Al Anbar Awakening: 'These poor families are finally getting a small taste of normal life'
There is something almost otherworldly about non-media dispatches from Iraq. The following e-mail is from Justin Harding, a U.S. Marine based in Ramadi, on his fourth tour of duty in Iraq.
A suicide bomber smashed a truck loaded with TNT and chlorine gas into a police checkpoint in Ramadi on Friday (April 6), killing 27 people. Almost every day, I drive the same road where the car bomb exploded. One week before the incident happened, I noticed the drivers in their cars on this stretch of the road were acting differently, so I changed my tactics. Instead of driving in a regular column, I would send three vehicles ahead to do some blocking moves. We also flashed our head lights and we have a flag in the lead truck to wave at the vehicles.
Everyone -- Marines, Army, and Iraqi police -- knew a car bomb attack was coming. People are so tired of the war here, so they tell authorities about the bad guys in the Ramadi area (not all the time but maybe 70 percent). So we were actively searching for this vehicle. Bad guys have tried to blow up this police station three times but failed because police are doing such a good job. So this was the fourth time. The police saw the car coming to their base and shot at it, causing the car to explode about 500 meters away from the police station -- it was a very big bomb.
Unfortunately, there were apartment buildings with many families nearby. The explosion hit those apartment buildings. So Iraqi people -- mostly Sunni -- were mad. Apart from the people killed by the explosion, many were affected by the chlorine gas.
On base they put a call out for all medical personnel to come to the hospital to deal with the mass casualties. We actually saved many lives that day.
This is the only significant attack in my AO since I have left -- very different from the last time I was here. They are calling it the Al Anbar Awakening. Many Sheiks have united. They realized that the Americans are not leaving. At first the Sheiks supported the terrorists -- this was when I was here last time and it was all-out gun battles and IED's and suicide bombings. Now the Sheiks realize that the Americans have money and power and are not leaving. So half of them (they are Sunnis) have decided to work with the American forces to get rid of the terrorists. The other sheiks still feel like their fellow sheiks have sold out to the Americans. The good thing is that the Sheiks who work with the Americans receive lots of support to make a strong police force and army. The Iraqi police have better humvees -- with armor and guns --than I did the last time I was here.
They have found numerous IED's, stopped assassinations and arrested terrorists who murder and intimidate families. I have seen this with my own eyes. It is very rewarding to see schools open, hospitals open, businesses open. Of course, half of the city is still a war zone, but so much progress has happened. My friends who died here did not die in vain and it moves me deeply.
The media are a bunch of blood suckers who are too scared and too interested in ratings to actually see what is happening in Ramadi. And I can only speak for this small part of Al Anbar. I haven't shot my personal weapon once!
I pray each night for about 10 minutes. The other 23 hours and 50 minutes are total dedication to my Marines and our mission and accomplishing my job with total focus and attention, studying my enemy and the terrain and using my Marines to prevent them from attacking. And if they do attack us, to frustrate their actions. Because of the "Al Anbar Awakening" these poor families are finally getting a small taste of normal life. How much have the Iraqi people suffered under Saddam and now the insurgents, and their unorganized sheiks and tribal elders. Now slowly these issues are being resolved.
Published by the editors of www.CosmicTribune.com
A suicide bomber smashed a truck loaded with TNT and chlorine gas into a police checkpoint in Ramadi on Friday (April 6), killing 27 people. Almost every day, I drive the same road where the car bomb exploded. One week before the incident happened, I noticed the drivers in their cars on this stretch of the road were acting differently, so I changed my tactics. Instead of driving in a regular column, I would send three vehicles ahead to do some blocking moves. We also flashed our head lights and we have a flag in the lead truck to wave at the vehicles.
Everyone -- Marines, Army, and Iraqi police -- knew a car bomb attack was coming. People are so tired of the war here, so they tell authorities about the bad guys in the Ramadi area (not all the time but maybe 70 percent). So we were actively searching for this vehicle. Bad guys have tried to blow up this police station three times but failed because police are doing such a good job. So this was the fourth time. The police saw the car coming to their base and shot at it, causing the car to explode about 500 meters away from the police station -- it was a very big bomb.
Unfortunately, there were apartment buildings with many families nearby. The explosion hit those apartment buildings. So Iraqi people -- mostly Sunni -- were mad. Apart from the people killed by the explosion, many were affected by the chlorine gas.
On base they put a call out for all medical personnel to come to the hospital to deal with the mass casualties. We actually saved many lives that day.
This is the only significant attack in my AO since I have left -- very different from the last time I was here. They are calling it the Al Anbar Awakening. Many Sheiks have united. They realized that the Americans are not leaving. At first the Sheiks supported the terrorists -- this was when I was here last time and it was all-out gun battles and IED's and suicide bombings. Now the Sheiks realize that the Americans have money and power and are not leaving. So half of them (they are Sunnis) have decided to work with the American forces to get rid of the terrorists. The other sheiks still feel like their fellow sheiks have sold out to the Americans. The good thing is that the Sheiks who work with the Americans receive lots of support to make a strong police force and army. The Iraqi police have better humvees -- with armor and guns --than I did the last time I was here.
They have found numerous IED's, stopped assassinations and arrested terrorists who murder and intimidate families. I have seen this with my own eyes. It is very rewarding to see schools open, hospitals open, businesses open. Of course, half of the city is still a war zone, but so much progress has happened. My friends who died here did not die in vain and it moves me deeply.
The media are a bunch of blood suckers who are too scared and too interested in ratings to actually see what is happening in Ramadi. And I can only speak for this small part of Al Anbar. I haven't shot my personal weapon once!
I pray each night for about 10 minutes. The other 23 hours and 50 minutes are total dedication to my Marines and our mission and accomplishing my job with total focus and attention, studying my enemy and the terrain and using my Marines to prevent them from attacking. And if they do attack us, to frustrate their actions. Because of the "Al Anbar Awakening" these poor families are finally getting a small taste of normal life. How much have the Iraqi people suffered under Saddam and now the insurgents, and their unorganized sheiks and tribal elders. Now slowly these issues are being resolved.
Published by the editors of www.CosmicTribune.com
posted by One of Many at
10:49 AM
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