In Search of Murtha's Army

Last week, I went to Iraq to search for John Murtha's army. You know: the one he described as "broken, worn out," and "living hand to mouth." Thanks to the help of some friends in low places, I met with a lot of the troops and almost all of the commanders around Baghdad and at Camp Fallujah. Murtha was not just wrong, but damnably wrong. And so, unsurprisingly, is Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, who declared the war unwinnable.

I promised to bring back as many of the facts as I could. Here are the two most important ones: First, the war goes on in bad places such as Ramadi and Mosul, and our forces are beginning to show the strains of a long war. Second, we are winning this war.

None of the soldiers I spoke to -- Army or Marine -- was happy about being in Iraq. Some were there for the third year-long tour, a big strain on their families. One senior officer from the 4th I.D. told me about one of his favorite young warriors, a captain, who he said was "enormously adaptable and capable." But the captain had been on one tour in Afghanistan and two in Iraq in his five years of service. The result? "He's no longer married." That's the kind of wound even the best docs can't mend. The 3rd I.D. is close to finishing its second tour in Iraq next month, and the men are more than ready to head home. One senior sergeant from the 3rd I.D. told me the coming rotation home would mark the end of his second tour in Iraq this time around. (He'd been there before, in the 1991 Gulf War.) There are already rumors that the division will come back again after only ten months at home. He said, "We need a bigger army to do this much longer." And he's probably right. But he, like all the others, agreed on one important point.

All the men I spoke to (and, yes, the women as well) didn't believe this job was over. They have committed themselves to the war, and expect their commitment to be matched at home. Frustrated? Yes. Tired? Sure. Broken? Don't believe it for one microsecond. Living hand to mouth? Oh, please. Everyone I spoke to -- officer and enlisted -- said they had everything they need, and get more for the asking. Take Noah Sheridan of Indianapolis, a mechanic. His job is vehicle maintenance. His orders are to not fix broken down Humvee engines. Noah and his buds rip an old one out, grab a new one from a seemingly endless supply, put it in, and the vehicle is out of their shop in 8 or 9 hours on a good day. (Noah said -- and I think he was bragging a little -- that they could do a transmission in about as short a time.)

Is our army broken? Not hardly, but it could be. One 4th I.D. colonel said it best: "You want to break this army? Then break your word to it." Which is precisely what the Dems want to do. President Bush was right when he said yesterday that the only way we will lose this war is if we lose our nerve. The Dems long ago lost theirs.

Because the politicians haven't gotten to the point of cutting off war funds or setting withdrawal schedules, our troops are not paying a lot of attention to the winds blowing around the Beltway. In their ignorance, poor souls, they don't understand the judgment of their betters -- the Deans, Pelosis, and Murthas -- that the war is "unwinnable." So they're just going ahead and winning it. And you have to understand that "winning" means not only defeating the insurgents, which we are doing, but training, equipping, and teaching the Iraqis to both protect themselves and keep their country together.

DEFEATING THE TERRORISTS MEANS not only capturing or killing them, but cutting off their sources of arms, men, and money. Syrian, Saudi, and Iranian support for terrorists is a constant problem. The main "rat lines" -- the routes into Iraq from Syria and Saudi Arabia -- are not closed, but tightened down enormously. The official line is that we are not engaged in operations against Syrian forces or on Syrian territory (more than one senior military commander said that directly and would not budge from it). But something has been going on for weeks if not months. Syrian support for the insurgents has, I believe, been forcibly reduced. Iraqi forces, including the "Desert Protectors" -- really tribesmen operating in their home areas -- are proving effective against infiltration. Part of the remaining problem, one senior officer said, is the "booze, money, and drugs" coming in from Saudi Arabia, and arms coming in -- especially those described by Tony Blair -- from Iran.

The effect of choking the "rat lines" is that terrorists who used to come into Iraq in big bunches are now coming in by twos and threes. More and more of those tiny groups are being caught. In short, the terrorist forces in Iraq are being reduced steadily. And the effectiveness of terrorist attacks is reduced because the weapons available to them (aside from the stuff coming in from Iran) are less effective. Though the big bombs take many lives, and though the number of attacks increases substantially around events such as the Thursday election, most attacks don't succeed. Only about 18% of the attacks succeed in injuring people or damaging vehicles.

One senior officer said that we've "taken out" -- i.e., captured or killed -- an estimated 90% of the al Qaeda in Iraq. They are among the more than 2,000 terrorists we have caught or killed there.

The foreign fighters coming in are almost entirely suiciders, not soldiers. But at least 90% of the insurgents being caught are Iraqis: members of anti-occupation groups, some of which trace their origins to the 1920s when they drove the Brits out. It is these people -- mainly Sunni but some Shia such as those answering to Moqtada al Sadr -- who are the most stubborn opponents of democracy. They have no confidence in the current Iraqi government and if they refuse to vote in the Thursday election -- as it appears they will do at least in the big city of Ramadi -- the insurrection will continue.

What happens after the election is as much a political as a military question. The Iraqi military is doing its job. Half the Baghdad area is in Iraqi control, and about 60% of all Iraqis live in secure areas. One of the biggest mistakes we've made in the information war was all that nonsense about rating the readiness of Iraqi units at Levels 1 through 4. When only one was at Level 1, the Dems went bonkers. (Okay, more bonkers.) The media picked up that stick and has been beating the Defense Department over the head with it for months. Trouble is, no one has 'splained the levels in terms anyone outside the army bureaucracy can understand. Having spoken to several of the commanders there, let me try to translate army into English.

