Posted on 08/15/2006 7:12:58 AM PDT by xzins
"Tell Lieutenant Jacobson to meet us there with a bag of money," Lieutenant Colonel Joe Gandara shouts into his headset as his Humvee rumbles down the highway into Dora, a Baghdad district synonymous with violence.
Gandara, a stocky 42-year-old, was heading to pay a group of children who had volunteered to pick up some of the rubbish that blights Dora, where insecurity has kept away the garbage trucks.
The predominantly Sunni district south of the Tigris River has been ravaged by the sectarian bloodshed that pits Sunnis against Shi'ites, killing scores in Baghdad every week.
Until last Monday that is, when thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops sealed off parts of the district and began searching every house and business, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, in a hunt for weapons and militants.
The action is part of a major, months-long push by U.S. and Iraqi forces to help Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fledgling government regain control of a capital torn apart by communal bloodshed and an unrelenting insurgency.
On Sunday the operation, called the defining campaign of the war by a top U.S. general, expanded to the two equally violent western districts of Shula and Amiriya, one Shi'ite, one Sunni.
After Operation Together Forward, an initial crackdown launched by Maliki several months ago, failed to stem the violence, the Americans and Iraqis are changing tack.
Rather than focusing only on attacking the militias blamed for much of the sectarian violence, U.S. and Iraqi forces have adopted the classic "inkspot" counter-insurgency strategy of securing an area, offering economic opportunities to residents and then expanding their efforts to other districts.
Since U.S. troops and Iraqi policemen secured Dora, the murder rate has dropped from 20 a day to zero, the military says. But the trick now is how to keep it that way, and that's where Gandara, a 20-year-old army veteran, says he comes in.
BOTTOM LINE
"I am the guy who is working on essential services," says the commander of the 4th Brigade's Special Troops Battalion, who is responsible for almost all of Baghdad west of the Tigris.
"The bottom line is that if we cannot provide Joe Mohammad with an improved situation, then he knows that nothing has changed. That fuels support for the insurgency and militias."
While U.S. soldiers patrol jointly with Iraqi police to try to build the trust of Sunni residents, who see the police as an extension of Shi'ite militias, Gandara is working on cleaning up the trash, fixing water lines and rebuilding the market, one of Dora's main areas of commerce.
He is dismissive of suggestions his is a classic "hearts- and-minds" operation, insisting his aim is simply to "improve people's lives."
"I don't like to think of this as hearts and minds. That has a lot of baggage attached to it," Gandara says, walking down an unpaved residential street toward a wide, five-foot deep hole filled with green, foul-smelling sewage.
Fixing the sewer is one of his projects and he has hired a contractor who was due to begin work in the morning. Now in the sweltering heat of the afternoon, he is nowhere to be seen.
"I'm going to chase this up," he says, after residents tell him about the no-show. "I'm very frustrated, but the contractor did say yesterday when he came here that he was concerned about his safety. How do you convince someone they are safe?"
When he tried to hire contractors to pick up the tons of garbage that litters Dora's streets, they also told him they were too afraid to go into the district.
So on Sunday, he personally escorted in four trucks to show the drivers it was no longer dangerous and then hired 35 mostly young boys to pick up the rubbish for five dollars a day.
As he went to pay them, the streets were largely empty, shops shuttered, many vacant, some burned out. Most of the vehicles using the roads were either U.S. military or police.
"This morning there were a lot more people out here, some shops were open, but now everyone is indoors because of the afternoon heat," says Gandara.
Sunnis have formed the backbone of the insurgency fighting U.S. troops, but several residents of the Sunni neighborhood interviewed in the presence of U.S. soldiers said they welcomed their return, mainly because they had restored security.
"The militias and the terrorists are gone. Before, there was shooting 24 hours a day," said Abu Ahmed, 36.
Abd al-Razak, 35, standing nearby, agreed but worried what would happen when the Americans left and only the Iraqi police were patrolling Dora's streets.
Gandara acknowledges the plan is unlikely to find universal support among Iraqis weary and mistrustful after three years of war, but he adds: "Is there any one golden solution? Heck no
Since U.S. troops and Iraqi policemen secured Dora, the murder rate has dropped from 20 a day to zero, the military says. But the trick now is how to keep it that way, and that's where Gandara, a 20-year-old army veteran, says he comes in.
"and that's where Gandara, a 20-year-old army veteran, says he comes in."
Yes we have the room with the eyebox and rack. It's very calming.
The military's using the classic "cordone, clear, control" technique. It does work. But you can't give up ground that's gained.
Also, this "hearts and minds" definition the media uses is a little out of touch. The media think it's being so touchy-feely that everyone just loves you.
Actually, that's not the best way to run a hearts & minds campaign. It's hallmark should be "firm but fair."
Show who's in control. That's impressive to any culture. And then be just, fair, and decisive. Touchy-feely isn't really part of the equation.
"Show who's in control. That's impressive to any culture. And then be just, fair, and decisive. Touchy-feely isn't really part of the equation."
The weapons they have show who is in control.
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