The German news magazine Der Speigel can hardly be called a Bush Administration mouthpiece. And in fact, in a recent article entitled Hope and Despair in Divided Iraq, Der Speigel reporter Ullrich Fichtner embarked on a wild foray into realm of fiction in order to discredit the American decision to invade.
No one can forget how the hawks twisted the truth to engineer reasons to go to war -- the made-up stories of Saddam Hussein as a mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks...
But the inescapable conclusion of the article is this: "The US military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe." Fichtner and photographer Tina Hager spent three weeks in Iraq researching the story. It was Fichtner's fourth trip to Iraq since March 2003, and apparently it was a trip of startling discovery.
In Ramadi:
The Iraq war came within a hair of returning to Ramadi in early July. The attackers had already gathered four kilometers (about 2.5 miles) south of the city, on the banks of the Nasr canal. Between 40 and 50 men dressed in light uniforms were armed like soldiers and prepared to commit a series of suicide bombings. They had already strapped explosive vests to their bodies and loaded thousands of kilograms of explosives, missiles and grenades onto two old Mercedes trucks. But their plan was foiled when Iraqis intent on preserving peace in Ramadi betrayed them to the Americans.
Army Units of the 1st Battalion of the 77th United States Armored Regiment -- nicknamed the "Steel Tigers" and sent from an American base in Schweinfurt, Germany -- approached from the north and south. But the enemy was strong and they quickly realized that in order to defeat it, they needed air support. Before long, Apache combat helicopters, F-18 Hornet and AV-8 Harrier jets approached, the explosions from their guns lighting up the night sky on June 30.
The "Battle of Donkey Island," named after the wild donkeys native to the region, lasted 23 hours. The Americans forced the enemy to engage in trench warfare in the rough brush, eventually trapping them in the vast riverside landscape. It wasn't until later, after the soldiers lost two of their own and killed 35 terrorists, that they realized the scope of the disaster they had foiled.
In Mosul:
[Lieutenant Colonel Eric] Welsh, 42, gets together with Mosul's police and military commanders almost every day. He says he is actually the "let's go" type, not one to miss a battle, but the visits with the Iraqis are an important part of his job. He says he takes them just as seriously as combat missions and that the Iraqis have become his brothers in arms. They greet each other in the traditional Iraqi manner, with kisses and hugs, "and I even drink their coffee," says Welsh, "which is saying something." The lineup of men he visits is impressive.
He goes to the office of Mohammed Sahr al-Din, a police colonel who heads the police force in northeastern Mosul. Sahr al-Din has been walking with wooden crutches since a roadside bomb tore off his leg. He is a prickly officer, sharply critical of the bureaucrats in Baghdad's Interior Ministry who impede his work, forcing him to order boots one pair at a time. The people in Baghdad have even told him to stop recruiting officers, claiming that they have other plans. Sahr al-Din calls the Baghdad bureaucrats "those political scoundrels," and praises the laid-back Americans and the help they provide. He says: "It'll be very clean here in Mosul very soon, and everyone will live in peace."
It's a must read.
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