British Volunteer needs some reassuring of why he is in Iraq.

He works for the ministry of defense as a British translator (I think). He needs some reason to be in Iraq:

He is a liberal but went there for unknown reasons as a volunteer. Any advice you could tell this young man?

I'm back in Tallil (just outside Nasiriyah) after a few interesting days in Dubai. I'll post some other time about Dubai, but believe me, it was an eye opener and not what I was expecting !

Got back here at the start of the week, and things are slowly getting worse. Not just here, but across the entire area of operations that our Division is responsible for in the South of Iraq.

I assume you may have read about the various incidents at Al Ammarah, Basrah and Nasiriyah. However, you guys don't get to hear about even 5% of the incidents that go on, just in the South East alone. Every single day, there are multiple attacks on coalition forces here. Most usually end without coalition casualties, or at worst a few injuries. Usually an insurgent or two is killed daily during these attacks.

Every single day, without fail, people are getting killed or injured here due to hostile incidents. I would like to think that it is the greater experience and training of the British forces on the whole that has kept the casualty figures down.

However, the insurgents aren't exactly the greatest of fighters either. They do what they have to do - they unleash mortar and rocket attacks at our bases and run, or they'll fire at our patrols & convoys and run, or they'll leave an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in the path of one of our patrols and run.

They seem to care little for what happens to their own people. Often it is other Iraqis that get hurt/killed by the IEDs (Our vehicles have special devices fitted that usually automatically trigger the explosives a few metres ahead of the vehicle), and when it comes to the occassional suicide bombing, the local population takes the brunt of the damage.

As I said, things are worsening. I read and sometimes watch the incident reports as they are collated at Divisional HQ, and I am surprised by just how many there are daily in just the south east of this country.

The upsurge in hostilities seems to have two marked points.
Firstly, on the back of the American attempts to subdue the militants in Fallujah. This saw increased hostility elsewhere.
Then, most seriously, the prisoner abuse photos.
The faked ones involving the British seem to have done irreversible damage to coalition-Iraqi relations round here. Thus, attacks have increased markedly in the past two weeks. When I was at Basrah, we were getting mortared almost every night.

Now at Tallil, the action is getting uncomfortably closer.
Nasiriyah is a hotbed of dissent at present, and the Italians seem to be feeling glad they pulled out 3 months ago from the town itself to this new base at Tallil.

2 days ago an Italian patrol found an arms cache at the base perimeter that included amongst other things two SA-8 surface to air missiles. Remember, Tallil has an operational airfield which is used by a number of coalition planes and helicopters.

Then yesterday morning we got rocketed - twice. The explosions being around 400 metres away - close enough to be alarming, without being close enough to be dangerous.

To top it all off - yesterday afternoon I was almost hurled to the ground when something (Either a mortar or a rocket - the Italians won't say yet which) thudded on the other side of the building I was standing next to. Just a few metres away; literally a handful of metres away. The building took the force of the blast and I reckon I was lucky to get away with just a headache and my heart skipping a few beats.
It's at times like this that it all gets personal.
At times like this I start wondering about why we are here.
I mean, why are we here ? What are we doing here ?
All I see in Camp Mittica is hundreds of Italian troops vying with each other about who has the largest biceps or the best sun tan. Occassionally a few troops or Carabinieri will go out on patrol to Nasiriyah and come back in time for a quick work out in the gym followed by some personal manicuring in front of a vanity mirror.

The ironic thing about the Italians is that the new Brigade is apparently named after the place of a 'famous' Italian victory (Portosuolo Del Fueli - I doubt thats correctly spelt). Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't the Italians pretty much lost every war they've been in, or had to be bailed out by someone else ? Not since the demise of the Roman Empire has Italy ever had any battles to commemerate.
To top it all off, a British Battalion is on it's way up here to reinforce the Italians.
400 troops with armoured vehicles and tanks. If I was a newly arrived Italian soldier, I would hang my head in shame at allowing another country to get me out of a tight spot yet again.

What are we achieving here in Iraq ?
The population are slowly showing signs of restlessness, and murmurings abound about our lack of popularity. Slowly but surely we are losing the battle for hearts & minds.
To be honest, I feel it was a lost cause to start with.
Trying to force democracy down the throats of people who can barely stand each other is not good. These people are not used to personal unrestricted freedom. Centuries of living under one dictator/ruler/king/chief or another is a tradition that will not miraculously be forgotten overnight.
These people are not ready for democracy. We cannot force them to take it on. It is alien to their culture and their traditions.

So why the hell are we here ?
The battle for hearts & minds is nearly over, with us as the losers.
Lets just get some of the infrastructure up and running again and the Iraqi police trained up and armed, then get out of here.
I fear we are wasting our time in this country. Democracy does not belong to them, and we do not belong here either.

There is something wrong with the way US troops handle situations/encounters.
Take all the reports regarding the usage of heavy handed methods. Take also the reports of various 'friendly fire' incidents. Take the reports of shooting at buildings or places in error.

There are too many incidents happening where US troops have failed to check their target and apparently just let loose.
At first I used to think these were individual bad luck cases with inexperienced or nervous troops involved. However, after hearing many stories over here in Iraq, and after witnessing first hand the way the US troops handle themselves, I am now convinced the problem is INSTITUTIONAL.
Yes, institutional.

