Following the  article I sent about Bush's national address and troop increase, I thought  it was a good idea to let you all know what the perspective is over here.  I'm tired of hearing the media's skewed version, the politicians squabbling over what they read in a report, and the average ill-informed American ranting about things he knows NOTHING about.

 

I've  been over here a couple of months now, and I've learned more about this country than a year's worth of watching CNN. I've sat in mission briefs with Colonels, talked with village elders, had tea with Sheiks, played  with the

 

kids. And I agree with the President. We need more troops and we  need to take greater action.

 

There are 3 major factions  here. The Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. The Shiites are in the majority, but  Saddam was a Sunni, so he kept the Shiites in check. Everyone hates the  Kurds, who are Christian and in the vast minority. The Kurds received the  brunt of Saddam's murderous tyranny. Now that Saddam is gone, the Shiites  have taken control of Baghdad. The largely peaceful Sunnis are now the victims of radical Shiite terrorism. So the young Sunni men, who can no longer go to work and support their families, do what all young men would do. They join the Sunni militia and battle the Shiites. And thus the country sits on the brink of civil war.

 

But this war is  between them. They largely do not concern themselves with the U.S. troops. The insurgents who  battle the Coalition Forces are from outside the country. And the biggest  problem down here isn't the insurgents. Its the politicians. The local  politicians. Even though the country is controlled by Prime Minister Nouri  al-Maliki, downtown Baghdad is controlled by radical Shiite  cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Shiites follow al-Sadr and thus the Prime Minister does what al-Sadr says. Think of it as if a warlord controlled  New York  and blackmailed the President into diplomatic immunity.

 

When  1st Cav (mainly 2/5 Cav) came here in 2004, they took downtown Baghdad
(known as Sadr City) by force. It cost many lives,  but after a year, we held an iron grip on the largest insurgent breeding  ground in Iraq. The insurgents were  afraid of the Horse People, and rightfully so. But when 1st Cav left, al-Sadr influenced the Prime Minister to kick out the Coalition forces  from that area of Baghdad. He said the Iraqi military  forces could hold the city. But all that happened was al-Sadr regained  control of his cty, and it is now a heavily guarded fortress. A place  where insurgents and terrorists can train and stockpile arms. And we  cannot go back in becuase the Prime Minister won't let us. Our hands are  tied.

 

So where does al-Sadr get his backing? From  Iran and Syria. Iran supplies him with money and Syria supplies the terrorists.  The insurgents that battle the Coalition Forces are from  Syria,  Somalia and dozens of  other places outside of Iraq. Iraq is literally a terrorist  breeding ground. They have terrorist and sniper schools here. Why not?  They train by teaching them to attack the military forces here. And they  have an endless supply of these training tools. They have factories in  Sadr  City to build bombs.  Both Iran and  Syria have openly  proclaimed their number one goal in life is to destroy the great Western  Devil and the little Western Devil (America and Britain). Iran wants to

 

control Iraq to further this purpose.  Al-Sadr will get to "run" the country and live like a king, but in reality  Iran will pull the puppet  strings. Iran will have access to  thousands of radical Shiites who will do whatever al-Sadr tells them to.  And Iraq will be used as a breeding  ground for terrorism. Terrorism that will be targeted directly at  America and Britain. The Iraq Study Group  advised we should let Iran and Syria help with rebuilding?  Bravo to President Bush for striking that idea down and vowing to keep  those two countries out of Iraq.

 

So how do  the Iraqi people feel about everything? Of course they don't want the  Americans here. But they would far rather have us here than the Iranians. My platoon visited an average Sunni village on a patrol a few days ago. Their only source of income was to farm, as they could not go to the city  to work for fear of violence. Many of the young men had already run off to  join the militia for no other reason than to feed their families. They had  no school or hospital near them and the community was dying. The village  elder's granddaughter was very sick and I was able to treat her.  Afterwards he invited me and my Platoon Leader to sit in his house and  have tea with him, and we talked about the situation.

 

The  people want peace. The Shiites kill the Sunnis because al-Sadr tells them  to do so. The Sunnis fight back because they have no choice. They are glad

 

Saddam is dead (Sunni or not), but do not want to replace him with another dictator in a politician's clothes (which is what al-Sadr will become).  And they especially don't want Iran in charge. Many innocent  Iraqis will die if this happens. These are the words that came out of the  elder's mouth:

 

"We do not want America here, and America does not want to be  here. But you cannot leave because the militias controll the country.  America must use the might of  its giant army and sweep through, root out and destroy the militias. Then  Iraq can be free and you can  leave."

 

What appears to have happened within our diplomatic  community, is that Prime Minister finally realizes that his days are  numbered. If al-Sadr remains, he will be kicked to the curb. So hopefully  he is about to allow us to reenter Sadr City, root out and destroy the  enemy. A dramatic troop increase will allow us to do this. And the Horse  People are back and ready to finish what they started over 2 years ago.

 

If leave now, it will be a failure for democracy.  Iran will contoll  Iraq and the end result  will be more terrorist attacks on America. The American people  don't want soldiers dying over here, but its better than American civilians dying over there. Do NOT forget 9/11. They will do it again. The moment we loosen our grip on the noose, they will do it again. And the  only way to root out the evil here is to stop beating around the bush,  increase troops and destroy the insurgents once and for all. The Iraqi  government cannot do this on their own. The Iraqi security forces are  inadequate for this task. We are the only ones who can stop al-Sadr.

 

Feel free to share this with whomever wants a real soldier's  opinion about the war.

 

SPC "Doc" Shurley
2/5  Cav, 1st CB
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-TRUTH  is Unchangeable, No Matter What is Politically Correct  -