ZAIDON, IRAQ: What is perhaps one of the most important trends in the Iraqi Campaign to date, was made crystal clear yesterday in the town of Zaidon, a few miles south of Abu Ghraib. As recently as eight weeks ago it was impossible for US Army vehicles and personnel to pass through this area without an incident. It was not uncommon, according to one of the Humvee drivers, to have as many as 10 or 15 IEDs explode on one mission to this farming area. The locals, who are now cooperating with the Americans here, say that it hadn’t been safe, even for them, for at least three years.
The mission on this sweltering afternoon was to deliver uniforms to recruits of the recently formed IPV (Iraqi Provincial Volunteers), one the unofficial names of recently formed, self defense organizations in this corner of Iraq. This predominately Sunni area has recently broken the shackles of the foreign, or ‘al Quaida in Iraq’ influence on them. According to Capt. Ryan Liebhaber, the officer in charge of this operation, and the man most responsible for instigating this program, the foreign al Quaida types brought it on themselves, setting the stage for this US operation.
Capt. Ryan Liebhaber with members of the Sunni local security force volunteers who had previously been members of ‘al Quaida in Iraq’.
‘I think it might have been a good thing that we weren’t able to get in here for eleven months’, he said, ‘because their methods are what turned off the locals who were supporting them. These people are secular basically, not of the fanatical Moslem extreme at all, and when it became common to cut off fingers for smoking a cigarette, well that was it. Smoking is about the only vice they have left that isn’t a sin.’ Capt. Liebhaber smiled, and then continued, ‘they also weren’t above killing and raping. By the time we and the local leaders got together, they were as eager to talk and work with us, as we were with them.’
Many of the inhabitants of the Zaidon-Raewaniyah Corridor, formerly a main infiltration route for foreign insurgents into Baghdad, had been soldiers in the Iraqi Army of Saddan Hussein, or Baath Party members who were civil servants in the former government. These people were all relieved of their jobs by the Collation Provisional Authority led by H. Paul Bremmer, a U S government appointee. Aside from there being huge resentment from being fired, and the fact that in the case of the military, 100,000 angry, armed men were turned loose on the countryside, none of these people had any other way to make a living. They were ripe for opposition to the new government being formed by the US.
These up to date, community self defense organizations, were originally formed in the tradition of an organization called ‘The Honourable Resistance’, which existed back in the 1920s in opposition to British rule. These ‘Sunni Rejectionists’ as termed by Capt. Liebhaber, who had refused to vote in the national election that formed the present government, and who had depended to a great extent on the foreign ‘insurgent’ element for support, have now reconsidered and want to be ‘legitimized’. They are ready to make a legitimate effort to work with the Shia dominated, Iraqi National Government.
‘It’s been an absolutely amazing turnaround’, said Capt. Liebhaber. ‘Only last June it was impossible; much too dangerous, for us to travel east of Tampa, the main highway through the center of Iraq. In eight weeks my company of 70 men, along with Iraqis of like mind, have turned this area completely around. We’ve gone from 40 IED attacks per week to 8. In some sections there have been two or less in the last six weeks. At the same time a good number of the minority Shia of this district are willing to work with us and the Sunni volunteers.’
All does not bode well however, for Capt. Liebhaber and his peacemakers. The great hope of these ‘sunni rejectionists’ is to have a solid local police force in place before the 2nd BCT leaves in October. Just as important is their quest to be accepted as a legitimate political group by the present Iraqi Government. Herein lies a major problem. Prime Minister Maliki, of Shia descent, is adamantly opposed to this concept. General Pretraeus is generally in favor of it. Obviously this situation has to be solved if political progress is to move forward.
Col. Michael Kershaw. Commanding officer of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, recently stated that his troops have created a data base of over 4000 Iraqis who wish to work in this community, volunteer based security program. Four thousand Iraqis who have a background in government and the military; who wish to join the national government, be a legitimate part of the national government, and make it work for all of the Iraqi people.
During the search last May of the infamous ‘triangle of death’, which is located southwest of Baghdad between the city and the Euphrates River; for three men missing from this Brigade after an attack near Patrol Base Inchon, Col. Kershaw said; ‘whoever in the end can provide security for the ordinary people of Iraq, they will be the winner in this conflict. At the moment, none of us are successful in doing that.”
It does appear that the Americans are winning the battle for security in this sector. Col. Kershaw has nothing bur praise for Capt. Liebhaber and his men for their accomplishments. He feels that many more junior officers and the men in their command are having similar results, in varying degrees, throughout the 2nd Brigade’s AO (area of operations).
Oddly enough these successes are not at all connected with the recent SURGE of thousands of US soldiers in the Baghdad area. They are the result of a rather quiet diplomacy; by men using their heads and their hearts as much as their M-16s, in their quest for victory. This is a small beginning perhaps, away from heavy military actions that can have such a negative impact on normal Iraqi people, and towards serious diplomacy; which might finally bring this military campaign, for supremacy in Iraq, to a positive and successful conclusion.
Embedded with the 2nd BCT, 10th Mountain Div. – Iraq
*A version of this article was published in the Press Republican on August 22, 2007.
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