emotionally intact to civil society.
We face a terrible dilemma in Iraq. At present, we keep most of our military forces on secure bases. They have little interaction with the local Iraqis except during combat operations and patrols. Unlike the Vietnam War, where US soldiers slept, ate, and partied with Vietnamese (at times, to our detriment and theirs), our soldiers are not building the relationships with the Iraqi people that will result in marriages and new restaurants in the United States. Go to Fort Bragg in North Carolina and the Vietnamese and Thai easting establishments are one of the Vietnam War’s lasting legacies.
I firmly believe that our sons and daughters in uniform can be our best Ambassadors. But I am afraid that things are so far gone now in Iraq that this possibility for American diplomacy is dead. I understand that the Commanders of these young Americans are not keen to lower the security barriers that protect our soldiers. The Generals and Colonels do not have the stomach to put them at needless risk. I also recognize that putting more of our forces into the communities will lead to more casualties, at least in the short term. But, we must also recognize that if our soldiers are not able to socialize with the Iraqis then we should not be surprised that they view us as an alien, enemy force. Despite some early successes by US troops in this regard in 2003, the community outreach is a rare event and new opportunities are slipping away.
TO BE CONTINUED. . .
……………………………………………………..
Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder
of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm
that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by
terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously
with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s
Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized
expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk
management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety
of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio,
ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News,
and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for
publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York
Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and
aviation security around the world. Further bio
details.
Personal Blog: No Quarter
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BoomanTribune Posts
why are these troops there?????? What realistic, accomplishable in tolerable time limits, defined mission are they assigned?
We were watching the news last night as a couple, a newsperson said something about collateral damage and terrorists in Iraq. I say to the four walls of the room that I hate that term, “collateral damage”. The four walls already know this. Then my husband tells the four walls that when a group of individuals attacks a military convoy they aren’t terrorists, they are combatants. The walls already know this too. Then he proceeds to give the walls the full lecture….embassies are gray areas, civilians working military assets like the green zone are gray areas, kidnapping and murdering and dumping bodies into the streets before dawn is terrorism and attacking the Iraqi police force can be terrorism if they weren’t terrorizing somebody else first who is now getting even. As far as “insurgents” go, America was a bunch of fucking insurgents during the Revolutionary War. I think the walls heard a couple of new things, but the crickets didn’t learn a damn thing – they just kept on chirping!
Yes…and refresh my memory as to why were went there in the first place and why we are still there…
C-130 and experienced its many discomforts in and out of Iraq, my husband has picked the most memorably distasteful things and uses them to anchor in the identifying information that could prevent one of our troops from accidentally shooting one of them down.
Tracy, that was beautiful!!!!! Bless your little heart. You got that one pegged so right! hugs…:o)
Been there, done that, except 34 years ago there was no center row of seats. Our company had a six year old boy attach himself as a mascot. One night in a top secret move the company choptered to a new bivouac in Bong Song valley. The next day before noon the boy showed up at the new location. The conquered know every step of their overlords. After American troops left, in the 1972 offensive, the valley returned to communist control. It was all futile, as long as there were Vietnamese, there would have been resistance to foreign occupation.
Christian occupation of two Muslim countries is even more futile. Privatization of the Iraqi oil industry and the Christian Evangelists that showed up in Iraq both would have sufficient to start a resistence to American occupation; not to mention, kicking the Sunni out of power and replacing them with Shiites. Until US troops leave, the resistance will keep escalating. There is simply no way foreign occupiers can control the land without genocide. The War of Civilizations will keep escalating until there is another partition of Jews, Muslims and Christians.
Brovo…well said…thanks…
If Larry is saying that America has a moral obligation to help straighten out the mess our illegal invasion of a country caused, then YES, our troops on the ground are currently the ONLY method of any kind of diplomacy everyday Americans have. Especially since the word Diplomacy is one this Administration stutters when they try and speak it-and they have proven they don’t understand what the word means. (snark)
However, there is ANOTHER solution to this conundrum, that does NOT involve using our youth as sitting ducks.
Currently much of our TAX Dollars are spent in supposedly training the Iraqi army and police forces. Instead of spending Gazillion tax dollars over there, is there any REAL reason we cannot bring the Iraqi’s Stateside to train along with our own? It would certainly eliminate the graft and corruption associated with is area in Iraq!
The logistics are not that tough:
10 Troops scheduled for immediate deployment for the Middle East would be comprised of both the Americans and Iraqi’s that have trained together. Equipment provided the Iraqi troops would be the exact same as those of their American Counterparts. Only the uniforms worn would be different. These combined Iraqi/American troops would stay together in Iraq for the period of one deployment cycle, as would any other previously all American troops that trained together. This raises the bar of trained expertise for the Iraq forces. Also it is pretty damned hard for troops that have trained together and fought together to demonize one or another. A few cycles like this would provide enough trained Iraqi’s for full Iraqi battalions, trained to a high level. Eventually Iraqi’s themselves would develop parallel basic training in their own country, with only specialized training being done over here.
Other than homophobic bigotry, is there really any logical reasons why this would not work? It certainly would save lots of American tax dollars now being thrown away, provide a sense of needed Iraqi nationalism, and influence the extended family members in the “hearts and minds” area of selected Iraqi recruits. It would also allow for a “drawdown” of American troops being sent back to Iraq for further deployments, as the Iraqi’s would be staying in their own country.
Larry this was precisely the point of my Memorial day post on Haditha. We shouldn’t be sending young people off to war unless it is an absolute necessity. Iraq was certainly not that. And now we are leaving them out to dry, some going on 3 or more tours there. It’s ridiculous, sad and very immoral that we are doing this to them. We should not be surprised that Haditha happened. That’s what war brings, sooner or later: heinous acts of killing that would never occur in any other situation. Obviously Bush, with his limited understanding of military service failed to appreciate this fact.
One can only imagine what it must feel like to see your buddy blown in half by a roadside bomb. While that does not excuse or justify the alleged behavior of Marines in Iraq, it should come as no surprise to anyone that this situation can occur. War is ugly and brutal, and should only be engaged in to defend our country, and when there is no other option. The war in Iraq met neither of those conditions. All Americans who supported the invasion of Iraq share in the shame of Haditha, and those of us who did not support the invasion of Iraq share the shame for not speaking up loudly enough and long enough.