Posted on 03/24/2003 11:28:32 AM PST by faithincowboys
'All the peasants were cheering us, even the soldiers'
Matthew Fisher, with the U.S. 3rd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion National Post
Monday, March 24, 2003
DEEP INSIDE SOUTHERN IRAQ - The triumphant road to Baghdad is littered with discarded combat boots and army uniforms, even hand grenades, as men from the Iraqi military throw away anything that could identify them as combatants.
While the fighting has become fiercer than expected in parts of the country, our unit has made rapid headway.
In one instance a U.S. army vehicle ran over a pile of machine guns abandoned on the roadside.
For many kilometres, civilians and soldiers were lined up, waving and blowing kisses at the passing vehicles holding U.S. Marines. Many begged for food. Each U.S. vehicle had been given two boxes of ready-to-eat rations suitable for Muslims. Some people came back for seconds, hiding the food they had already collected.
For their part, the U.S. troops were amazed at the Iraqi soldiers' behaviour.
"Canteens, grenades, abandoned positions -- they even left the Iraqi flag in place before they retreated," said 1st Sergeant Miguel Pares, a New Yorker from Spanish Harlem and the top enlisted man in Bravo company, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division.
"I wanted that flag so bad but we had to continue moving along.
"All the peasants were cheering us, even the soldiers. They gave us the thumbs-up, they blew us kisses. I couldn't believe all the boots that were lying on the road. The soldiers just left them there.
"Man, this is an army in full retreat."
What the Iraqi civilians and soldiers saw was a huge procession of armour, artillery and every other piece of military equipment imaginable as the entire U.S. Marine Corps' 1st Division moved toward Baghdad.
The division avoided the oil fields where a few wells had been set on fire, fearing the intense heat would cook its ammunition.
From a distance, we could see signs of precision air strikes on military targets around several oil fields. But now they appeared deserted, except for the odd stray camel.
The big push began on Thursday night and was completed Saturday. Now the Marines are ready for further assaults on the towns and cities that lie between them and Baghdad.
The rules of being an embedded journalist prevent me from saying exactly where I am, but I can say we have moved a staggering distance and so has the entire Marine Corps.
We just seem to have been picked up and put down somewhere deep inside southern Iraq. At this pace, it won't be long before, as some of the soldiers like to say, the U.S. Marine Corps will be knocking on Baghdad's door.
We have seen no resistance to speak of and no hostility -- simply, ordinary people standing by the road and, as we drove, increasing numbers of Iraqi soldiers.
"Praise be to Allah," many of them shouted, relieved at being finally delivered from more than two decades of Saddam Hussein's tyranny.
"I wasn't surprised at the reception we got," Sgt. Pares said.
"It is what I expected here. Whatever the world thinks of what we are doing, the Iraqi people view us as a force that is freeing them.
"I saw a lot of kids and I started to think of my own kids back at home. God Bless America for giving our children a chance. These kids were so thin. They sure didn't get their share of Iraq's oil money."
Clearly, most of these people are very happy. However, it must be said they are Shia Muslims. The area we have been travelling through is predominantly Shia. Just after the first Gulf War, it was the centre of an armed uprising against the Iraqi leader, which was put down with terrible bloodshed.
Saddam Hussein is a Sunni and a northerner. The Sunni strongholds lie around Baghdad and to the north.
I was in an armoured personnel carrier, but had a reasonable view. People around me seemed to express real joy. They were not compelled to come to the side of the road, certainly, and they seemed to be freely cheering the Americans.
But we have been travelling so fast it hasn't been possible to speak to them.
The march into Iraq has been so quick, the Marines haven't had time to take prisoners.
The Iraqis want to surrender, but in many cases the Americans simply drive straight past them.
I imagine the prisoners are being taken into custody behind us, but not in this area. For now, they're just left to go about their business. Most of them are left walking along the road, perhaps trying to go home.
Meanwhile, the radios crackle with news of lopsided victories and advances, and the mood of the Marines is upbeat.
The older Marines gathered around a small gas burner one night to toast the victory so far and the victories they believe lie ahead.
The fires from oil wells set alight by Saddam Hussein's retreating army provided a moody backdrop as the sergeants and officers discussed the long road to Baghdad that lies ahead. There was talk about the short nights and the danger of scorpions, sand vipers and camel spiders. Being Marines, women and bars were discussed, too, and wild nights in towns such as Reno and of motorbike rides through the southwestern U.S. desert.
It seems quite incredible how this is organized. To get a big Marine force on the move requires fantastical logistical planning and the planning that must have gone into this is truly extraordinary. We do not want for food or water or ammunition or anything else.
Every section of the United States Marine Corps is represented. You can see the engineering crew with all the bridges they would use to cross rivers. There are tanks, armored personnel, artillery and an enormous number of fuel trucks to power all these vehicles.
It is an enormous force of 40,000 or 50,000 men.
It is a staggering achievement to move all this stuff across hostile territory. Now, as the sun sets, there is nothing but dust and dirt and grit. Every few minutes, we can see the sky illuminated, I think, by air strikes.
There seems to be action not too far away from our location. We can also see in another direction the glow in the sky from oil-well fires.
Where I am now, I am near the front of the force or perhaps at the front of the force, but the whole beast is moving and it is moving relentlessly toward Baghdad, there is no doubt about that.
I highly doubt it. Saddam never gave them anything. Not even food. He pocketed all the oil money for himself, and kept the poor people in want. That's how things work in that part of the world. I've lived throughout Asia and that's how the countries live. They have to have slaves. I think they are just a bit worse in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein is a Sunni and a northerner.
The Sunni strongholds lie around Baghdad and to the north.
There is a terrific danger this could turn out to be a Shia-Sunni civil war.
God help us if that happens.
I am certain the forces holding out in the south are Sunnis
who are terrified by the thought
of surrendering in the Shia strongholds.
The Shia region ends just at the outskirts of Baghdad.
Isn't that the truth. Excellent username, "Faithincowboys"
Fox just carried a report from Sky News that there is a popular uprising among the Shia population in Basra against Saddam Hussein's forces. The report said that the rebellion is being aided by the British troops who are surrounding the city.
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