You know who rates Level 1? Just about nobody in the world. Even our military units drop from Level 1 to Level 2 or 3 with regularity. Then they rest, retrain, and refit and get back to at least Level 2. Yes, one Iraqi unit is at Level 1. Many Iraqi units are now at Level 2. Which means the Iraqi units at Level 2 are equal to or better than the militaries of most of the damned world. Better than say, the Italians or the Spanish. Level 2 units -- many if not most of the Iraqi forces -- have earned the rating accorded most of the other coalition nation forces. They are fighting well, and are getting better fast. Will they be able to be left alone soon? No. But American plans to draw down our forces -- already in place -- mean that the Iraqis will take more responsibility quickly next year.

THE BIGGEST CONCLUSION I DREW from the trip is that the Iraqi civilian government lags badly behind the Iraqi army in taking charge and moving forward. Time after time, our top commanders expressed frustration that the politics aren't keeping up with the development of the Iraqi military. It's inevitable in a democracy, but this kind of dissent is very counterproductive. One of our commanders told me that many Sunni, Shia, and Kurd pols are holding back, waiting to see how much power they can grab in the election and afterward.

The compromises they need to make on fundamental issues -- power of a federal government, whether to tax, how to structure the military so that it will be independent of tribal rivalries -- all hang in the air while the politicians maneuver. That same commander said that he and other senior American leaders are raising the temperature on the Iraqis, telling them that they'd better get on with it.

Democracy in Iraq is still a goal, not a fact. If the Thursday election turns out as expected, it will be only a small step forward. At worst, it will be a setback if the Shia and Kurds turn Sunni rejectionism into an institutional exclusion from key government ministries and parliamentary consultations.

It's too bad that the Iraqi pols don't have the vision their military counterparts do. At the Iraqi military academy at al-Rustamiya, BGen. Dan Bolger and his Iraqi and Brit cohorts showed me the future of the Iraqi Army.

I had the chance to talk to several members of their first graduating class. To a man, they will be graduating straight into the two-way firefight. And, to a man, they want to rid their nation of the terrorists that prey on it. They are an Iraqi investment in the future. Let's hope the Iraqi pols don't waste that investment. And we have to ensure that the Dems don't waste ours.

TAS contributing editor Jed Babbin is the author of Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe Are Worse Than You Think (Regnery, 2004).

The dems should all be help for high treason. Totally worthless to this nation.

Bush is right...we are winning and we can win. God forbid that the Rep blow these next few elections. They better get their act together and NOW.

Is it true Murtha took 37 years to rise to and to retire as a Lt. Colonel ?

What took so long and what reasons did he not move higher/faster ?

If the nation convinces the soldier that this war was unnecessary and/or unjust, then it automatically follows that all the deaths, injuries, and time sacrificed are wasted effort and meaningless.

It's simple, cold, hard truth.

We need to follow the money.

Murtha is all about protecting his pet pork projects. he does not give a rats posterior about anything else.

From what I've read of his record, his only active duty time was his 12-13 month tour in Vietnam,and his basic training. The rest of his service was as a reservist.Promotion there is slower than if he had spent 37 years on active duty.

Beyond that, I don't know other than the fact that attaining full Colonel or General rank is no easy task.

According to John Kerry, Isn't Murtha a war criminal? He did serve in Nam, therefore committing atrocities, burning villages, shooting women and children, cutting off ears, etc. etc. and because Murtha was a commander, did he not give the orders?
Or are Democrats now saying that John Kerry is a liar? and Murtha is indeed their war hero? Can't have it both ways, RATS.
Will a Journalist please stand up and ask the tough questions? Ask Murtha if John Kerry spoke the truth about him and his service in Nam, and ask John Kerry if Murtha is a war criminal. I'd like to know the answers to these questions.

"One 4th I.D. colonel said it best: "You want to break this army? Then break your word to it." "

In my darker moments I wish we could bring the Army home and turn them loose on those that do not support their mission. Of course, that would be wrong and against the American tradition that they perserve by their sacrifice.

Ping. Good to see someone contemporaneously documenting the lies from the Left.

12 posted on 12/12/2005 9:39:25 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)

One 4th ID colonel said it best,"You want to break this Army? Then break your word to it."

Bottom line,sir.

I beg to differ on one point: The dems didn't lose their nerve. Their objective is/has been to gain as much power as they can at whatever cost it comes at. Their interest isn't serving this country. Their interest is to have the personal power that will make this country serve them. Take one look at "The Swimmer" Kennedy. He has one thing on his mind constantly. You can hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes (when they aren't so swollen and bloodshot as to disguise it). He lusts after power and all that it brings. He is the dem poster boy.

I've heard that Murtha was merely a desk clerk during his Nam service, and then I hear claims from DemRATS (at http://www.antiprotester.blogspot.com/ ) that their husbands serves under him in Nam, thereby making him one of those giving the orders which John Kerry testified under oath in 1971 were war crimes. So He's either a war criminal, not a hero, Or someone the RATS are making a mountain out a molehill of, a mere desk clerk who saw no action, but somehow is now "highly decorated".

What our troops have done in Iraq has been necessary for the protection of our people. Good job. You've served your nation well.

We will not break our word.

I went to Iraq to search for John Murtha's army.

Oh, they're easy to identify. They're the ones who got their asses kicked by our troops in 2003.

It's damned obvious that "Murtha's army" is not America's army.

The dems didn't lose their nerve .. they never had any!

They only voted for the war because it was politically correct!

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