Alternate view from Iraq. (long)

We have heard from the anti-capitalists and anti-conservatives, anti-westerners...now a word form someone who is THERE. Living it daily. This is also backed up by a Democratic Senator who has just returned from a "fact finding mission" to Iraq.



Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a recent letter to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now shares his views with you.

Dear Post 45,

I caught wind of and read the recent news articles being circulated back there in the states. I figured I could clarify some things for you.

As usual the news media has blown some things way out of proportion. The countryside is getting more safe by the day despite all the attacks you are hearing about. Imagine every shooting incident or robbery committed in LA or Portland being blown way out of proportion.

This is a country where most of the Saddam Hussein thugs are being chased around like scared rabbits by coalition forces. It is literally open season on them! We hunt them down like animals.

There were about a million soldiers in the Iraqi army at the beginning of hostilities and most of them took off before we attacked. There are some that were very loyal to Saddam that are trying to sneak around and take potshots at us. We are cleaning them up pretty fast.

There are also thugs from other countries running around, like Iran and Syria. Well, the Iraqis hate these thugs as much as we do. So the Iraqi people are hunting them down too! I can honestly say 98% of the population of Iraq love us and they do not want us to leave...ever! They say as long as we are here they feel safe.

What is going on with the countries infrastructure?

Everything is going well!

The railroad is running again! The railroad has not run since 1991.In the city of Hillah, the power stays on 24 hours a day and it has more power than prior to the war. Some Iraqis are worried about getting too much food from the coalition because they don't have enough room in their homes to store it.

The markets are open. The Seabees have rebuilt all of the schools and put in furniture and chalkboards. The kids used to sit on the floor! Now they have nice desks to sit at. Commerce is running. New money is being printed. The Iraqi Dinar has stabilized and is now increasing in value.

Most of the Iraqi men want to buy Chevy pickups (I told them a Dodge Ram with a Cummins Diesel is better Ha Ha). They pretty much want any vehicle made by General Motors. The highways and bridges are being repaired.

In the Universities, the girls have tossed their deshakas (long black dresses with head and face coverings) and are now wearing western style clothes and even some are wearing short sleeves. The favorite drink is Pepsi, followed by Coke. They want us to bring them any and everything American. Any item made in America or that is from America is worth money over here.

The newspapers and television paint a picture of doom and gloom and that we are having major problems over here. That is just not the case. The Iraqis have a saying about the situation over here "Every day is better than the day before".

Life is flowing back in to this country and it is fun to watch and I am so glad I got to watch it happen. Some days watching the Iraqi people is like watching the faces of little kids on Christmas Day! Many of them are walking around in a daze wondering what to do with their freedom.

They are starting businesses everywhere. They want to build shopping malls and factories, they want McDonalds and Jack in the Box and Pizza Hut. Of course anything American Fast Food, because of the stories the troops are telling them.

We give them our old newspapers and magazines that you have been sending us and they are absolutely flabbergasted when they read them! They want us to keep bringing them. They read every single page even the advertisements over and over! This would be a good time for media to get their magazines going over here because the Iraqis just love them.

So in short you see I will give you the straight scoop and keep you informed of what is up over here. I will sign off for now and send this along. Thanks again to all of you for your support. My mailing address has changed. The older one is no longer working. I will tell you the new one as soon as we get it.

Senior Chief Art Messer
22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie
U. S. Navy Seabees
"With Compassion For Others, We Build, We Fight, For Peace With Freedom"

Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a series of letters he sent this spring to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now shares his views with you.

Dear American Legion.

Things as usual are going very well. Of course we have the now and again problems but they are subsiding. We have been in Al Kut on the Tigris River for the last two weeks. Prior to that we spent the majority of the War near An Nasiriyah on the Euphrates River.

Up here we're doing humanitarian and base infrastructure work. One of the neat jobs were doing is fixing up a 1912 British cemetery. You see, there was this huge battle here during British colonization. It used to be British custom to bury their war dead on the battle field. All the British troops that lost their lives were buried at this cemetery. If any of you out there are history buffs, I would like to find out more about the story if you have more info.

To make a long story short, the Saddam regime let the cemetery go. It's grown over with weeds and trash was being dumped there. So the British government wanted us to fix it up since this cemetery is in the Task Force Tarawa Area of Operations. Task Force Charlie is in direct support of Task Force Tarawa and soon to be back in support of First Marine Division also.

