From: Nigel Hay MILWEB (Nigel@milweb.net)
Date: Fri Sep 12 2003 - 02:45:35 PDT
Knowing the enthusiasm shared on this list fro the HUMVEE thought you may be
interested in looking this one just posted on MILWEB
http://www.milweb.net/webverts/7693/
Look good i think
Nige
----- Original Message -----
From: <JHUTT7107@aol.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 7:06 PM
Subject: [MV] A message from Iraq (No MV Content)
> All,
>
> I reeceived this message from a friend. Since I do not personally know the
author, and do not have his permission to use his name, I have elected to
keep his identity private. I do know the person who sent the message to me,
and I trust him. I just thought that some of you might enjoy reading a
little bit about the activities of our troops in Iraq, and what they are
accomplishing.
>
> John
>
>
>
> Mosul, Iraq
>
> A couple of people have asked about my sense of the security situation
here in Northern Iraq, particularly with the spate of attacks over the past
week or so. That and the increased attention from when we found and killed
Qusay and Uday. I actually had a great e-mail answer that I developed a
couple of days ago that was lost completely when the message blasted into
the cyberspace ether by accident (trust me, it was REALLY good). It's taken
me two days to find enough time to try to reconstruct it. I learned my
lesson and composed this in word before cutting and pasting to send.
>
>
>
> In the meantime, night before last, the 101st had three more soldiers
killed in a nighttime vehicle ambush several kilometers south of Mosul. That
brings to six the number of soldiers the division has had killed in action
in the past week. Those were the first deaths due to hostile fire since the
end of "major combat operations." During major combat operations, the
division had four soldiers killed in action. There have been 11 other deaths
in the division due to non-battle injuries since deployment to theater in
February. We have had 148 soldier wounded in action since the war began. The
six KIA of the past week occurred in three separate attacks. All were
ambushes of multi-vehicle convoys. One occurred on the outskirts of Mosulin
the early morning, but daylight hours. The other two occurred at night. One
out to the west near a town called Tall Afar in Sunni tribal areas. The last
and most deadly (3 KIA) occurred on the main road that runs south along the
Tigrisin the direction of Kirkuk.
>
>
>
> We killed Uday and Qusay over this period as well as at least five other
people who attacked some of our soldiers. In all of this, we have not killed
a single civilian that I am aware of (and generally, Al Jazeera and other
inflammatory press outlets would make sure to tell the world). As the press
reports, fairly accurately, there are about a dozen attacks against the
division every week (and have been the whole time I've been here). There are
a couple every day or so. Most have been drive-by, nighttime, hit-and-run
attacks where the attacker simply sprays some AK-4 rounds or an RPG round in
our general direction. It seems to me the main difference in the past week
is that we've seen a few examples of somewhat more sophisticated tactics.
>
>
>
> Quite frankly, the attackers have also gotten luckier than in the past (we
have had vehicles destroyed and soldiers wounded in attacks since I got
here, but only in the past week have the attackers actually managed to kill
someone). We have studied the attacks, taken extra security measures and
will continue to hunt down and destroy the elements we can. So, we have
taken it seriously We have not been diverted from our efforts to continue
the momentum we've built in stability operations and helping the Iraqi
people.
>
>
>
> The contrast since I got here has been dramatic. The evidence of our
success has finally started to break through to the people in the street. In
fact, that may be a key reason behind some of the attacks in the past couple
of weeks. We are making progress in providing for the people and our enemies
know it and the people are starting to see the benefits of our presence more
clearly. When I first got here, one of the main themes at the twice weekly
city council was that we weren't doing enough to help solve basic problems
and that what we were doing was not well publicized. We have continued to
pursue projects and pump money into the local economy. We have also done
more to publicize the Division's contributions.
>
>
>
> The same leaders who complained when I first arrived now acknowledge that
the word is getting out and the projects are getting noticed. In the end,
these deeds speak louder than words and the enemies who are trying to
portray us negatively are facing a more daunting challenge everyday. This
situation regarding Uday and Qusay is hard to read. Local Muslawi (what
Mosul residents call themselves) claimed credit for the city as having been
the place they got turned in.on the other side of the coin the two brothers
had apparently been hiding out here, unmolested, for some three weeks. We
have received lots of congratulations from locals. There have been no
significant demonstrations against us (that day or since). One theory is
that the former regime thugs and some other terrorists know they are losing
Mosuland the rest of the north and have therefore stepped up their
activities in this area.
