|
Ralph Peters is a regular columnist with the New
York Post.
Register here for access to the Post's Online Edition.
| |
PETERS |
|
 |
Back From Hell
by Ralph
Peters [author,
novelist] 9/6/07
Dateline: Baghdad, Iraq
If you saw any news clips of intense combat last January, you were
probably watching the fighting unfolding on Baghdad's Haifa Street: 10
days of grim sectarian violence.
Until we put a stop to it.
The boulevard of Sunni-inhabited high-rise apartments erupted in
shootouts pitting the "Haifa Street Gang" and its al Qaeda allies
against heavily Shia Iraqi army units. It was a recipe for massacre, as
terrified residents - those who remained - cowered in their apartments.
Then the U.S. Army moved in. Commanders must've felt tempted to
just level the former Saddamist stronghold. Instead, they decided to
rescue what they could. Our troops cleaned out the terrorists with what
Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks - one of the Army's rising stars - termed "very
focused kinetic effects."
Contributor
Ralph Peters - Contributor
Ralph
Peters is a retired Army officer and the author of 19 books,
as well as of hundreds of essays and articles, written both
under his own name and as Owen Parry. He is a frequent columnist
for the New York Post and other publications. [go to Peters Index] |
And the Cavalry charged in: the 2nd
Infantry Division's 1-14 Cav, OPCON - Army-speak for "on loan" - to the
1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade.
This is a
ride-to-the-rescue outfit in the old Cavalry tradition. Shifted from
one hot spot to another in their wheeled Strykers, 1-14 Cav has fought
its way through the streets of one gut-shot Iraqi city after another.
BUT Baghdad was the big one. Not only because it's the capital but also
because our changing strategy suddenly opened new opportunities to
reset the terms of our presence.
Initially, Haifa Street was a
brawl-for-all. Even now, the troopers of 1-14 Cav keep their "sabers"
ready. But a patrol through the sector on Tuesday evening revealed
changes many in the media just won't credit. (We're not supposed to
win, you understand.)
Six months ago, terror ruled. The
streets were empty of civilians. Shops were shuttered, facades were
shot up, and hate graffiti covered the intact walls. Power was out, and
the district was out of hope. The residents who could leave had already
left.
It would've been easy to write off Haifa Street.
Instead, 1-14 Cav and their foster parent, the 2nd brigade, 1st Cavalry
Division, switched gears. First, they won the fight. Next, they were
determined to win the peace.
AND the numbers in "AO Warhorse,"
their area of operations, reveal an impressive transition from a
hellhole to a livable - if still understandably nervous - neighborhood:
From 74 attacks on our troops in January, the violence dropped to 20
attempts in August. And they were minor attacks, compared to those of
the past.
Overall, murder rates in Baghdad are down by
two-thirds, while attacks on the Iraqi police and civilians have
declined for months. In fact, 2nd Brigade is now "out of the checkpoint
business," according to its commander, Col. Bryan Roberts. With the
Iraqi police doing its job, Roberts can muster as many as 34 combat
patrols a day - the presence we always needed and didn't have.
And plans are already in the works to turn the district over to the Iraqis.
During the mounted segment of the patrol, I asked Gen. Brooks - who
stood tall in a Stryker's hatch beside me - if he worried about a surge
in al Qaeda incidents in the remaining weeks before Gen. David Petraeus
reports to Congress.
Brooks realizes how badly the terrorists
yearn to embarrass us, handing ammunition to the just-quit camp. But he
told me we'd just broken a key al Qaeda network that was planning
dramatic eve-of-testimony strikes. Other terrorists might still manage
to stage attacks, but the organization's spinal column was broken.
MEANWHILE, our "urban renewal" of Haifa Street became an accelerating
success. En route to Combat Outpost Remagen, we saw people of all ages
in the streets, a half-dozen soccer games under way, patched and
repainted facades - and even new solar street lamps (a big hit in a
power-strapped city).
It was all part of an innovative
small-is-beautiful approach to gaining trust and helping Iraqis get
back on their own feet. The administration's initial policy of funding
huge projects to be developed by multitentacled U.S. contractors failed
miserably. But our soldiers are making progress where favored
contractors only ripped off the taxpayer for billions.
How? As
Col. Roberts put it, "Micro-everything is good." Our troopers have
backed micro-projects, such as community generators, awarded
micro-grants to jump-start street-level commerce, and favored a
ground-up version of capitalism, rather than the administration's
dysfunctional marriage of profits at home and socialism in Iraq.
The Iraqis get their batteries charged. Once. Then it's up to them to
make their neighborhood - and their country - work. Lt. Col. Jeff
Peterson, 1-14's commander, adds that the "spontaneous economic
development" that followed the establishment of security and
face-to-face engagement with the population has been inspiring.
It is. As we dismounted from our Stryker to walk the streets and
alleys, Sunni residents - once hostile to Americans - crowded around to thank our local commanders, all of whom were well known down in the 'hood.
OF course, other sectors in Baghdad remain contentious, and progress can be reversed in the wake of a single trigger event.
But even across the river in Rustamiyah, where the troopers of the 1st
of the 8th Cav - a butt-kickin' outfit - have been fighting Muqtada al
Sadr's Mahdi Army in urban-guerrilla warfare, hopeful signs are
emerging. A few days ago, Mookie unilaterally announced a six-month
timeout for his gunmen. Partly, it's a political move - but it's also
due to the sacrifices and fortitude of 1-8 Cav and other frontline
units.
So why don't you hear more about our military's
successes? It goes beyond the old media dictum that "if it bleeds, it
leads." Plenty of journalists have staked their reps on our predicted
failure in Iraq - and they hate the reversal of fortune the surge is achieving.
God knows plenty of problems remain. Iraq's government isn't much help
- none, as far as Haifa Street's revival is concerned. And five minutes
away, there's a bustling Shia neighborhood. Not long ago, the residents
were all Sunnis. Shias with a new-born sense of entitlement (and a
vicious militia) drove them out.
Nor have all of those who used to live on Haifa Street returned - they're being coaxed back bit by bit.
But those familiar with the desolation-row atmosphere that prevailed just months ago are encouraged by the prog- ress. Iraqis have begun to help themselves, while their government squabbles.
AFTER winding our way through a lively market, we stopped by a riverside cafe. Its patio was crowded in the softening evening.
The establishment had been reopened with a grant of pennies from the
Cav and 2nd Brigade. At the sight of us, the owner rushed to tell
everyone that we would always be welcome as his guests. He was excited
about the future - almost to the point of weeping.
Outside, in the orange twilight, 1-14 Cav's Maj. Dave Stroupe and I
paused on the embankment above the river. A micro-grant had cleared
away years of garbage. Kids were swimming, while their elders fished.
Every so often, a corpse still floats by. And the mahalla,
or neighborhood, across the river is still seeded with terrorists. But
the precious normalcy around us represented a true and wonderfully
human victory.
Smiling at the hubbub on the cafe patio and the
laughter from the kids splashing in the shallows, Maj. Shoupe shook his
head in wonder.
"When we came down here in January," he told me, "the only people we saw in the streets were shooting at us."
Then the U.S. Cavalry rode to the rescue. ExileStreet
Ralph Peters' latest book, "Wars of Blood and Faith," is on the street.
This
piece first appeared in the New York Post
copyright 2007 - NY Post
§
|
q