KEY MOMENT - Iraqi National Army Capt. Ali Abdual Zaharra Hussain raises the symbolic key to Joint Security Station Mutanabe during a transfer ceremony in Wasit province, Iraq, May 28, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Joe Thompson

Labels: Iraq, Iraqi National Army, Joint Security Station Mutanabe, photos, US Army, Wasit Province

LONG-RANGE TECHNIQUE - A U.S. Army soldier uses long-range marksmanship techniques to engage steel targets with an M-14 enhanced battle rifle during a four-day marksmanship course on Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq, April 13, 20009. The soldiers are assigned to 1st Cavalry Division's Company A, 3rd Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Benjamin Fox

Labels: 1st Cavalry Division, FOB Marez, Iraq, M-14, Mosul, photos, US Army

Looks like the Obamessiah is backing off of that "bring the troops home now" thing:

White House Weighing 23-Month Iraq Withdrawal Plan

Friday, February 06, 2009

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is weighing three different military options for withdrawing troops from Iraq -- including the possibility of breaking Obama's campaign pledge of a pullout within 16 months -- a senior U.S. official confirmed to FOX News.

One of the options is along the lines of Obama's campaign pledge of 16 months, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have drawn up what that would entail.

The second option envisions about 23 months for combat forces to leave, an option that many of the military leaders favor because it would not require leaving so much equipment behind. It also could be done in a more orderly manner, and bases could be cleaned up and closed properly, the U.S. official told FOX News.

An earlier report by the Associated Press, citing two officials, said a third, in-between option of 19 months is also being weighed. One of the officials told the Associated Press that the main focus appears to be on the 16-month and 23-month options; 23 months would run to the end of 2010.

OK, kudos to the President if he's looked at things and said, "You know, my initial idea just isn't going to work, let's look at something else."

But I won't hold my breath waiting for him to admit that maybe some folks on the other side got it right, and his party has it wrong.

The full story is here.

Labels: Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom, politics, President Barack H. Obama

DISTANT DETONATION - U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Nyx Zaid Nieves Lopez rolls tape while a U.S. Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal team uses a radio detonation unit to explode charges set on unspent munitions that were left over from the Iran-Iraq war along with other weapons seized from insurgents by the Iraqi police in Kirkuk, Iraq, Dec. 13, 2008. Lopez is a videographer with Joint Combat Camera at Forward Operating Base Warrior in Iraq. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian L. Short

Labels: Explosive Ordinance Disposal, FOB Warrior, Iraq, Joint Combat Camera, Kirkuk, military cameramen, military photographers, photos, USAF

From Army.mil:

1st Lt. Zachary Boes, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, speaks with a young resident of Musayyib during a patrol March 7. Photo by Sgt. Ben Brody


Dec 01, 2008
BY Sgt. David Turner

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ISKAN, Iraq (Army News Service, Dec. 1, 2008) -- The Soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment expected to spend a second consecutive Christmas in Iraq. This year they received an early Christmas present that changed their expectations.

The Soldiers recently learned their scheduled 15-month deployment would be cut short by several weeks, bringing them home to Fort Stewart, Ga., with the rest of the Vanguard Brigade, in time for the holidays.

"We were not home for Christmas last year," said Lt. Col. Timothy Newsome, 3-7th Infantry Regiment. commander. "But surprisingly, it didn't seem to affect anyone's morale. They are just about getting after the mission. Soldiers kept their chin up. We laugh whenever we greet one another and say, 'Hey, one more Christmas to go.'"

As the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division's mechanized infantry battalion, the "Cottonbalers" faced hardship with good humor and determination in their year-plus at Forward Operating Base Iskan. It contains some of the most dangerous areas in Babil Province, such as Seddah and Jurf as-Sakhr.

The Cottonbalers were charged with a counterinsurgency mission, as the other surge brigades were, aimed at stopping the flow of weapons into Baghdad and giving the new government room to operate.

The area of operations for Soldiers was home to both Sunni and Shia extremists. Even with the troop surge at its height, some villages and towns had seen little or no coalition presence since 2003.

