ONE HOT SUMMER

ONE HOT SUMMER
The Dagger's Edge: Vol 1, Issue 22
1st Lt. Quinn Robertson

First, congratulations are in order for the Soldiers of Task Force Patriot and the rest of the Dagger Brigade for withstanding a brutally hot summer. The past three months have been filled with gusting winds and sand that seemed to blow into every crevice of our equipment, our gear and our uniforms. With temperatures soaring well into the 120s, common sense would dictate that we slow down and stay inside our air-conditioned tents and housing units. Our Soldiers, however, braved the heat on a daily basis to maintain security in Yarmouk, our area of operations in western Baghdad. Despite having to wear fifty pounds of body armor under the blazing Iraqi sun, our Soldiers found success by employing that age-old Army maxim: “Drink water and drive on.” I cannot imagine what our enemy must think when he sees us conducting dismounted operations under such harsh conditions. This is part of our arsenal, this apparent imperviousness to the heat, and I have nothing but respect for the men and women who display it with such ease day in and day out. It is still hot out, to be sure, but September marks the beginning of fall in our Western minds and though it might still reach 113 degrees this week, we all know that cooler temperatures are just around the corner, and for that we are thankful.

Over the course of this summer, the Soldiers of Bravo Battery, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery, performed exceptionally well across the full spectrum of combat and civil-military operations, proving that the Field Artillery has never been more diverse in its skill set. Today’s Cannon Cocker – an affectionate term – not only knows how to shoot a projectile miles across the battlefield, only to have it impact with pinpoint accuracy, he has also mastered the Infantry skills needed to evict Al-Qaeda and Jaysh al-Mahdi from western Baghdad. Our Artillerymen have also become proficient in the kinder, gentler side of warfare, learning to plan and execute civil-military projects which have beautified our area of operations and fostered increased levels of governance and social cohesiveness. These projects have given an overwhelming sense of pride to the local residents. For those who have helped clean streets and repair schools, these projects afforded them the opportunity to participate in the reconstruction of Iraq, a process which cannot succeed without a spirit of ownership at the local level. The Iraqi people want to strengthen their communities; we have simply given them the means with which to do so.

As Soldiers, we all live by the Army Values. As Soldiers at war, we have come to see that we share our values with those Iraqis who are committed to rebuilding their nation. We identify with the Iraqis who call us to report suspicious activity in their neighborhoods; cooperating with US forces means risking discovery by insurgent elements and takes a great deal of personal courage. Iraqis are also becoming more self-reliant, in terms of governance, economy, and security, and the men and women of Yarmouk have made it clear that they will not tolerate those individuals who stand in the way of progress. The average Iraqi understands the fact that those of us in ACUs want to empower his community, while the insurgents are destructive and self-serving; an anathema to his vision of a new Iraq.

In any counter-insurgent fight, it is tempting, but ultimately unproductive to look to numbers and percentages as measures of success. We learned in the Vietnam War that the body count did not correspond to victory, and in this war no set of metrics will predict the outcome. Instead, we must turn to the subjective, to the intangibles, to get a sense of our progress, and for that we rely heavily on our interpreters. Baghdad is a metropolis teeming with millions of residents, yet, according to our interpreters the streets stood empty in the years following the growth of the insurgency. Now, however, men and women crowd markets and bustle through the streets. Our interpreters attribute this behavior to the level of security that we and the Iraqi security forces provide. As the people of Baghdad come outside to enjoy their communities, they provide us with a great sign of progress. We do not need to count the number of people on the streets to measure the effectiveness of our efforts; simply seeing them go about their lives without fear of a terrorist attack is proof enough.

Bravo Battery’s successes in Yarmouk come not from the pens and keyboards of strategists and analysts, but rather from the pounding of boots heard daily throughout the city. Our Soldiers have walked the same streets thousands of times over, shaken the same hands, and sweated through uniform after uniform. It has been a long six months so far, but we have built relationships in Yarmouk that are now paying dividends. Local citizens are taking more and more responsibility for their affairs each day, and the Iraqi Army continues to become more effective and independent. Best of all, we have made it through the hottest part of the year. Cooler days are in store for us, and I hear that Iraq even has a winter. I just hope it does not get too cold…