Posted on 11/17/2005 8:37:21 PM PST by Flavius
HUSAYBAH, Iraq — Driving through the marketplace, Sgt. Scott Wood saw many signs of daily life returning to the city center: children playing in the streets, men squatting near shops — and al-Qaida in Iraq propaganda hanging on a wall.
“Hey, come here,” Wood, a 27-year-old Texas native, shouted to a nearby merchant as he ripped a black-and-white printout of Arabic script off the wall.
“Muj?” Wood demanded, holding the paper in his gloved hand. “Mujahadeen?”
“Yes, mujahadeen,” the merchant said.
Although Marines conducted a house-by-house search of the entire area last week, they have begun to find several signs that insurgents may already be slowly returning to Husaybah. In addition to the propaganda, Marines found several unexploded roadside bombs they believe were freshly set since troops came through last week.
This border city on the far western edge of Iraq’s Euphrates River Valley has reached a turning point — a window of time when military combat begins to resemble police work, when direct assaults give way to routine patrols, and when killing insurgents seems easy when compared to simply finding them.
“Now comes the hard part,” said Capt. Clinton Culp, from Amarillo, Texas. “Now we have to make sure these people have a safe and peaceful environment to come back to, so they can get on with their lives.
“That’s the way you win against an insurgency, by having a permanent presence,” Culp said.
Dubbed Operation Steel Curtain, last week’s assault was the largest of its kind since the battle of Fallujah, and it rolled through the last city in western Iraq where U.S. forces had no daily presence.
Now, the Marines are walking the streets of this former insurgent stronghold for the first time in more than a year. Troops were busy this weekend fortifying two new bases inside the city of Husaybah, erecting sand-filled barriers around the bases and readying a long-term place for Marines to live while conducting daily patrols and civil assistance programs.
The Marines also have attached units of Iraqi army soldiers who joined in last week’s battle and will remain here as part of the long-term presence. While the Iraqi unit has extensive combat experience, it remains dependent on the Marines for food, medical care and other logistical support.
As Marines began patrolling the city, dozens of buildings lay in rubble after a series of aerial bombings during last week’s fighting.
While many houses appear to remain vacant, many residents have returned. Several people cautiously approached the Marines on foot patrol to voice complaints about the state of their city.
“We need water, we need electricity. There is no government in this area,” said a 43-year-old mechanic and father of seven.
Second Lt. Paul Haagenson, 24, assured the man that the Marines were making every effort to address the water and electricity, and he urged the man to help U.S. troops fight the insurgency.
“We just ask for your help in pointing out anyone who doesn’t belong here,” Haagenson said.
As resistance during last week’s seven-day operation faded in its final days, many Marines began to speculate about what happened to the city’s once-entrenched insurgency. Some said they were killed in battle. Others said they fled to nearby towns or across the border to Syria.
Wood was not so optimistic.
“I know exactly where they are,” Wood said, as he walked down a residential side street with his rifle muzzle pointed downward.
“They are watching us right now. They didn’t go anywhere. They just shaved their beards, took off their man-jammies and blended in with the civilian population,” he said. “They’ll be back.”
Wood and others had little success trying to find out who left the propaganda poster on the downtown wall.
The merchant from the adjacent store said he had no idea where it came from. But Gunnery Sgt. Derrick Link told the man, through a translator, that he needed to step up and help fight the insurgency in his own way.
“Tell him this is bad news,” Link said to the Marines’ translator. “So if he sees this hanging up next to his shop, he needs to take it down or else I’m going to think he is one of the ones putting it up,” Link said.
“If this is going to work, if we’re going to get rid of these guys, he needs to help us by taking these down.”
Brian approaches the Roman palace wall at night, and starts painting something on the wall. He looks around nervously, but does not, however, notice a group of Roman guards coming up behind him. They are led by a Centurion who reads over Brian's shoulder.
Centurion: What's this then? "Romanes eunt domus." People called Romanes they go the house?
Brian: It, it says "Romans go home."
Centurion: No it doesn't. What's Latin for "Roman?" Come on...
Brian: Ahhh...
Centurion: Come on.
Brian: Ah, Romanus?
Centurion: Goes like?
Brian: Annus?
Centurion: Vocative plural of "annus" is...?
Brian: Anni?
Centurion [approvingly]: Romani.
