[wvns] AS ALLIES TURN FOE IN IRAQ
AS ALLIES TURN FOE, DISILLUSION RISES IN SOME G.I.'S
Michael Kamber
New York times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/world/middleeast/28delta.html
Staff Sgt. David Safstrom leading a patrol.
BAGHDAD — Staff Sgt. David Safstrom does not regret his previous tours
in Iraq, not even a difficult second stint when two comrades were
killed while trying to capture insurgents.
"In Mosul, in 2003, it felt like we were making the city a better
place," he said. "There was no sectarian violence, Saddam was gone, we
were tracking down the bad guys. It felt awesome."
But now on his third deployment in Iraq, he is no longer a believer in
the mission. The pivotal moment came, he says, this February when
soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the
bomber's body, they found identification showing him to be a sergeant
in the Iraqi Army.
"I thought: `What are we doing here? Why are we still here?' " said
Sergeant Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the First Battalion,
325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. "We're helping guys
that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around
at night and try to kill us."
His views are echoed by most of his fellow soldiers in Delta Company,
renowned for its aggressiveness.
A small minority of Delta Company soldiers — the younger, more recent
enlistees in particular — seem to still wholeheartedly support the
war. Others are ambivalent, torn between fear of losing more friends
in battle, longing for their families and a desire to complete their
mission.
With few reliable surveys of soldiers' attitudes, it is impossible to
simply extrapolate from the small number of soldiers in the company.
But in interviews with more than a dozen soldiers in this 83-man unit
over a one-week period, most said they were disillusioned by repeated
deployments, by what they saw as the abysmal performance of Iraqi
security forces and by a conflict that they considered a civil war,
one they had no ability to stop.
They had seen shadowy militia commanders installed as Iraqi Army
officers, they said, had come under increasing attack from roadside
bombs — planted within sight of Iraqi Army checkpoints — and had
fought against Iraqi soldiers who they thought were their allies.
"In 2003, 2004, 100 percent of the soldiers wanted to be here, to
fight this war," said Sgt. First Class David Moore, a self-described
"conservative Texas Republican" and platoon sergeant who strongly
advocates an American withdrawal. "Now, 95 percent of my platoon
agrees with me."
It is not a question of loyalty, the soldiers insist. Sergeant
Safstrom, for example, comes from a thoroughly military family. His
mother and father have served in the armed forces, as have his three
sisters, one brother and several uncles. One week after the Sept. 11
attacks, he walked into a recruiter's office and joined the Army.
"You guys want to start a fight in my backyard, I got something for
you," he recalls thinking at the time.
But in Sergeant Safstrom's view, the American presence is futile. "If
we stayed here for 5, even 10 more years, the day we leave here these
guys will go crazy," he said. "It would go straight into a civil war.
That's how it feels, like we're putting a Band-Aid on this country
until we leave here."
Their many deployments have added to the strain. After spending six
months in Iraq, the soldiers of Delta Company had been home for only
24 hours last December when the news came. "Change your plans," they
recall being told. "We're going back to Iraq."
Nineteen days later, just after Christmas, Capt. Douglas Rogers and
the men of Delta Company were on their way to Kadhimiya, a Shiite
enclave of about 300,000 people. As part of the so-called surge of
American troops, their primary mission was to maintain stability in
the area and prepare the Iraqi Army and the police to take control of
the neighborhood.
"I thought it would not be long before we could just stay on our base
and act as a quick-reaction force," said the barrel-chested Captain
Rogers of San Antonio. "The Iraqi security forces would step up."
It has not worked out that way. Still, Captain Rogers says their
mission in Kadhimiya has been "an amazing success."
"We've captured 4 of the top 10 most-wanted guys in this area," he
said. And the streets of Kadhimiya are filled with shoppers and the
stores are open, he said, a rarity in Baghdad due partly to Delta
Company's patrols.
Captain Rogers acknowledges the skepticism of many of his soldiers.
"Our unit has already sent two soldiers home in a box," he said. "My
soldiers don't see the same level of commitment from the Iraqi Army
units they're partnered with."
Yet there is, he insists, no crisis of morale: "My guys are all
professionals. I tell them to do something, they do it." His dictum is
proved on patrol, where his soldiers walk the streets for hours in the
stifling heat, providing cover for one another with crisp efficiency.
On April 29, a Delta Company patrol was responding to a tip at Al Sadr
mosque, a short distance from its base. The soldiers saw men in the
distance erecting barricades that they set ablaze, and the streets
emptied out quickly. Then a militia, believed to be the Mahdi Army,
began firing at them from rooftops and windows.
Sgt. Kevin O'Flarity, a squad leader, jumped into his Humvee to join
his fellow soldiers, racing through abandoned Iraqi Army and police
checkpoints to the battle site.
He and his squad maneuvered their Humvees through alleyways and side
streets, firing back at an estimated 60 insurgents during a gun battle
that raged for two and a half hours. A rocket-propelled grenade
glanced off Sergeant O'Flarity's Humvee, failing to penetrate.
When the battle was over, Delta Company learned that among the enemy
dead were at least two Iraqi Army soldiers that American forces had
helped train and arm.
Captain Rogers admits, "The 29th was a watershed moment in a negative
sense, because the Iraqi Army would not fight with us," adding, "Some
actually picked up weapons and fought against us."
The battle changed the attitude among his soldiers toward the war, he
said. "Before that fight, there were a few true believers." Captain
Rogers said. "After the 29th, I don't think you'll find a true
believer in this unit. They're paratroopers. There's no question
they'll fulfill their mission. But they're fighting now for pride in
their unit, professionalism, loyalty to their fellow soldier and chain
of command."
To Sergeant O'Flarity, the Iraqi security forces are militias beholden
to local leaders, not the Iraqi government. "Half of the Iraqi
security forces are insurgents," he said.
As for his views on the war, Sergeant O'Flarity said, "I don't believe
we should be here in the middle of a civil war."
"We've all lost friends over here," he said. "Most of us don't know
what we're fighting for anymore. We're serving our country and
friends, but the only reason we go out every day is for each other."
"I don't want any more of my guys to get hurt or die," he continued.
"If it was something I felt righteous about, maybe. But for this
country and this conflict, no, it's not worth it."
Staff Sgt. James Griffin grew up in Troy, N.C., near the Special
Operations base at Fort Bragg. His dream was to be a soldier, and
growing up, he would skip school and volunteer to play the role of the
enemy during Special Operations training exercises. When he was 17, he
joined the Army.
Now 22, Sergeant Griffin is a Delta Company section leader. On the
night of May 5, as he neared an Iraqi police checkpoint with a convoy
of Humvees, Sergeant Griffin spotted what looked like a camouflaged
cinderblock and immediately halted the convoy. His vigilance may have
saved the lives of several soldiers. Under the camouflage was a
massive, six-array, explosively formed penetrator — a deadly roadside
bomb that cuts through the Humvees' armor with ease.
The insurgents quickly set off the device, but the Americans were at a
safe distance. An explosive ordnance disposal team arrived to check
the area. As the ordnance team rolled back to base, they were attacked
with a second roadside bomb near another Iraqi checkpoint. One soldier
was killed and two were wounded.
No one has been able to explain why two bombs were found near Iraqi
checkpoints, bombs that Iraqi soldiers and the police had either
failed to notice or helped to plant.
Sergeant Griffin, too, understands the criticism of the Iraqi forces,
but he says they and the war effort must be given more time.
"If we throw this problem to the side, it's not going to fix itself,"
he said. "We've created the Iraqi forces. We gave them Humvees and
equipment. For however long they say they need us here, maybe we need
to stay."
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