At the third week of July 2007 the story is still a very mixed report.  My overall impression from this latest trip is that significant successes have occurred and are likely to continue to occur as far as returning control of the country to the government and delivering it out of the hands of criminals and murderers.
At the same time it is still a very dangerous situation, and the sacrifice is very real.

 

The future is vastly different depending upon the outcome here.  A stable country, with a representational government, able to act as a partner for peace in the Middle East, would be vastly preferable to a lawless land ruled by terrorists and providing a base for training operations with a source for funding further enlargement of their activities. Almost without question, the divergent future was on the minds of almost everyone I talked to during the two-day trip.  Certainly America's best interest is going to be served by stability in that country with their active participation in stabilizing a very troubled region.

 

It has been just over a year since I last traveled to the country of Iraq.  A lot has changed both at home and in the country of Iraq during that time.  There is no question that the news reports coming out of Iraq have been almost universally pessimistic for about 10 months time. I was obviously very concerned about what I would encounter upon my return.  The trip was made over a weekend, a Saturday and a Sunday, a very condensed time frame with a great deal to see.  It started at 2 a.m. at the military airport in Kuwait City.  Our group loaded on a C-130 for the flight into Baghdad.  The plane was cramped and fully loaded.  In spite of the early hour it was already 90°.

 

The plane contained a large number of soldiers and Marines who were returning to Baghdad.  Because of the very early hour and the loudness of the aircraft there was not much conversation.  But after the plane landed and the engines were stopped, there was a brief time where conversation was possible. For most, this was their second or third rotation.  Their deployments have been extended to 15 months and most would not go home for almost a year.  When several who were standing next to me learned who I was, there was suddenly an eagerness for conversation.

 

Since February, there was a change in how they did their work.  Now, many were placed alongside Iraqi soldiers in smaller groups around the town.  No longer attached to the larger and more protected base, the soldiers were clearly seeing a greater amount of activity, and it concerned them. I spoke, in some depth, with the man in front of me.  Indeed he had 10 months left in his rotation, and he sometimes wondered if the generals knew what they were up against in their deployment.  He complained about the long hours in the heat.  He complained about being separated from his family.  He had been reading a book on the plane, and I asked him about this.  It was a book about philosophy.  Assuming he would be leaving the Army at the end of his deployment I asked him what his plans were for next year.  I assumed he would be returning to school or perhaps he had a job waiting for him.  He looked at me strangely.  “I just signed up for five more years” was his terse reply.

 

We left the plane and parted ways.  He was getting in an armored convoy, and we were loaded into Black Hawk helicopters for the next leg of our trip.  It was still very early morning and the sun was barely breaking through the low dust layer that always seems to hang over Baghdad in the summer, and the temperature was already nearly 100°.  But in many ways my conversation with this soldier underscored the ambiguities, the inconsistencies and the incongruous nature of life in Iraq.

 

Over the next 48 hours we would see stories of great heroism and great hope.  At the same time the frustration of buying time and space for a young government of a war-torn country was underscored at several junctures. From a military perspective, success has been made and continues to be made on a near daily basis.  Indeed the primary enemy, Al Qaeda, has not only been beaten but also vanquished every time there has been an encounter.  And because of the increased military activity, encounters have been more frequent.


Part two next week.