Posted on 06/19/2003 3:14:54 PM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
| Commander, U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno | Wednesday, June 18, 2003 |
The 4th Infantry Division's 20,000 soldiers deployed later in the combat operations than other divisions, but all along, they represented a formidable combat force and played a pivotal role in the way this conflict was strategized and conducted. Today, their role is formidable in a different way as they work the front lines of the postwar stabilization process.
Right now, over 27,000 troops of Task Force Iron Horse stand vigilant throughout a sprawling area that encompasses three provinces in northeastern and central Iraq. Our area of responsibility stretches from just north of Baghdad to the Iranian border in the east, and stretches north to the oil fields north of Kirkuk and includes Taji, Tikrit, Samarra and Balad, and west to Lake Tharthar. This is an area comparable in size to the state of West Virginia.
Since Task Force Iron Horse arrived in the area of operations in late March, Iron Horse soldiers have conducted combat operations against the Iraqi army, paramilitary and Ba'ath Party forces, and simultaneously, we have conducted stability operations that have had a significant impact in reducing the suffering of free Iraqi citizens and set the initial conditions for the return to normalcy in Iraq.
Although major combat operations have concluded, our soldiers are involved in almost daily contact with noncompliant forces, former regime members and common criminals. To defeat these attacks and to continue to improve the security and stability within our area, the task force is conducting search and attack missions, presence patrols and raids to disarm, defeat and destroy hostile forces, as well as to capture the former regime members. These efforts have produced a stabilizing effect throughout the region and resulted in the capture of several top 55 "most wanted" individuals of the former regime within our AO.
We continue to conduct stability and support operations to provide for the long-term stability of Iraq. A critical step in this process was orchestrating the peaceful disarmament of the People's Mujahideen of Iran, MEK, which resulted in the consolidation of the PMOI's equipment and personnel, consisting of approximately 5,000 personnel and over 2,000 pieces of military equipment.
Last month the first interim provincial government selection process took place in the city of Kirkuk. The province has been divided by historical ethnic disputes for decades but was able to overcome its polarizing differences and begin the process of creating a democratic society and securing a bright future for their city. Three hundred delegates representing each ethnic and political group, religious leaders and businessmen representing the province selected the interim Kirkuk city council and in turn elected a Kurdish mayor, an Arabic deputy mayor and three assistant mayors to chair the offices of de-Ba'athification, government design, and resettlement and compensation.
As the political situation continues to stabilize throughout our area, we will facilitate the selection process to establish new interim provincial government in Ba'qubah and Samarra.
The task force has been working tirelessly to reestablish basic municipal services and systems to improve the quality of life for Iraqi citizens. I'll highlight just a fraction of what our dedicated soldiers have accomplished. We have established a systematic and deliberate process to identify, prioritize and focus the task force efforts upon rebuilding the infrastructure, to include its judicial, educational, health care and municipal systems, as well as maximizing the economic potential of Iraq's natural resources.
Public security continues to be one of our top priorities. Establishing and maintaining a secure environment for the people of Iraq involves far more than just putting troops and police on the streets. Our ability to pay people to repair telecommunications systems, so people can receive important information through public service announcements, to receive and distribute fuel and food, create jobs, and to make sure water and power or sewage systems are operational are all key components in establishing and maintaining a more secure environment. We have made great strides in all of these areas.
In terms of security, we have focused on repairing facilities, hiring and training police officers, and procuring equipment. All police stations and prisons were significantly damaged and looted. We have screened and hired over 4,000 police and continue to screen many other applicants. We've opened a provisional police academy at Ba'qubah, with a second one in development in Kirkuk. We've assessed police stations and identified equipment requirements in all major cities in our area. And we are conducting joint police patrols in every one of our cities.
The judicial system. Our mission here is to create a functioning judicial system, to fill the vacuum resulting from the removal of the former regime, which will ensure fundamental fairness for the people and future of Iraq. In our judicial system we have completed assessment of all courts. We have opened 15 courts with staff judge advocate military personnel monitoring proceedings. We've reviewed translated court records for due process and vetted former Ba'ath Party judges and removed them from participation.
In terms of economic aid, we have opened 37 of 43 banks, reviewing all bank records to ensure accuracy of accounts and salary and payroll payment procedures. Using Iraqi central bank and OCPA- approved funds, we have been paying salaries to police, government employees, hospital workers, teachers, power plant and water and sanitation workers, and also made emergency interim payments to pensioners throughout our area.
Payment for the local grain harvest has just begun. We have and continue to distribute food. There's no food shortage throughout our AOR. The World Food Program warehouses are restocked, and rationed distribution is ongoing.