Our convoy to Al Kut was quite interesting. Over the roads that the seabees of Task Force Charlie repaired and resurfaced, we came up through South Central Iraq. There were small farms everywhere along with hundreds and hundreds of camels. As we approached Baghdad the sand and desolation faded into farmland, grass, river bottom swamps and date farms. I love dates by the way, however; I don't think they are in season this time of year. I will ask a farmer before I get back.

After moving out of our camp below the Euphrates, we moved up to a place on the Euphrates River that is pretty much a seabee-built giant truck stop and bridge park. This place is where the logistical convoy trains stop for fuel, rest, and repairs while hauling stuff north and storage area for maybe Johnson Bridge assemblies.

The seabees are putting bridges over all the key river crossings in Southern Iraq. This Truck Stop Davisville is named for the World War II seabee base in Davisville, Rhode Island. Just like a truck stop back home it has everything. A place to get fuel, a place where you can eat, of course you sleep on your truck and just like back home all the truckers have weapons and there is an occasional sniper about lurking near the freeway. Oh yeah, if you want a hot shower you can get it there too. After stopping for the night at Davisville Truck Stop/Bridge Park we moved on towards Al Kut, moving through the town of An Numaniyah.

Our camp on the Euphrates is right on the river so we can use water purification units to get water. When we passed through An Numaniyah there were crowds lining the streets cheering and waving and throwing flowers saying "God Bless America!", "God Bless U.S. Troops!" and "America We Love You!" They were also calling Saddam a few things and one was "Saddam is a Dog!"

I have since found out the worst thing you can call a Middle Eastern person is a dog! The second worst thing you can do to insult them is make fun of their mustache. So when I talk to Iraqis I avoid discussing dogs and mustaches! You have to commend these Iraqi people.

They are a very proud people, who love their country dearly. Despite all the years of poverty and repression that the Saddam regime put them through, they still hold their head high and their spirit is remains un-broken. True to Babylonian style. I truly hope for a long and lasting peace for these people.

Passing through Al Kut there were more interesting things. Iraqis selling cigarettes and whiskey. A lot of us wanted to liberate the Iraqis of their wares but were under orders not to buy from them. Hundreds and Hundreds of kids lined the roads asking us for candy and MRE's (Pre packaged Meals Ready to Eat that replaced the old "C Rats"). These kids were not starving though they just took a liking to G.I. food and the candy we always throw out. Just being kids I guess.

I saw a boy about 9 or 10 years old in a green field of Milo on the outskirts of a village near Al Kut. He was herding cattle and those cattle were minding him well and he kept a very good eye on those cows, too. Everyone in the convoy was impressed!

We happened to be stopped by the field the boy was grazing his cattle in. I made eye contact with him and he watched me. I was standing with my hand near my pocket. Right as everyone was loaded up on the convoy and getting ready to pull out, I reached in my pocket and pulled out an unopened bag of Skittles and kind of pitched out to where he could see them. Of course he had eagle eyes on them and after we pulled away he finally left those cows to pick up that bag of candy!

I guess I'm just a softy. I took a picture of him as we pulled away and he gave me the victory sign. As we pulled out of site, he was staring at that candy and he put it in his pocket without opening it. We figured he was going to share it with his brothers and sisters or he was supposed to ask his parents prior to eating any. We stopped again later and I had to go digging through my pack to find some of my Charms candy to give to some more kids. Like I say, I'm a big fluff!

Task Force Tarawa captured 3 Surface to Air (SAM) Rocket Launchers intact. A Marine removed the cap from one of the missile launch tubes and there was a live missile in there! I took a picture of it. The launchers were French built, tires made in Russia, spare parts made in Germany and new parts lying inside manufactured by Siemens Corp of Norway or somewhere like that. Task Force Tarawa also captured numerous Anti Aircraft Artillery (AAA/Triple A) pieces intact and in good working order. Of course I took pictures; I hope you will be able to see them soon.

This is all I have for now. Take Care and I will write more soon. All is well here.

Senior Chief Art Messer
U. S. Navy Seabees
" With Compassion for Others, We Build We Fight, for Peace with Freedom!"
22nd Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force

"FOR GOD AND COUNTRY!"