"If I had to use one word to describe the security situation when we first moved in here, the word would be 'tenuous,'" said Newsome. "Folks just didn't go down to Seddah."

The last time the embedded provincial reconstruction team went into Seddah -- about three months before the Cottonbalers arrived in theater -- it had been hit with an explosively formed projectile, Newsome said.

"Seddah was left alone, and it was pretty much Jaysh al-Mahdi central -- it was a perfect staging location," Newsome said. "They were not used to seeing coalition Soldiers and didn't seem to be interested in seeing coalition Soldiers."

Musayyib, a town on the banks of the Euphrates River just south of FOB Iskan, had seen too much violence. A car bomb there killed eight Iraqis in April 2006. The town's central traffic circle turned into a dumping ground for garbage and scrap. Newsome knew that a successful counterinsurgency campaign would not only have to provide citizens with security, but give them confidence that peace and prosperity would return.

Citizens there might turn against the insurgency, Newsome thought, if the unit could get some baseline security requirements in place.

"If we can get those requirements in place, and if we can build upon that with projects and governance tie-ins and have people actually start to believe in the promise of a better tomorrow again - that was something that was sadly lacking in the area for such a long time," Newsome said. "They had not been embraced by us, by the government of Iraq, nor by the provincial government. They made perfect targets for the insurgents."

Recent reconstruction efforts showed citizens there that progress could be made. Today, the traffic circle is regularly patrolled by Iraqi Police, the streets are clean, new sidewalks are installed, and there is even a fenced-in park nearby.

"We're not the only ones who notice that," said Newsome. "The population looks at that."

Before Coalition-led reconstruction could begin, the Soldiers of 3-7 had to drive out insurgents who still held sway in areas south of Baghdad. Operation Marne Roundup was the first major combat operation for the 4th BCT, and the Cottonbalers played a large role. A kinetic operation aimed at clearing out al-Qaeda cells in key areas, Marne Roundup focused on areas in the town of Khidr.

Al-Qaeda gave citizens there a choice, said Newsome: "You can support us, either actively or passively, or we're going to blow your home up."

Khidr residents suffered heavily at the hands of the terrorists.

"There were multiple homes blown up; the entire area was leveled except for three or four homes," he said. "You can go through there and see which homes were rebuilt and which homes were left."

Gradually, residents began to return after the area was cleared. Soldiers helped bring construction materials so that people could repair their homes and return to a normal life.

"They have salvaged the bricks, knocked the mortar off of those bricks and rebuilt those homes. You have an entire population of that town, over 700 families who had been driven out by AQI, that came back in, and they have resettled the area now," said Newsome.

Newsome recalled a turning point in the struggle. About the second week in January 2008, just a month or so after the unit had finished ridding the area of Al-Qaeda, families began moving back into the city.

"They started holding classes in a bombed-out school while their parents were rebuilding their homes - it was pretty impressive," Newsome said.

Newsome is especially proud of schools his Soldiers helped to rebuild. He sees those projects as reinforcing the citizens' faith in their own country. As security returned, the government of Iraq began investing more of its own money into reconstruction.

"The populations here in Musayyib, Jurf as-Sakhr and Seddah -- they were sick and tired of the violence," Newsome said. "They want an opportunity to raise their families, work a normal job, bring their kids up in a safe environment, allow their kids to pursue an education, all in the name of getting after a better tomorrow. What we achieved by building those schools, it demonstrated our sincerity.

"In those situations where the Iraqi government was behind the effort or there were Iraqi funds that were involved in the effort, that is a great indicator for the population who want their government to be involved in their lives. They want to be part of the country of Iraq."

As operations in the area transitioned from kinetic to non-kinetic, Soldiers found themselves increasingly involved in combined operations with the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police. Babil Province officially took responsibility for its own security in October. Platoon sergeants now routinely patrol with their IP counterparts, introducing them to local citizens they have come to know well. Company commanders and platoon leaders attend town council meetings, helping to build the capacity of those local governments.

