Here's the report for yesterday, August 23rd:
That medic from Troop C is a hero. He shouldn't have to buy his own drinks for the rest of his life. Even as our political leaders play their stupid games with each other, making our soldiers' mission more and more impossible, American troops do this type of thing every day. How I wish the rest of us could provide leadership worthy of their sacrifices and heroics.- Around 8 a.m., mortars hit the Green Zone ( IZ) . No casualties reported.
- Around 9 a.m., a roadside bomb exploded at Na’iriya area of New Baghdad neighborhood ( east Baghdad) killing 1 person and injuring 5 others.
- Police found (12 ) dead bodies in the following of Baghdad’s neighborhoods ( 8 ) in west Baghdad( Karkh bank) ; 2 in Amil, 2 in Huriyah , 1 in Saidiyah , 1in Mansour , 1 in Jihad and 1 in I’laam. While ( 4 ) were found in east Baghdad ( Risafa bank); 2 in Sadr city , 1 in Ur and 1 in New Baghdad.
- Soldiers from Troop C, 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, were targeted by insurgents while patrolling in Jisr Diyala, southeast of Baghdad, Aug. 21. U.S. Soldiers were unhurt, but two local children were caught in a roadside bomb explosion, killing one child and injuring another. Capt. Darrell Melton, Troop C commander, a native of San Antonio, described the incident. “The trail Bradley gunner was waving at two kids who were riding their bikes and were waving at my guys,” Melton said. “The next thing the Bradley commander knew, one of the kids was gone in a puff and he was thrown backward in the hatch. When he looked back, the other kid was crawling on the ground.” Melton said his Soldiers immediately dismounted their Bradley Fighting Vehicle and cautiously approached the wounded child. It is not uncommon for improvised explosive devices to be emplaced in groups and detonated on first responders coming to provide aid. “He (the wounded child) crawled a few feet, when the medic on site, despite the danger, ran out to him, picked him up and ran back to the Bradley to administer first aid,” Melton said. The medic was able to stabilize the wounded child, Melton said. Troop C then evacuated the child to a U.S. Army medical facility nearby. Such incidents are not unique to Troop C. Soldiers from Company A, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, came upon a grieving family in the course of a routine combat patrol Aug. 13 in Salman Pak. Capt. Chris Pearson, of Birmingham, Ala., met with a local banking official in Salman Pak to discuss issues and prospective solutions concerning the banking industry in the local area. After the meeting, a town councilman approached him with a father who had lost his son earlier in the day to a roadside bomb. Pearson said he did not talk directly to the father, but the councilman explained the father just wanted to bury his son in accordance with Muslim tradition. “I expressed the Coalition’s condolences,” Pearson said. “Even though the IEDs target police or Coalition Forces, they can hit children and families. They are the ones that suffer.” The councilman informed Pearson that the family was having trouble getting through checkpoints and requested U.S. Soldier assistance in traveling to the cemetery. “Just to make it easier, we had them travel with us,” Pearson said. After dropping off the family, Pearson’s element began movement to Combat Outpost Cahill, north of Salman Pak. While traveling to COP Cahill, Pearson’s unit received word that the grieving family had run into another IED as they were returning from the burial. No one was seriously injured in the second incident. Pearson further explained that National Police, local Iraqi Police, governmental leaders and Coalition Forces all play a role in maintaining security in the area. When Pearson’s unit arrived in March, the local populace and Iraqi Security Forces had not yet developed a trusting relationship. “There are still a lot of improvements that need to be made,” Pearson said. “Everyday it gets better. There are highs and lows. They’ve begun attending meetings together and as long as they are communicating, it’s helpful.”
Anbar
- On Tuesday ( August 21) , a suicide bomber targeted a police check point at Dam street in Falluja (62 km west of Baghdad) injuring two people and he was killed by police.
Kirkuk
- Police found a dead body on Wednesday night for a civilian man ( 40 to 45 years old) at Ajaj village of Riadh district ( west of Kirkuk).
- Wednesday night, a car bomb targeted a convoy for a member of Hawija council board ( west of Kirkuk) injuring one guard who was transferred to hospital.
