Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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 Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2005 8:12 pm Post subject: Real news from Iraq |
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A friend sent me this:
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Real news from Iraq
>
> Went to an AUSA dinner last night at the Ft. Hood Officers' Club
> to hear a speech by MG Pete Chiarelli, CG of the 1st Cav Div. He and
> most of the Div. have just returned from Iraq. Very informative and,
> surprise, the Mainstream Media (MSM) isn't telling the story. I'll make
some the points I remember that were interesting, suprising or generally
stuff I had not heard before.
> Very impressive guy.
>
> 1. While units of the Cav served all over Iraq, he spoke mostly
> of Baghdad and more specifically Sadr City, the big slum on the
> eastern side of the Tigeris River. He pointed out that Baghdad is, in
> geography, about the size of Austin. Austin has 600,000 to 700,000
> people. Baghdad has 6 to7 million people.
>
> 2. He said one of the big lessons learned is that M1-A2 tanks and
> Bradleys are needed, preferred and devastating in urban combat and
> he is going to make that point to the JCS next week while they are
> considering downsizing armor.
>
> 3. He showed a graph of attacks in Sadr City by month. Last
> Aug-Sep they were getting up to 160 attacks per week. During the last
> three months, the graph had flatlined at below 5 to zero per week.
>
> 4. His big point was not that they were "winning battles" to do this,
> but that cleaning the place up; electricity, sewage, water were the
> key factors. He said yes, they fought, but after they started
> delivering services that the Iraqis in Sadr City had never had, the
> terrorist recruiting of 15 and 16 year olds came up empty.
>
> 5. The electrical "grid" is a bad, deadly joke; driving
> down the street in a Hummv with an antenna would short out a whole
> block of apt. buildings. People do their own wiring and it was not
> uncommon for early morning patrols would find one or two people lying
> dead in the street, having been electrocuted trying to re-wire their
> own homes.
>
> 6. On election day, after suicide bombers blew themselves up
> trying to take out polling places, voters would step up to the body
> lying there, spit on it, and move up in the line to vote.
>
> 7. Pointed out that we all heard from the media about the 100 Iraqis
> killed as they were lined up to enlist in the police and security
> service. What the media didn't point out was that the next day there
> 300 lined up in the same place.
>
> 8. Said Bin Laden and Zarqawi made a HUGE mistake when Bin Laden went
> public with naming Zarqawi the "prince" of al Quaeda in Iraq. Said
> that what the Iraqis saw and heard was a Saudi telling a Jordainan
> that his job was to kill Iraqis. HUGE mistake. It was one of the
> biggest factors in getting Iraqis who were on the "fence" to jump off
> on the side of the coalition and the new gov't.
>
> 9. Said the media was making a big, and wrong, deal out of the
> religious sects. Said Iraqis are incredibly nationalistic. They are
> Iraqis first and then say they are Muslum but the Shi'a - Sunni thing
> is just not that big a deal to them.
>
> 10. After the election the Mayor of Baghdad told him that the people
> of the region (Middle East) are joyous and the governments are
> nervous.
>
> 11. Said that he did not lose a single tanker truck carrying oil and
> gas over the roads of Iraq. Think about that. All the attacks we saw
> on TV with IEDs hitting trucks but he didn't lose one. Why? Army
> Aviation. Praised his air units and said they made the decision
> early on that every convoy would have helicopter air cover.
>
> 12. Said one of the biggest problems was money and regs. There was a
> $77 million gap between the supplemental budget and what he needed in
> cash on the ground to get projects started. Said he spent most of his
> time trying to get money. Said he didn't do much as a "combat
> commander" because the the war he was fighting was a war at the squad
> and platoon level. Said that his NCOs were winning the war and it was
> a sight to behold.
>
> 13. Said he could hire hundreds of Iraqis daily for $7 to $10 a day
> to work on sewer, electric, water projects, etc. but that the
> contracting rules from CONUS applied so he had to have $500,000
> insurance policies in place in case the workers got hurt. Not
> kidding. The CONUS peacetime regs slowed everything down, even if
> they could eventually get waivers for the regs.
>
> There was more, lots more, but the idea is that you haven't heard any
> of this from anyone, at least I hadn't and I pay more attention than
> most.
>
> Great stuff. We should be proud. Said the Cav troops said it was ALL
> worth it on Jan. 30 when they saw how the Iraqis handled election
> day. Made them very proud of their service and what they had
> accomplished. |
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