An essential part of successful counterinsurgency operations is working with the population to help meet their basic needs, Newsome said. After serving his first tour in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom I, Newsome helped implement some of the lessons he learned as an observer/controller at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, La. There, he said, he learned from the mistakes of others. It was an experience that served him well in OIF V. Getting the citizens of Iraq on the coalition's side, he said, meant forming relationships based on trust and respect.

"It's all about the relationship. You've got to go out there and shake hands," Newsome said. "You've got to convince people that we have their best interests in mind, and you have to work hand-in-glove with the Iraqi Security Forces that are there, no matter what condition they are in. If the population sees coalition forces and ISF together, there's a measure of trust that's there," he said.

As Iraqis found they could trust coalition forces in the area, support for insurgents began to erode, and citizens began reporting suspicious activity. That paid immediate dividends for the 3-7th Inf. Regt. Soldiers. To date, a total of 177 suspects have been detained, and the equivalent of 35,000 pounds of explosives have been found. Weapons caches discovered included more than 100,000 items. Without the help of informants, only two people were detained and only six weapons caches were found in a period of 14 months.

One reason citizens have come to trust Newsome's Soldiers is that they never rely on mass roundups to detain suspected insurgents.

"Iraqis are like Americans - we don't like being messed with," he said. "Our home is our refuge. Every time you do that, you sever ties; you sever relationships. We do something called precise targeting. When the people saw we were putting that much energy into making sure we only arrested the bad guys, and that when we arrested the bad guys, they went away for a long time, they started helping us out."

Newsome said he's learned some lessons in Iraq, especially about the value of building relationships.

"I would never have guessed that the value of forming relationships would be as extensive as it is," said Newsome, reflecting on the past year. "What I didn't understand was the value of those relationships when bad times come -- when there are small challenges or blips that may derail your progress. Because of these relationships, those folks reached back to us. We had reached out to them when we first got here to get the relationship started, then when something happens, when you lose a Soldier or when there is an accident, those relationships keep the train of progress on track. I would never have understood that."

Newsome admitted there were hard times along the way. Behind his desk are the pictures of eight of his Soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice. He credits the success of his mission to those Soldiers and the others who have kept the area safe from insurgents.

"They have been absolutely essential to the whole process. First of all, they had to believe in the philosophy that I was putting out; this idea of reaching out to citizens and co-opting spheres of influence. I couldn't do that without the company commanders and platoon leaders and the NCOs that we have going out there every day," he said.

(Sgt. David Turner writes for the 4th BCT 3rd Inf. Div)


Photo by Sgt. David Turner
Staff Sgt. Brian Massey, with Company C, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, climbs to the roof of a house near Musayyib during a patrol Oct. 5.


Photo by Sgt. Ben Brody
Sgt. Christopher Humes, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, pulls rooftop security during a meeting to discuss humanitarian and infrastructure projects in Musayyib March 9.

Labels: 3-7th Infantry, 3rd ID, FOB Iskan, Fort Stewart, Good News, Iraq, Khidr, Musayyib, photos, US Army

Labels: 18th Military Police Brigade Comabt Team, 230th Military Police Company, 793rd Military Police Battalion, children, Iraq, Jabella, Military Police, photos, US Army

From Multi-National Force - Iraq:

A father pushes his son on a swing as other children play at the grand opening of Dover Park in the Qahira neighborhood in the Adhamiyah District of Baghdad, Oct. 28, 2008. Photo by Sgt. Jerry Saslav, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs.


Thursday, 30 October 2008

BAGHDAD — “As I drove by the Army canal every day, I saw this park, and I said this is something we can do to help the citizens,” said Col. John Hort, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

Dover Park, as it is known by Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers, sat abandoned for years; located in the Qahira neighborhood of the Adhamiyah District of Baghdad, its carnival rides were unusable and the land was overgrown with weeds.

“It was your typical abandoned park here in Iraq,” said 1st Lt. Rosita Rodriguez, a civil affairs team chief with Company C, 404th Civil Affairs Battalion, attached to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, MND-B.

Thus, the mission to rehabilitate the park became Rodriguez’s mission. Two months later, the refurbished park was completed and handed over to the local neighborhood council, Oct. 28, 2008.

“This is our first park in Qahira. We never had one before,” said Mohamed Madaloom, the Qahira Neighborhood Assistance Council chairman.

