LT COL TIM COLLINS: Reveals his battle to lift Iraq's shadow of tyranny
TO THE RESCUE: US marine carries tot to safety after Iraqis fire on civilians
TO LOVING CARE: Forces doc cradles tot
Posted on 03/29/2003 5:55:53 PM PST by MadIvan
GULF WAR II: Brit support grows for conflict + Officer reveals brutality
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LT COL TIM COLLINS: Reveals his battle to lift Iraq's shadow of tyranny
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The butchers of the dictator's corrupt Ba'ath party had spied on the Muslim youngster from an alleyway in Az Zubayr near Basra.
Battle-hardened troops of the 1st Batallion, The Royal Irish Regiment choked back tears when they later saw her limp beaten body swaying from a lamp-post in the ramshackle south Iraq town held by Allies.
And yesterday their grim-faced commander, Lt Colonel Tim Collins chewed on a cigar and confirmed:
"A teenage girl who waved at my troops was hanged within the hour.
"These daily outrages have made us more determined than ever to crush Saddam's evil regime. There's still much fear among the people we're meeting.
"Our mission is to assuage it, to fill the power vacuum left by the decapitation of the Ba'ath Party.
You have to understand that nobody under the age of 45 has ever known life without it. They have no concept or inkling of freedom—and that's a heavy weight on our shoulders.
" We came into this area hard and at no little risk. We've had great success in cutting off the Ba'ath Party here.
" Its chief who was Lord God On High in these parts is currently considering his options in a Prisoner of War cage.
" I'd reserved judgment on him—and then I found the knuckleduster in his drawer.
" One of the few good things I can say about the party is that they keep meticulous records.
" We established all the names of local members. We knew they were threatening people co-operating with us, so we paid some of them a visit overnight.
" It's not straightforward but it works. One man found a shot through his kitchen floor helped him remember where his weapon was hidden."
Belfast-born Lt Col Collins (pictured above) wears trendy Ray-Ban sunglasses and a kukri—the blade he is entitled to carry as a Gurkha commander. His troops are distributing food and medical supplies and restoring water and power while Ba'ath thugs terrorise the population.
The soldiers have seen the mass graves Saddam's henchmen dug for their countrymen murdered for co-operating with US troops during the last Gulf War in 1991.
This time round, in an unspeakable act of barbarism, children had their throats slit.
And yesterday families fleeing Basra were fired on by Iraqi troops. Compassionate US marines picked up children and took them to safety.
Royal Irish Regiment soldiers foiled a plot by the Ba'ath monsters to assassinate one of their comrades as ‘reprisal' for their liberation of the town.
Lt Col Collins, who gave a rousing speech to his men at the start of the war, stormed: "There will be no murders on my watch. We came into this area with excellent intelligence and have since made first-class local contacts. At the risk of their lives local people offered information to my patrols and it was spot-on. It saved the life of one of my men."
Lt Col Collins based himself in the Ba'ath party HQ as a psychological move.
On the front door, one of his men has defiantly scrawled: "Welcome to Free Iraq."
No, it's really .002 and one-half.
If you blow my cover, Myrtle, you ain't got enough trees to hide you!!
That appears to have been the idea-- in particular, the locals have been "persuaded" not to make any contact with (or show any sign of interest in) our troops.
Some (just a few) on FR have faulted the Iraqi people for not rising up against Saddam. Perhaps this gives a hint of why it hasn't happened.
And cloudy. Mushroom cloudy that is.
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