In public works, our engineers have established miracles in restoring public utilities to all neglected, looted and damaged systems throughout the AOR. There is now more reliable and stable electricity than there has been in a long time, to include prior to the past regime. They have installed a 600-meter assault float bridge across the Tigris River and a 400-meter bridge in al Sadiyah. These crossing sites are critical for both civilian traffic, for commerce, and military traffic to enforce peace.
We have conducted water, power, sewer assessments throughout the major cities and restored water, power and basic sewer operations, some of which have been non-operational for several years. We've submitted preliminary reports to garner contracts and hire Iraqi workers to make the facilities fully functional and self-sustaining.
We've constructed a bypass around a damaged bridge pipeline, allowing residual oil to flow from (Baiji ?) refineries to Kirkuk, allowing the continued operations of that vital national industry. We've worked with leaders of the oil and gas production and distribution industries to mitigate critical fuel shortages.
In terms of public health, we've coordinated national health policy with the Iraqi Ministry of Health. We have 24 of 28 hospitals operational, fully operational, and 15 clinics that are open and stocked with appropriate drugs. We've conducted infrastructure repair and restored commercial power to three medical facilities that did not have it prior to this. We facilitated an immunization program, resulting in over 3,000 immunizations to date.
We have also put back into progress the Baiji refinery. It is now producing benzine at 4.7 million liters per day, and liquid propane gas at 187 tons per day. In Kirkuk, the (GOSPs ?) and the LPG plant, current production is at 516,000 barrels per day, and liquid propane gas at 500 tons per day.
Public education; 98 percent of all schools are reopen. Year-end examinations will be administered at the end of June, and teachers have been paid. We have established multiple projects to improve the schools' infrastructure, to include painting, refurbishing, the purchasing of new desks and several other materials.
The bottom line is that all services are equal to or better than what was here prior to the regime being removed.
I want to close by saying Task Force Iron Horse has, over the past week, conducted two major operations, Peninsula Strike, which was a combined air, ground and river patrol operation to isolate an area known as a stronghold for Saddam Hussein loyalists. We initially detained nearly 400 people, with over 60 confirmed as being members of the former Iraqi intelligence service, Saddam Fedayeen or Republican Guard leadership. Over the past three days, we have conducted Operation Desert Scorpion. Task Force Iron Horse has conducted over 50 raids on suspected terrorists, Ba'ath party loyalists and Fedayeen members. We currently have detained approximately 400 of these individuals, to include local leaders of some new fanatic groups forming, such as the New Return and the Snake Party. We have confiscated millions of dollars of dinar, hundreds of RPGs and launchers, and have significantly degraded their ability to coordinate attacks.
Just this morning, less than three or four hours ago, soldiers from 122 Infantry conducted two raids on separate farm houses outside of Tikrit, seizing 8.5 million U.S. dollars, 300 to 400 million Iraqi dinar, and English pounds and euros yet to be counted. In addition, we seized a large cache of jewels, gems, estimated over a million dollars of value. In addition, we confiscated late-model Russian-made night vision goggles, sniper rifles, uniforms and equipment of Saddam's personal guard. We detained 15 to 20 individuals associated with Saddam's special security forces.
And just before coming in here, we also conducted a cordon and stopped a vehicle with over $800,000 of U.S. dollars in it that was trying to flee from that scene. In addition, we are currently inside of two other sites where we believe we have cordoned off and captured up to 30 additional Saddam Special Republican Guard forces.
We continue to work hard and I believe over the next three or four days, you will hear much more about the number of senior Iraqi individuals that we have detained here over the last couple days.
I've only scratched the surface of tremendous work being done every day by the brave men and women of Task Force Iron Horse. They are truly the best our nation has to offer.
Q: Martha Raddatz from ABC News. Could you give us more information on the resistance you're facing? You're saying you're facing almost daily contact with paramilitaries, Fedayeen Saddam. How big a problem is this? If you can quantify it in any way about how much resistance you're getting; how many more people are out there who you believe are resisting? And also, if you could give us more detail about these new groups -- I believe you said Snake Party and New Return -- how they formed, and how big they are and where they are?
Odierno: We are seeing military activity throughout our zone. But I really qualify it as militarily insignificant. They are very small, they are very random, they are very ineffective. I believe there's three groups out there right now. Basically, there is a group of ex-Saddam Ba'ath Party loyalists. In addition, there are some Islamic fundamentalists. And then there are just some plain Iraqis who are poor and are being paid to attack U.S. forces. All of these attacks are uncoordinated. They are very ineffective and, in my mind, really do not have much effect on U.S. forces.
And if you are -- on a daily basis, you will see that 99 percent of the area is free, clear, and the citizens go about every day, doing their business, without interruption.