The park has a small pond with a generator-run fountain with a flock of geese as well as benches, solar lights, several swings, slides and seesaws. There is also a tiled path lined with flowers and new grass has been planted. A gardener and a security guard, he added, will be hired.

The park is intended to be self-sufficient, and seven small kiosks will be rented to vendors. The rent will provide an income stream to buy fuel for the generator, pay the salaries of the staff and any other expenses.

“Everybody admires the park. I know the families are so excited to get here,” said Madaloom, who, along with fellow local officials and Coalition leaders, gathered for the official hand over. Iraqi officials and Col. Hort raised the Iraqi flag to symbolize the opening of the park as doves were released. Some families and their children couldn’t wait – they were already on the rides.

“I’m so pleased; our kids aren’t able to go many places because of the security situation. I am so pleased that we have such a park in our neighborhood,” said Aum Achmed, who was there with her daughter and a niece. “It’s important for every kid to have a place to go to.”

“It’s good. It used to be awful before. I wouldn’t even look at it before,” said Mostfa, a 3-year-old Iraqi child, before running off to a nearby slide.

(By Sgt. Jerry Saslav, 4th Infantry Division)

Labels: 404th Civil Affairs Division, 4th Infantry Division, Adhamiyah District, Baghdad, children, Civil Affairs, Good News, Iraq, Multi-National Division-Baghdad, Public Affairs, Qahira, US Army

FIGHTING POSITIONS
Soldiers take up fighting positions during an air assault near the banks of the Tigris River in Bayji, Iraq, Oct. 14, 2008. The soldiers are assigned to the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Richard Rzepka

Labels: 1-327 Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, Bayji, Iraq, photos, Tigris River

BAGHDAD — Ratchet the Iraqi puppy finally had his day.

An animal rescue group flew into Baghdad on Sunday and picked up the dog, which was adopted by Army Spc. Gwen Beberg, 28, of Minneapolis in a case that highlighted military rules barring troops from caring for pets while in Iraq.

Ratchet was loaded onto a charter flight, which took off Sunday night for Kuwait. He's due in Minnesota later this week.

It was the third try by Operation Baghdad Pups to get Ratchet out of the country on behalf of Beberg, who says she couldn't have made it through her 13-month deployment without the affectionate mutt.

She and another soldier rescued the puppy from a burning pile of trash in May.


Read the Rest, at Fox News (opens in new window)

Labels: Good News, Iraq

Burning the midnight oil
Airman 1st Class Jessica Guinn tightens clamps around an actuator on an F-16 Fighting Falcon Oct. 6 during some late-night maintenance at Joint Base Balad, Iraq. Airman Guinn, an aerospace propulsion apprentice with the 332nd Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, is deployed from Misawa Air Base, Japan. Her hometown is Flint, Mich. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Jason Epley)

Labels: 332nd Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Iraq, Joint Base Balad, photos, USAF

From DefenseLink:

Army Chaplain (Maj.) Ibraheem Raheem delivers a sermon for Muslim soldiers during a service Aug. 29, 2008, at Camp Victory, Iraq. Raheem is one of only six Muslim chaplains in the Army, and is the only one currently deployed in Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Turner, Multinational Division Center


By Army Sgt. David Turner
Special to American Forces Press Service


BAGHDAD, Sept. 8, 2008 – The most frequent question soldiers ask Chaplain (Maj.) Ibraheem Raheem is the meaning behind the crescent moon patch on his Army combat uniform.

Sometimes, he said, he jokingly explains that he’s an astronaut; other times, he says he’s an inspector for field rations or that the moon emblem means he’s performed 3,000 night jumps.

In fact, the patch does distinguish Raheem as one of a special group of soldiers. He is one of only six Muslim chaplains serving in the U.S. Army, and is the only one deployed to Iraq.

His service as both a Muslim and an American soldier, he said, can lead to confusion for some people, both in the military and in local communities.

“After you talk to people and explain a few things to them, they get it,” Raheem said. “That is, after breaking down a whole bunch of walls that have been put up in people’s minds.”