The US forces need to take a few leaves out of the book of their coalition partners - particularly the British. The American approach is very different from the rest of the coalition.
US troops adopt an automatic aggresive stance right from the start. They train weapons on everyone, including their own allies ! They use unnecessary aggression when dealing with non-Americans here. Even us Brits are subjected to this.
There is no politeness or any evidence of manners when out in the field.
Sure, the Americans I have spoken to in various camps and compunds have been nice people, but once out of their camps they transform. Hence why I say the problems are institutional. I believe it is a failing in the training.

Whats worse is that the rest of the coalition are starting to get really pis$ed off now with their American colleagues. The British have in fact pretty much had enough. Speaking to your everyday squaddie, there is a definite impression of hostility, and in a lot of cases outright hatred of American tactics. Troops here are seriously angry.
They believe the Americans are letting the side down. That the south of Iraq has been handled professionally by the rest of the coalition. We've gone to great lengths to reach out to the Iraqi people, and gained the trust of a large majority.
There were very few hostile incidents up until two months ago (Fallujah).
Now it would appear that the south of Iraq is turning really nasty. Coalition forces blame the heavy handed actions of American troops for this. They also attribute a large part of the blame on the prisoner abuse photos (Both the American ones and the faked British ones).
Simply put, the British do not want to work with the Americans and want nothing to do with them at present. I kid you not, relations are pretty dire at present, but the media probably won't be reporting it (So don't even bother asking for links etc please - just take what I say on face value).

Here are two horrifying incidents for your perusal -
1. Camp Navstar on the Kuwaiti border, 45 minutes drive from Basrah down MSR Tampa. This happened approximately 2 to 3 weeks ago.
A British convoy approached the camp. British flags and uniforms clearly on display, and advance notice having already been passed on down the route.
American guard opens fire with .30 cal machine gun, but luckily misses.
Once everyone had calmed down (Fortunately our troops being British, did not fire back 'kneejerk American Military' style), the guard was questioned and in his defence he stated that the sun was in his eyes, so he couldn't quite make out what was coming down the road towards the camp, so he decided to open fire upon the numerous vehicles anyway...

2. (Happened recently) A British Chinook helicopter trying to land was shot at three times. Eventually it landed and the pilots got out and were involved in a scuffle with the American guys who had fired on them. It turned out that the American gunners had thought the British helicopter was an Iraqi army machine coming in to attack them. The pilots had to be restrained from killing the Americans there and then, all the while screaming out asking just how f**king many hostile Iraqi Chinooks there were flying around with British colours currently ?

There are other incidents of American military 'shoot first & ask later' on their coalition allies, but those two stand out prominently as examples of what I am talking about; i.e. an INSTITUTIONAL problem with American military tactics & training.

The latest alleged incidents involving Iraqis at a wedding being shot up by American planes/helicopters - if proven true serve to highlight further the deficiencies in tactics. It illustrates the lack of understanding of their environment. It almost looks like a lack of respect for the people they have come to assist. If you want to liberate the Iraqis, then at least get to understand their culture - understand that it is THEIR country and that firing guns into the air at celebrations is a traditional thing. There have been other incidents of US troops misunderstanding their environment and shooting at people who were celebrating.
Lets not forget the wedding in Afghanistan where upto 50 guests at a wedding lost their lives this way.

How about the failure to confirm targets ? Several dead Canadians and British troops stand testimony to these failures, as do several dead Kurdish allies in northern Iraq when an F16 dropped a large bomb on a convoy during the initial invasion last year ? How about that red cross hospital hit two days in a row despite clearly marked as a hospital ?
And so on and on and on.

I ask you, am I wrong in thinking that there is something very wrong with American military tactics, especially in terms of checking/verifying the intended target ?
If the British can succeed without pis$ing off an entire population, then so can the Americans. Take a few leaves out of our books.

Respect the locals. Respect your allies. Verify the target before unleashing deadly force. It works for the British, and it should work for the Americans too.

At present the US Military in Iraq is in danger of alienating itself from not just the local population, but from it's allies too.
That is very worrying.
Forget the battle for hearts & minds - we've clearly lost that now, the battle to remain a cohesive joint security force in Iraq is now on.
Lets not lose this one too.

Interesting letter, thanks for posting it.

As for "why he's there" only he can answer that, since he voluntarily went (I gather) in the first place. Why'd he go in the first place? What factors convinced him to go? And why does he think those factors are no longer in play? I honestly don't know the answer to any of that, presumably he does.

It's entirely possible that he *shouldn't* stay there. For example if he went to Iraq with false preconceptions such as "everything will be great there and people will not be attacking soldiers there, and soldiers will not be shooting back". If this is what he thought Iraq would be like, then indeed perhaps he does not belong there.

Tell him to stop whining. The U.S. is a superpower and we do not apologize for being one. Our troops are NOT trigger happy grunts who shoot anything that moves. If anything, they are TOO cautious about dealing with the cowards who shoot and run.

If he wants to win their hearts and minds, volunteer to fix up a school or bring running water to a village instead of whining and playing video games.

I'd rather have our guys too strong than too weak. I'd keep my gun trained on anything that moved in that land of terrorists, too.

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