- Wednesday night, police arrested the media man of 1920th battalions in Kirkuk during a raid in Wahid Huzayran ( June 1st ) neighborhood in Kirkuk city.
Mosul
- Wednesday night, Iraqi army killed four gunmen during clashes took place at Noor neighborhood ( downtown Mosul city). In addition to that ,the army defused two car bombs at Harmat ( west Mosul) , Iraqi army said.
Aside from the report on American troops, what you may notice is how it is Iraqi government forces and interests that are attacked the most. This bears out when looking through the other daily violence roundups. The majority of the attacks are upon Iraqi police, military and political leaders, along with government buildings. After that it's usually American patrols that are targeted. There's always dead bodies that have been found in various parts of Baghdad and at times other cities. Usually there's some mortar attacks (which seem to be rather ineffective), and then there's some car bombs and suicide bomb attacks.
What has really struck me about all this is how it doesn't completely fit the narrative of ethnic/religious violence about which we are constantly told. Don't misunderstand: I know that Iraq has serious problems with ethnic and religious violence. However, most of the reports that come straight from the source, as opposed to being run through a White House/Pentagon/media filter, paint a picture of most of the violence being Iraqi and American forces under direct attack. And much of the rest of the violence simply has an unknown motivation. Was X attack that occurred in Y neighborhood religiously motivated? We don't know.
In a nation as awash in military-level ordnance as Iraq, it stands to reason that the violent crime wave which always accompanies the chaos of war would feature explosives and automatic weapons. How much of the violence that occurs in Iraq each day is a result of rival crime factions fighting one another? Or takes place during the a crime committed for monetary gain rather than ethnic strife? Again, we don't know.
What I do know, however, is that attributing the chaos and violence in Iraq almost completely to ethnic and religious motivations fits into a longstanding attitude that Americans have regarding themselves and other peoples. One of the legacies of Enlightenment thought is that technological development is accompanied by spiritual and moral development, and this is as true of "secular" people as it is Christians. In fact, the reason Fundamentalist Christians are trying to push things like Intelligent Design has more to do with the need to see their belief system as fundamentally rational than it does proselytization. (See more I wrote about this here.)
Violence committed in the name of religion or ethnicity is irrational; everyone knows that. That's why we only commit violence in the name of democracy, freedom and defense. The fact that we have a higher level of technological development in this country than say, Iraq, means that we're more rational than they. If Iraqis are less rational, it stands to reason that their motivations for committing violence will be ethnic and religious in nature. Even if the target of that violence happens to be American soldiers, we can safely assume that it was Sunni or Shiite or Kurdish hatred that motivated it. Even if the target is an Iraqi police patrol made up of both Sunnis and Shiites, we can be sure that the motivation for the attack was hatred of either Sunnis or Shiites.
Again, I'm not trying to suggest that ethnic and religious violence doesn't happen. But making the assumption that all or even most of the violence in Iraq comes from those motives simply ignores the facts on the ground.
More troubling, though, is how such a belief plays into the Bush Administration's hands regarding the continued presence of American soldiers in Iraq. If much of the violence in Iraq is motivated by the presence of American soldiers and the perception that the Iraqi government is a bunch of puppets doing their American masters' bidding, then the longer American soldiers stay in Iraq, the worse the violence will be. If the Iraqi government is hated because people think that it's supporting American interests in opposition to Iraqi interests, then the longer American dictates its actions, the worse the violence will get.
However, if the violence in Iraq can be traced to the irrationality of ethnic and religious violence, then the presence of inherently rational actors like Americans will only improve the situation. Obviously, then, things will only get worse if Americans leave, because we would then just be leaving the irrational Iraqis to fend for themselves, and they will not be able to stop themselves from exploding into a vicious orgy of violence.
That outcome is by no means assured. Perhaps American troops are having a net benefit upon the levels of violence in Iraq. However, the discussion that needs to happen is an honest assessment of the truth of this, rather than assumptions based more in a belief of American exceptionalism than the facts coming out of Iraq.
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