Though Muslim soldiers sometimes struggle with the issues of service and faith, Raheem said he and the soldiers to whom he ministers have found ways to reconcile their religious beliefs with their military service.

“Most people understand that there’s a difference between serving in the military and deliberately going to fight in a particular place for a religious-based reason. Our military is not religiously based. Most people can see that there’s a difference there,” he said.

Raheem can relate easily to the problems of both his enlisted and non-Muslim soldiers. Raised in a Baptist household in Kansas City, Kan., he spent his first 12 years in the Army as an enlisted soldier in the Medical Corps. In a way it was that experience, he said, that led him to become a chaplain.

“The medical field was the first thing that jumped out at me, because you get to help people who are sick,” he said. “I dealt with a lot of death and illness. It brought me closer to my spiritual upbringing.”

Though working in an intensive care unit gave Raheem the opportunity to help people, he said, he found there were other kinds of help people needed, too.

“There was a lot of advanced equipment, but it wasn’t always saving people,” he said. “At the end of the day, God is the one who determines if a person pulls through or not.”
Seeing the work that Army chaplains performed at the hospital inspired Raheem to seek a new path. “I felt like that’s when I got my calling to be a chaplain,” he said.

The journey would not be complete, however, until Raheem accepted the Islamic faith.
"I started studying the Bible in college, and later began learning about other faiths," he recalled. "When I came across Islam, I went to visit a mosque. A member there gave me a Koran and told me, 'Go and read this, and come back if you have any questions.’ I came back the next day with questions, and every day thereafter, each time getting the answers from the Koran until I eventually accepted the faith."

In reading the Koran, Raheem said, he discovered not a rejection of his older faith, but rather a faith resonated more deeply with his beliefs.

"I came to realize that the message it contained was what I had always believed from the days I was a child,” he explained. “For instance, that there was only one God that has no images, that the same divine message was given to Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, Jesus and Muhammad. That Adam and Eve were forgiven, and their sins were not passed on to other generations, nor were women blamed only for disobeying God. So it was like a confirmation of what I always believed in my heart my whole life."

After completing seminary school, Raheem received his commission, realizing his ambition to become a chaplain. His acceptance of the Muslim faith had not only changed his career path, but also affected his entire outlook on life.

"My experience with Islam opened my mind to the world, its diversity and its many social challenges,” he said. “Before Islam, I only thought of the people in my neighborhood; after Islam, I thought of the entire world."

Raheem is on his third deployment to Iraq since 2003. Attached to the Iraqi Assistance Group, he performs services and counsels Muslim soldiers at Camp Victory, where he is based. He holds a prayer service there every Friday, but also takes his work into the field, finding other Muslim soldiers who otherwise would not have access to his services. He brings copies of the Koran with him, and as part of his mission, he also collects damaged copies to be repaired and redistributed to Iraqi citizens.

During the holy month of Ramadan that’s now under way, Raheem travels to as many parts of Iraq as possible to tend to Muslim soldiers’ spiritual needs. He estimates there are fewer than 300 Muslim soldiers currently deployed. That means he has to cover a lot of ground.

“It’s hard being the only [Muslim chaplain], and there are people spread out in many different places,” he said. “Depending on transportation availability, weather and other factors, you may or may not get to a certain place.”

While visiting bases around Iraq, Raheem performs services and provides counseling for soldiers, as he does at Camp Victory.

“I’ll be getting out and trying to support the soldiers who are out there trying to practice,” he said. “I realize that it’s hard being one of the few people on the forward operating base that has a different religion, so I try to get out there with them and give them some encouragement.”

(Army Sgt. David Turner serves in the Multinational Division Center Public Affairs Office.)


Army Chaplain (Maj.) Ibraheem Raheem leads Muslim soldiers in prayers Aug. 29, 2008, at Camp Victory, Iraq. Raheem is one of only six Muslim chaplains in the Army, and is the only one currently deployed in Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Turner, Mulinational Division Center


Related Sites:
Multinational Corps Iraq
Special Report: Ramadan 2008

Labels: Camp Victory, heroes, Iraq, military chaplains, Religion of Peace?, US Army