Posted on 02/11/2006 2:10:35 PM PST by SandRat
GREEN VALLEY — Speaking in Green Valley Thursday, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, commander of the U.S. Army’s intelligence center at Fort Huachuca., said that troops on the ground in Iraq “believe they are making a difference.”
Members of the Iraqi security forces are due to arrive at Fort Huachuca for training in late February, she said.
Fast served for a year in Iraq, most notably as senior intelligence officer for the coalition ground forces.
The major general spoke during a lunch meeting of the Green Valley Lion’s Club to a crowd, the majority of which had served in the military.
“Very seldom do we get the opportunity to give choices to people who have been oppressed,” Fast said, referring to the war.
With the final results of the recent elections in Iraq expected any time, Fast spoke candidly about what kind of government will take hold there.
“I think we really do have some concerns,” she said. “Not all Iraqis are created alike, and there will have to be some clipping off of the right and left limits to create a mainstream.”
Some 60 percent of Iraqis are Shiite Muslims, the same Islamic sect that rules Iran.
Fast said that the Shiites are expected to have a major influence over the new government in Iraq. “It may not be a government that we want,” she said.
“But having learned about Iraqi culture, it’s likely that some accommodations (with other parties) will be made behind the scenes.”
“There is a long way to go,” she added.
Though she did not mention Abu Ghraib, Fast said that congressional staffers are scheduled to visit the intelligence center to see that “we are taking the lessons learned and making the training better.”
Fast said that the American people need to realize that the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror are “going to take us a while.”
“We Americans have to have patience for these kind of protracted conflicts.”
She added that there are many good things happening in Iraq, including efforts by soldiers to repair infrastructure, build schools and otherwise help the population move forward, but that such stories are not regularly reported.
“Good news stories are harder to print than bad news,” she said. “It doesn’t sell as well as violence.”
Fast said that the military will not win the war in Iraq; rather, the armed forces are setting the table for Iraqis to make their own decisions about their future.
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