Dear Post 45,

I have more information on the British cemetery we cleaned up in Al Kut. We had a ceremony today to mark the end of the cleanup and honor the dead. It was broadcast live on the BBC and the 1st U.K. Division General was the guest speaker. The story is going to be picked up by CNN also and replayed on the BBC The story of the cemetery goes like this:

British Campaign for Mesopotamia 1914-1918 In April 1915, the Indian Expeditionary Force "D", which had landed at Fao (I believe this is the Faw Peninsula) the previous November, began its advance inland with the intention to clear Turkish forces out of south-west Iraq. Amara was occupied in early June and the advance continued along the line of the Euphrates to Nasiriyah, and along the Tigris to Kut, which was taken on 29 September. The advance to Baghdad was resumed on 1 November, but was brought to a standstill against the strong Turkish defenses at Ctesiphon on 22-24 November.

By 3 December, the force comprised chiefly of the 6th (Poona) Division of the Indian Army, was back in its entrenched camp at Kut, where they were besieged by Turkish forces. The 6th Division suffered heavy casualties in desperate but unsuccessful attempts to reach the town and raise the seige in January, March and April.cThe garrison was forced to capitulate on 29 April 1916 and nearly 12,000 men were taken prisoner, many of whom died in captivity.


Senior Chief Art Messer outside his tent at Camp Viper near the ancient city of Ur, Iraq.
The town was reoccupied by Commonwealth forces in February 1917 and at the end of June it became an administrative railway and hospital center. The Kut War Cemetery was made by the 6th (Poona) Division between October 1915 and May 1916 and was increased in size when dead were brought in from other sites after the Armistice.

The cemetery now contains 420 First World War casualties.

It was a beautiful ceremony and I wised I had more file space to send you a picture of the cross the Seabees made for it using old photographs of the cross and cemetery. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the story as much as I liked telling it.

Art

Dear Post 45,

Hi, how have you all been? I'm doing fine. Sure have moved up in the world since last time I had a chance to write.

We moved from a base in Al Kut on the Tigris River to one of Saddam's former palaces on the Euphrates River. A section of the River (Shatt Al Hillah Canal) runs right through the palace grounds. The ancient Babylon ruins and King Nebuchadnezzar's (however you spell it) old palace are on the palace grounds.

In fact, Saddam supposedly built this palace we're staying in on the site of the old king's palace. Standing on top of the palace you can see for miles around. To the southwest I cannot see the end of the date grove. As far as the eye can see in all directions are date groves.

The palace is huge and sits on top of a huge man made hill. There are three man made hills just like in ancient Babylon and the palace sits atop the largest one. Saddam Hussien was trying to rebuild the Babylon and in the section he had re-built, he put his name on many of the bricks just like ol' Nebuchadnezzar did.

The palace has huge great rooms halls and bedrooms. Gold trim and marble everywhere. The view from any one of the rooms around the outside edges of the palace is stunning. This place has marble fireplaces 60 feet high!

Last night we had hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks grilled out on theveranda just off a huge dining room. We use the dining room as our chow hall. I have to admit its the fanciest chow hall I have ever eaten in.

To give you an idea of how big the dining room is, one of the Marine Expeditionary Force battalions, Task Force Charlie Command Element, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 15's Air Detachment and Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4's Seabee Engineering Recon Team can all eat comfortably in the dining room at once! I chose to eat out on the veranda along the Euphrates River.

The palace grounds are covered with gardens and trees of all sorts. This place could be Busch Gardens. There are so many flowers and jasmines blooming that the whole place smells really good, almost an intoxicating fragrance in some places.

Like I said, from the top of the palace you can get a good view of the ancient Babylon ruins. The ruins has a famous granite sculpture of a lion with a human's body. It is still here because it was too large to move.

Most of the ruins were unearthed by Nazi Germany in the 1930's. They say most of the artifacts are in museums in Germany and France.

It is hard to say how much of ancient Babylon was destroyed when the mountain was rebuilt for this palace. This palace was spared in the Gulf War and in this War due to being in such close proximity to the Babylon ruins.


Senior Chief Art Messer outside his tent at Camp Viper near the ancient city of Ur, Iraq.

Senior Chief Messer scratches a cheetah' s head at the Baghdad Zoo.
There is large amphitheater next to the ruins that I would say seats about 10 to 15 thousand. The Marine Corps Third Marine Air Wing played a concert in there last night that was pretty entertaining. A group of them made up a really good Dixie Land band. Of course they had some songs dedicated to the person who provided us the amphitheater. Not too sure Saddam would have liked the songs.

They started off the concert with Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be an American" It was sure a moving moment to be setting there in that place listening to American Patriotic songs.