>
>
>
> The former regime has very few backers and very little popular support.
This does not mean that we're loved by everyone else. More accurately, they
simply recognize that we are doing things that they like and they are
therefore unwilling to support those who would try to disrupt their
increasingly normal lives. I read and hear of plenty of credible expressions
of support for Saddam and the former regime that cannot be dismissed. It's
hard to fathom at times. In those cases, I am reminded of the outpouring of
apparently genuine sadness by many Russians when Stalin died as well as the
accounts of Russians, many years later who still looked back fondly on the
orderliness of the Stalin's reign. I sense there is some of that in the
Iraqis.
>
>
>
> This was a welfare state where Saddam regularly doled out cash, jobs and
privileges to vast swaths of the population just to keep them happy--it
really didn't matter if they worked or produced much. The inefficiencies and
waste were massive. There are many Iraqis who compare us unfavorably to
Saddam because we don't throw cash around as readily as he did. There are
hundreds of vehicle-mounted and foot patrols every 24 hours. This includes
daylight, nighttime and joint Iraqi-American patrols. We have gotten a lot
of help from the local community finding and detaining a variety of
criminals and members of the former regime. Security is still the number one
priority. But there's also much else going one.
>
>
>
> There are over a thousand US Army engineers that are working hundreds of
projects. We have MPs training a new Iraqi police force, infantry soldiers
training Iraqi security guards for fixed sites and some of the local
ministries. We have hundreds of medical personnel who are assisting with the
rehabilitation of the health system (which is already back in very good
shape). We run R&R trips up to Dahuk for a few hundred soldiers every week
(the soldiers are guarded by a large contingent of Kurdish Peshmerga
soldiers that we pay for while the soldiers are there). We run rifle ranges
for the soldiers to use for training. One brigade has the mission to help
the local University. It helped with a massive clean up effort and the
establishment of internet access that's not routed and filtered by Baghdad.
Another brigade has helped establish a huge youth sports program that
included over 70 soccer teams at a recent event.
>
>
>
> We have helped rebuild water pump stations and electrical power stations.
We have employed over 4000 Iraqis in jobs working directly for our forces.
We have opened locally run cafes, convenience shops, barber shops and tailor
shops within many of our compounds. We have people working with the local
city/government council every day to build and improve basic governing
structures. We oversee the escort and delivery of fuel by over 100 fuel
trucks every day. We supervised the orderly delivery of grain to silos and
handled the payment to the farmers for the annual wheat harvest.
>
>
>
> When I arrived in early June, electricity was erratic. The electricity is
now on almost continuously. The list goes on and on. In one sense, part of
the positive news is that the attackers have targeted us (US soldiers) and
not the local population or the infrastructure/projects we've done to make
life better. There are approximately 20,000 soldiers assigned to this
division right now. The energy and activity of that mass of well-led
Americans is awesome. In the past week there have been thousands of patrols,
tens of thousands of routine small vehicle convoys going from place to place
(all movements are with a minimum of two vehicles and four soldiers).
Hundreds of projects initiated. Hundreds completed. About a million dollars
spent in small parcels. Several large projects under CPA/USAID/Contractor
direction are plugging along.
>
>
>
> Six soldiers died in three separate incidents. These are serious losses
and we are constantly evaluating our force protection measures, studying the
attacks for patterns to use in pre-empting similar attacks, and continuing a
mission we never abandoned-security. But the ability of these attacks to
impede the momentum of this division's actions and the progress being made
for the people of Ninevehis miniscule if measurable at all. Bottom line,
there are some significant security challenges but, I would assess the
security situation as still very favorable. I also think we still have a lot
of positive momentum for our efforts to make life better for the local Iraqi
population.
>
>
> --
> John Hutterer
> Senior Engineering Lab Tech
> Deltec Inc.
> Saint Paul, MN
> 651-628-7107
>
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