Centurion crosses out the "es" on the wall and writes "i."
Centurion: Eunt? What is eunt?
Brian: Go.
Centurion: Conjugate the verb "to go."
Brian: Uh. Ire. Uh...eo, is, it, imus, itis, eunt.
Centurion: So "eunt" is...?
Brian: Ah, uh, third person present indicative. "They go."
Centurion: But "Romans go home" is an order, so you must use the...?
Centurion lifts Brian by the sideburns.
Brian: The imperative!
Centurion: Which is...?
Brian: Ahm. Oh, oh, um...I...I...
Centurion: How many Romans?
Brian: Ah, plural, plural. Ite, ite!
Centurion [approvingly]: Ite.
Centurion crosses out "eunt" on the wall and writes "ite."
Centurion: "Domus?" Nominative? "Go home?" This is a motion towards, isn't it, boy?
Brian: Dative, sir!
Centurion whips out his sword and holds it to Brian's throat.
Brian [hurriedly]: Gah! No, not dative, not the dative, sir. Oh, ah...uh. The accusative accusative! Ah, "domum," sir! "Ad domum!" Ah. Ohh! Ah!
Centurion: Except that "domus" takes the...?
Brian: The locative, sir.
Centurion: Which is...?
Brian: Domum. Aaah! Ah...
Centurion crosses out "s" on the wall and writes "m."
Centurion: Domum. um. Understand?
Brian: Yes, sir.
Centurion: Now write it out a hundred times.
Brian: Yes, sir. Thankyou, sir. Hail Caesar, sir!
Centurion: Hail Caesar. And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.
Brian: Ohh, thankyou sir! Thankyou, sir. Hail Caesar and everything, sir. Oh. Mmm.
Centurion leaves. Two sentries remain to guard Brian.
Dawn over Jerusalem. Brian has written the slogan all over the front of the palace.
Brian: Finished!
Sentries pick up their shields and spears. One of them points his threateningly at Brian.
Sentry: Now don't do it again.
Sentries walk off. Brian steps back to admire his handiwork. Another group of guards come along while he is standing there. Brian sees them, and runs. The guards chase him, running through the streets.
Man: Hey! Bloody Romans.
Someone should inform the dude that he is the government the whole by the people for the people...
So definitely they do not get it... whatsoever...
They are just waiting for next chief in town, and as soon as we leave, the al-qaida and iran will setup shop... then he really is going to have problems...
This is a good news story. Shows this is a clear and HOLD opperation. The intent doesn't seem to be to come back in 6 months and have to do another clearing operation.
Oh...GOD! That is one of the funniest scenes from ANY movie!!!!
That Marine should have left him a pistol, with the admonition: "Next time I see this crap up on your wall, there better be a dead jihadi under it - or I'm going to come back and shoot YOU".
This is called "positive motivation"; something the Marines know all about.
Winning hearts and minds.
If we can't win 'em, I'll settle for scaring the shizzle out of 'em.
Fear is an excellent motivator.
Booooyah!
Machiavelli once asked, in his treatise ("The Prince") that established formal geopolitics, "is it better to be loved or feared ?".
Uh huh.
Machiavelli was one of the sharper knives in the drawer.
Too funny! I take it that's from Life of Brian? I should rent that sometime.
yes I think its an funny movie
And yet, he pointed out that the fear must be tempered, so as not to inspire hatred....
"...a Prince should inspire fear in such a fashion that if he do not win love he may escape hate. For a man may very well be feared and yet not hated, and this will be the case so long as he does not meddle with the property or with the women of his citizens and subjects. And if constrained to put any to death, he should do so only when there is manifest cause or reasonable justification. But, above all, he must abstain from the property of others. For men will sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. Moreover, pretexts for confiscation are never to seek, and he who has once begun to live by rapine always finds reasons for taking what is not his; whereas reasons for shedding blood are fewer, and sooner exhausted.
"“That’s the way you win against an insurgency, by having a permanent presence,” Culp said. "
Abandoning "whack-a-mole" now? Good!
The most criticial passage,
"But, above all, he must abstain from the property of others."
I'll quote Colin Powell on this one (may not be verbatim) -"the US has never asked any nation it has liberated for a sqaure foot of their land, save a plot to bury our dead".
I think in these terms we're definitely doing it right. I'd even like to see the sword unsheathed a bit more.
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