Q: If I could, the military insignificance -- I believe 11 soldiers have been killed in the last three weeks. So clearly they're having a rather profound effect.
And also, you talk about them not being organized, and yet you say they're just plain Iraqis who are being paid. Who's paying them, if they're not organized?
Odierno: My guess is, they're being paid by ex-Ba'ath Party loyalists, who are paying people to kill Americans.
And I want to make sure -- first, I want to comment on the 11 individuals that have been killed. I will never downplay Americans being killed in combat. It is a very significant sacrifice, especially for their families. And that is significant to an individual's family, and I would never say anything different from that.
But from a military perspective, it is insignificant. They're having no impact on the way we conduct business on a day-to-day basis in Iraq.
Q: General, Jim Mannion from Agence France-Presse. These attacks appear to have escalated or increased in number just in the past few weeks. Is that associated in any way with the decision to ban the Ba'ath Party and to disband the Army? And is there a risk with these raids of increasing opposition to the U.S. forces?
Odierno: I have a little different view of it. I think the raids that we're conducting, we have put a lot of pressure on them, and I think they're feeling the pressure. And I think we're having a significant effect on their ability, which is causing them to come out and maybe increase their attacks even though they have been ineffective. So I think they're desperate. I think they're becoming less and less organized. The more money we seize, the more individuals we take into custody, we continue to really, I think, have an impact on the medium to senior level of the individuals that remain. So I think we are, in fact, having a significant impact on them. I think that's causing them, then, to come out and be a little more desperate in their attacks on U.S. forces.
Q: General Eric Schmitt with The New York Times. Can you say whether or not you've seen any signs of foreign fighters, either present or that are still coming into the country, that you've had to deal with? And secondly, the failure to so far capture or come up with Saddam Hussein's remains, to what extent has that been a rallying point, in your view, for these resistant fighters?
Odierno: First I would comment that we have -- my division cavalry squadron is along the Iran-Iraq border, and they've been there now for about 30 days. And since they've been there, I've seen a significant decrease in the ability of anybody transiting that border.
I cannot comment on the Syrian border, but my assessment here is we have shut the border down and there is a lot less individuals being able to come into Iraq, and we've done a much better -- we -- I think we've got control of that on both sides now.
In terms of Saddam Hussein, I think it really doesn't matter. The bottom line is he's no longer in power. I think everybody realizes that, and he's never going to come back to power. I think there's two things related to that. We have to make sure that people understand that coalition forces are going to be here until we have a safe and secure environment, and that the bottom line is Saddam Hussein or his sons will never take control of this country again.
Q: General, Nathan Hodge from Defense Week. I wanted to see if you could address soldiers' morale, particularly as we reach some of the worst weather of the summer months. Are soldiers outside of Division HQ starting to get hot meals? Are they getting the parts they need to fix broken vehicles? How are logistics holding up?
Odierno: Just before I came in here, I was just out on the Iran-Iraq border with 110 Calvary, my division calvary squad, where it's about 115 degrees out there right now in the hot sun. The soldiers are doing great. We're able to get them ice for cold drinks. Their equipment is fine. Our combat power is above 90 percent. Repair parts are flowing. So we're getting one, what we call T ration, which is a hot meal, a day to all our soldiers. We believe in the next two to three weeks we'll get what we call an A ration, which is a normally cooked meal, to each one of our soldiers.
The biggest complaint that our soldiers have is they're not able to call home as much as they'd like, and that's because of the -- the communications infrastructure in this country is non-existent. So we're working towards that, and we're working our morale call, where they get to call home about now once a week. They just started that in the last three to four days. Mail is getting better; it was slow at first, but now they're getting mail in about two weeks, which is pretty good.
So as long as they continue able to talk home once in a while and get mail from home, soldiers are very happy. Their morale is very high. They understand what they are doing. Every day they are out there dealing with the Iraqi citizens, they understand that this is the right thing to do, that this is the right thing for this country. Once you're in this country for a while, you realize this is absolutely the right thing to do.
Q: Sir, Martha Raddatz again from ABC. Can you talk a little bit about what effect the shootings of the American soldiers and, I believe, there were a couple of drive-by shootings in the last 24, 48 hours into courthouses, police stations, the mayor's office -- what effect is that having on the Iraqi people and for them to come forward? And how do you counter that? And does that include paying them?
Odierno: First off, most of these attacks are occurring in the middle of the night when there's not a lot of citizens, at least in our -- in my AO, where there's not a lot of citizens around when it occurs. Most -- the majority of these attacks have been severely ineffective, where they really don't even come close to their target. For example, last night, we had a couple RPGs aimed at our civil military operations center in our towns, and they didn't come within 300 meters of where they were aiming.