This place has been a nice change of pace from sleeping in the sand out on the desert in a pop-up tent! Still, I would rather be on the Deschutes with a fine fly rod any day of the week!

Bye for now and thank you all again for all the great cookies and stuff you sent.

Art Messer
Senior Chief, U. S. Navy Seabees
22nd Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie APO AE
09855

"With Compassion for Others, We Build, We Fight, for Peace With Freedom"

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY!

[Timber Loftis]

I read it at the Oasis -- good find. I wonder what the dates on these communications are.

[Rokenn]

Found this as the soure:
http://www.defendamerica.mil/article.../a082203d.html

I ahve to wonder about the pic of the good Chief reaching in to pet the kitty though. Maybe that is where the drunk soldairs got the idea it was ok to hand feed a tiger? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Chewbacca]

This pro-democracy, pro-western, anti- social & neo conservative, independent, libertarian leaning, capitalist thanks you for post.

Combine letters like these with the typical media reports (from reporters that are also THERE) and maybe we'll get a 'fair and balanced' view of what is really going on in Iraq. (Fox is going to sue me if I keep using their trademark phrase...bring em on!!! [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

Although I must agree with Rokenn, sticking a hand in a wild animal cage is hardly wise.

[Skunk]

Art Messer is serving in the south, which is currently the most pacific area of Iraq. Most of the 'leftist' reports on Iraq have admitted to the relatively peace of the area. Central Iraq and the North on the other hand, are a completely different matter.


Interesting thing about the British cemetery in Al Kut, by the way. Apparently it was originally located several kilometres from where it now stands - but Saddam wanted to build a port complex (or something) on the original site and move the cemetary, brick by brick to the new location.

No-one knows why he showed such respect to the British soldiers - they were, afterall killed suppressing an Iraqi uprising against British colonial rule and he moved it after the gulf war...

[Donut]

This guy confirms that things are much better in the south ofthe country.

It's pretty hellish in Baghdad though: From the Daily Telegraph

At Baghdad's central mortuary, a host of silent witnesses give the lie to coalition claims that Baghdad is becoming a safer place to live.

Despite Gen Ricardo Sanchez's assertion that violence here is "no worse than in any American city", the blood-stained stretchers, coffins and bullet-torn bodies have piled up here in recent months. Some new arrivals wait outside the building in the searing sun while space is found for them in the coolers inside.

As the bodies lie propped up on the forecourt, often covered by little more than a towel, the stench from the gore and a nearby open sewer forces bereaved relatives to wrap their red and white checked scarves over their noses and mouths.

Some are sick as they sit in front of the heavy blue doors that lead to the mortuary proper.

Although more than 60 US soldiers have been killed since President George W Bush declared an end to major hostilities at the beginning of May, they are not the only ones paying the price for instability in the Iraqi capital. Locals, too, have been dying, and in significantly larger numbers.

"Life is far more violent in Baghdad now than it was three months ago," said Dr Abdel Latif Muhammed, a forensic surgeon at the mortuary, to which all violent deaths are referred for post-mortem examinations. "The vast majority of bodies brought in here have died from gunshot wounds."

According to one mortuary assistant, the number of dead arriving has more than doubled. "Three months ago we used to receive fewer than 20 dead a day," said Hamid Madhi, "now we get at least 45, almost all killed in shoot-outs."

The body count upsets Gen Sanchez's theory. According to recent statistics, New York city suffers about 309 homicides a year, not even one a day.

Baghdad's shoot-outs fall into two categories: those involving coalition troops and those involving thieves.

"Many of the bodies have US bullets in them," said Dr Muhammed. "They have been killed after attacking Americans, or they are killed in crossfire between guerrillas and Americans.

"The others are finished off by robbers. It is nothing for them to kill now."

One afternoon, when the morning rush had faded and the bodies waiting outside had been moved inside, Khuthaier Abbas, 70, came looking for his son.

Mr Abbas said his son Hamze had been killed by US troops the day before. "He was in his car and they told him to stop but he didn't hear so they shot him," he said. "The police just told me to look here, and I found him. Of course I will never know the names of those who killed him."

The spiralling violence is not unwelcome to all, however. The grizzled mortuary staff chuckle as the bodies are brought in. For them, this is boom time.

"Under Saddam I used to make almost nothing working here, just a few dollars," said Dr Muhammed, with a flash of the black humour for which those in his trade are famous. "Now the Americans pay me $120 [£80] a month, so life is good."