A Letter from the Front

[HEFFA]

We (co-workers) received this letter recently from a friend serving in Mosul. This Iraqi city has recently featured prominently in news stories. Our buddy is no "far-left, liberal, blame America first, Saddam-loving....blah, blah, blah." Under normal circumstances, I would think that his decision to answer his country's call to arms would serve as adequate proof of that fact. In our currently hostile, suspicious, and divisive social climate (especially where the never-ending war is concerned), I am sure that some will claim that this letter is a fraud or simply doesn't reflect the truth. I assure you that it is real, current, and very illustrative of the growing crisis that our involvement in Iraq represents...especially from the perspective of our fighting men and women in the field. That said, I will admit that I did not include his name or address for reasons of privacy, respect, and more than a little fear that he would face some sort of consequence for his honest message.

Hello Everyone,


Thank you all for your concern and thoughts. I know
you all are worried and do not enjoy hearing Mosul in
the news. I don't like hearing it in the news either.


I can't hide it from you (wish I could) but since I
can't, I can try and ease your worries. The city was
in chaos for a few days (not now). All the police
stations were abandoned (most without a fight) by the
Iraqis. They then (and the city) came under insurgent
control. Now this does not really pose a threat to the
base I am on. However, we can not leave a whole city
in insurgent control. Also, Mosul has other U.S.
military bases within the city that were threatened.


Mosul is on the Tigris River and has five bridges into
the city. If you control these bridges you essentially
control the city. Forces were quickly sent out to
control these bridges and a curfew was set for the
city. After a couple of days of being controlled the
city began to return to normal. Our unit sent out a
small force to assist in securing one of these
bridges. I was not a part of this force. As, many of
you know I actually am the one at the radio in the
operation center. I played a key role in monitoring
the convoy movements and staying in touch with our
personnel on the bridge.


It was an exciting and scary couple of days. The city
was on the verge of becoming the next Falluja.
However, the situation was handled quickly and
decisively. Two days ago a U.S. force numbering around
1,200 began taking back the police stations. The
insurgents instead of fighting destroyed three of the
police stations and ran before U.S. troops arrived.
This is typical of the fighting here.


Insurgents look for weaknesses in U.S. control and
capitalize on them, then run when confronted. Mosul
has been a very quiet city and everyone became relaxed
and complacent. The insurgents in support of the
fighting going on in Falluja and an attempt to divert
U.S. troops from Falluja staged their own uprising in
Mosul.


The fighters in Mosul are not fighters exiting Falluja
as you may have heard. Also, the fighters are mostly
Iraqi's and not Al Qadia or foreign Syrian fighters.
This is in my opinion is a mistruth being promoted by
certain people to confuse the American public into
believing we are fighting a war on terror. It is true
that a small percentage of the insurgents here may be
Syrian fighters and an even smaller percentage may
have some Al Qadia connection. But the truth is the
vast majority of the insurgents (I estimate close to
90%) are Iraqi nationals trying to drive us out of
their country.


Because of the insurgents being Iraqi it complicates
things greatly. This is why most of the police
stations were abandoned long before insurgents
arrived. The police knew they were coming and many are
sympathetic to their cause and many others are members
of their cause. This is also why even on this base we
kicked off all FPS troops (Iraqi troops on our base
who provide security). Many were members of the
insurgents and others sympathetic to them.


In addition to the troops I mentioned even the Iraqi
National Guard who U.S. special forces troops have
been training to take over the countries security were
required to have a U.S. escort at all times. Many
never even came to the base or reported for duty. We
could just not afford to trust the Iraqi's even ones
who we have trained to support us. This is a sad
truth, but a telling one.


The reason I am explaining this is because what you
hear is only partially true. The story is very
different than the U.S. fighting terrorist. The
Iraqi's are a passionate people who are willing to
sacrifice the ultimate price for what they believe is
their freedom. For good or bad the U.S. troops are an
occupying force in a hostile nation.


The idea of free elections is a western concept being
imposed on them. I do not believe they are even
interested in elections. They are more concerned with
western culture eroding their beliefs. Free elections
are a step toward destroying what they believe and
opening the door for western culture. This is why they
are fighting so desperately. However, you will not
hear that on the news, who in our minds could even
think of opposing free elections.


It is true many Iraqi's do want elections but the
majority is indifferent and will say whatever the
person asking the questions wants to hear. This is
their self preservation. Iraqi's supporting the U.S.
are being murdered by the insurgents, so few Iraqi's
openly support free elections. To do so puts their
lives in danger.


Lastly and most importantly, Ramadan is now over. The
holy month of Ramadan was a time for the insurgents to
die for their cause. They believe that if they die
during this holy time they will go to heaven and be
surrounded by 70 virgins (if these virgins are
anything like the girls I went to high school with
they will have to beg and plead for months before even
getting to second base, and 70 of them! That isn't my
idea of heaven).


This month (16 October - 16 November) is the time of
the most attacks, both this year and last. Because of
this it is further proof that what they are fighting
for is much greater than just stopping the elections.
It shows they are fighting for religious reasons as
well as maintaining power. The insurgent leaders are
clerics (mostly Sunni, minority group who was in power
under Saddam), who wish to remain in power. Because
the insurgent leaders are holy men and we experience
more attacks than any other time during the holy
month, I believe their fight is much more than
disrupting elections. Now that Ramadan is over things
are expected to return to normal.


I wanted to comfort you but instead I went into one of
my rants. Since I have time to write such rants you
can tell I am still at my boring desk job in a very
secure hardened building (by hardened I mean it is
concrete with 2 foot thick walls. A mortar cannot
penetrate the building. I will keep you informed and
probably tell you a lot more than what you want to
hear. Miss you all. Can't wait to be home.