The people understand -- all they care about are do they see coalition presence? When they see coalition presence, they understand that they will be protected. And they will continue to come forward as long as they realize that we act on the information that they give us and the fact that we will remain here, and they know that we will remain here with some presence until it's no longer necessary. That's all they ask for, and that's what we're doing.
Q: General, Tom Bowman again, Baltimore Sun. Just to sort of encapsulate what we're talking about here, aren't we just basically seeing an increasing amount of guerrilla warfare here? And to follow up on Tony's point, aren't soldiers really in greater peril now, because you basically have to go root these folks out, as opposed to during the combat phase when you used a lot of heavy armor and airpower to knock off the organized groups?
Odierno: My only comment would be, I would not dignify with attack guerrilla warfare. This is not guerrilla warfare; it is not close to guerrilla warfare because it's not coordinated, it's not organized, and it's not led. The soldiers that are conducting these operations don't even have the willpower. We find that a majority of the time they'll fire a shot, and they'll drop the weapon and they'll give up right away. They do not have the will. And in most cases, I'm not sure they really believe in what they're doing.
And so, when I talk about organized guerrilla warfare, it's a very complex organization that plans very complex guerrilla operations. That is nowhere close to what we're seeing here in my AO.
(Excerpt) Read more at pentagon.mil ...
Very well put. One of the sad things about this media attitude is that it robs our generation of the legitimate pride they could take in US successes in Iraq.
That is so true. We learned a few things from Vietnam. Americans finally thanked our Vietnam Vets and these Veterans then reached out to and welcomed home the younger Iraqi troops - awesome.
The press did it once before. We didn't have the internet then.
Excerpts from Stolen Valor: How The Vietnam Generation Was Robbed Of its Heroes And its History by B.G. Burkett & Glenna Whitley :
* Part I - Rambo and the Bogus War Heroes
* Part II - Welcome Home, Babykiller
* Part III - Will the Real Vietnam Vet Stand Up?
* Part VI - The VVA - The Vietnam Victims of America
That they want more cookies and snacks ... more CARE packages. Other than that, little else. They aren't even complaining about the heat, as it's not that much different than here at Fort Hood.
As always, soldiers raise the art of griping and complaining to a fine art. So it's hard for someone who has not been in the military to differentiate between normal grousing and b*tching and honest heartfelt complaints that actually refer to a problem. But the guys I've been "hanging out" with from 4ID, the 82nd, and the 101st .. (I don't know anyone in the 3rd ID) .. haven't said anything serious yet in regards to complaints about the situation there.
Also, anyone who makes an "anonymous" complaint deserves the derision that results. If someone .. particularly an NCO or an officer .. isn't willing to tie their name and reputation to an official complaint, then what they're complaining about ain't serious enough and they've simply shown themselves to be moral cowards.
54 posted on 06/03/2003 12:44 PM EDT by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsenspåånkængruppen ØberKømmååndø (EMØØK))
I have to agree...no complaints from my hubby or his men....he just wants more baby powder and foot cream....when he called Sunday night he told me that there hasn't been a day where a Kuwaiti or Iraqi hasn't thanked him and the US for what they are doing...he is proud to be a part of the liberation of Iraq.
61 posted on 06/03/2003 12:56 PM EDT by mystery-ak (The War is not over for me until my hubby's boots hit U.S. soil.)
Mark Steyn: Others can do the caring
The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 06/21/03 | Mark Steyn
~~~
In October 2001 Faizul-Aqtab Siddiqi, president-general of the International Muslim Organisation, said bombing Afghanistan would create a thousand bin Ladens. It didn’t. In March this year President Mubarak of Egypt said bombing Iraq would create a hundred bin Ladens. So right there you’ve got a tenfold decrease in the bin Laden creation programme. But even that modest revised target wasn’t met. There’s widespread starvation and disease and millions of refugees in Iraq. Except there aren’t. The Baghdad Museum was looted of its treasures. Only it wasn’t.
What all these fictions have in common is the prejudice behind them: the article of blind faith that the Americans are blundering idiots who know nothing of the world. It was this that led Robert Fisk, whom my colleague Stephen Glover regards as a ‘genius’, to suggest in print that when the Yanks claimed to be at Baghdad International Airport they’d in fact wandered by accident on to an abandoned RAF airfield many miles away. Nobody who knows anything about a modern military or even the kind of GPS technology that Chevrolet now include in their mid-price trucks and SUVs would say anything so stupid in print — unless he were so blinded by irrational Yankophobia that he was impervious to anything so prosaic as reality.
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