Looking Back on Iraq: A Soldier‘s Story

Dec. 4, 2002

With the ongoing debate about armed intervention in Iraq, many Gulf War vets are confronting some painful memories. I do not regret my experience or participation, despite being exposed to situations that were disturbing. Fighting that war was a just cause. I was there as a member of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team, and traveled widely throughout the region. Our mission was to neutralize or destroy ordnance whether foreign or domestic, conventional or improvised, chemical, biological, or nuclear in design. We were some very busy folks. We entered Iraq as part of the initial invasion force and remained there until mid-May, 1991.
Traversing the region from one battle area to another, gave us first-hand knowledge of the devastation wreaked upon the Iraqi military. Demolished military hardware littered the countryside for as far as the eye could see. Between the oil well fires and the battle damage, the surreal scene resembled a science fiction movie set. Twisted hulks of blackened steel and iron, decaying bodies, daytime eerie darkness, accented by occasional explosions from burning ammunition stores. Only days and weeks earlier, much of the region looked like any other Arabian desert, remote, alternating sand and rock, barren (except for the occasional small village), arid, and lonely.
For the most part, the villages we entered had been abandoned well before the ground war. Many of the residents fled to Saudia Arabia and were put up in temporary camps, or went North to live with relatives. Personal encounters with enemy soldiers amounted to directing them to POW compounds by the bus load.

LIFE UNDER SADDAM
I recall one situation that typifies life under Saddam Hussein’s regime. We were searching for large caches of ammunition to destroy near the city of Basra. A young boy (about 10 years old) was performing as a guide helping us locate munitions. He spoke little English, but was eager to help, especially since we paid him with treats whenever he found something of value.
After a few days of this, I explained to him that we were departing the area to work another site and would not be returning. He became very agitated and tugged on my sleeve to show me something down the road. I relented and followed, momentarily leaving members of my team behind. He took me to a wall pock-marked with bullet holes. He then stood up against it and mimicked being shot by a firing squad.
Eventually, I understood this was a place where the Iraqi Army executed suspected collaborators and such. We struggled with the language barrier as I tried to make a pitiful joke of the Iraqi Army’s poor marksmanship, as there were so many bullet holes at knee level. At this, I received a look of incomprehension bordering on disgust. He patiently stood me up against the wall, stood next to me and pantomimed another smaller child to his side and went through the whole mimicked execution thing again. Now it hit me. The feeling of naive shame is with me to this day as I realized he was demonstrating that entire families were murdered this way. There I was, the ugly American trying to make a joke of his horrible reality. My mind conjured up images of cute toddlers hugging their sobbing mother’s legs as the barrel sights lowered to accommodate the target. He begged us to stay, I could only shake my head no.
At that point, I didn’t want to be around him; didn’t want to know his name, hear his voice, remember his face, consider his potential fate. We had a demanding job to do and could little afford to be distracted by troubles we were powerless to address and frankly, my emotions could not bear.

GO BACK?
From all accounts, a military invasion and an attempt to remove Saddam Hussein from power by U.S. and coalition forces is imminent. We should not be surprised; we’ve remained in a state of limited war with Iraq since the terms of surrender was inked over a decade ago. Iraq’s countless violations of the treaty and an attempted assassination of a U.S. president alone are acts of war. Theories abound concerning the Bush administration’s motivations and potential resulting consequences for all involved. Some of the rhetoric is inaccurate and misleading at best, and disgraceful at worst.
It is fair to raise the issue of civilian casualties that may result from such action. Unfortunately, mistakes occur during combat and generate unintended results. Note
how many of our own or allied soldiers are killed by friendly fire accidents. It is rare,
but limited civilian casualties do occur and if it does, we have a documented
history of rendering immediate aid to the victims, and restitution to their families.
It’s worth noting soldiers from EOD units entered numerous Iraqi villages during the Gulf War to render safe the occasional errant dud munition for the sole purpose of preventing civilian casualties, at times... at great risk to our own safety. Four of our colleagues died performing this type of mission.
There are two competing awful realities to consider for the civlians. War puts some civilians at risk of being harmed for a limited time; the other reality is that ignoring Saddam condemns these same people to living under the cruelties of a tyrant for a lifetime.

TWO CONDITIONS
Sadly, the life the people of Iraq lead is common throughout the world. We cannot possibly involve ourselves in the removal of every tin pot dictator that abuses their countrymen. In my opinion, we have a leadership role to play to help victims of
tyranny, but military intervention should only be considered when two conditions are met. One: the despotic government represents a real and immediate threat to regional peace and stability, and our own national security, and two: diplomacy has failed. These are exactly the two conditions our current president, and the two previous administrations have consistently stated exist with Iraq.
The people of Iraq suffer under Saddam’s regime more than many Americans can comprehend. Their poverty and oppression are the direct responsibility of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen. On one hand, the regime (and it’s supporters) claim sanctions are ruining Iraq’s economy resulting in shortages of food and medicine. On the other, they have built hundreds of palaces and maintain a luxury cruise ship for Saddam’s own personal use, all costing billions of dollars. Some of our elected officials, pundits, and celebrities are grossly naive when they blame U.N. and U.S. policies for the Iraqi people’s demise. They are even more naive to think a U.S. invasion will not ultimately benefit the populace. While Congressmen McDermott and Bonior were being courted by Saddam’s public relations machine, brutal repression was ongoing behind the scenes - business as usual. The best hope for the people of Iraq is the removal of Hussein from power.

MASS DEFECTIONS?
At this point, as long as we act with consistent resolve, there is a very good chance Saddam’s regime will topple before an invasion force fires a single shot. He governs by fear and repression, which does not produce ardent followers or loyal citizens. The moment Sadam’s armies believe another measure of Gulf War style butt kicking is unavoidable, there will likely be mass defections.
The removal of Sadam (preferably by the native opposition) is the best assurance for
our own safety and security, and for that matter the entire Middle East as well. Iraq has
clearly distinguished itself from other nations that possess weapons of mass destruction (WMD): by deploying them as offensive weapons. It has done this against the Iranians, and also to suppress a Kurdish uprising which resulted in the horrible deaths of more civilians than rebels.
The debate would be dramatically different if Sadam were maintaining a WMD stockpile as a last resort defensive measure against invasion. Unfortunately, this is not his stated or demonstrated policy. We are wise to remain suspicious of the intentions of other dictatorships and oppressive governments that own these weapons. Saddam is in another league all together, requiring a different response. He has a history replete with aggressive actions against Iran, Kuwait, Israel, Shiites in Southern Iraq, and the Kurds in the North.
As you read this, he has the means and motive to inflame the entire Middle East and Persian Gulf region into all out war, and provide WMDs to Al Qaeda if we bury our heads in the sand.
We know enough to understand the very real threat Saddam represents, this is one of those times when we have to trust our leaders. President Bush, or any future president, are never going to provide us with the highly classified details of the numerous intelligence assessments that they draw their conclusions from, nor should they. That is why it is critical we elect leaders that can be entrusted with this responsibility, and hold them accountable to the highest professional ethics. More than ever, character counts.

A resident of Traverse City, David Page was a member of Camp Grayling‘s 745th Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team during the Gulf War.

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SIDEBAR:

Life on the Bomb Squad

One of the most hazardous weapons that writer Dave Page had to deal with as team leader of a U.S. Army National Guard bomb squad in 1991 was Iraq‘s Silkworm missiles.
“The Silkworms were pretty important because they have ballistic-targeting capability,“ he recalls. “They are what the Iraqis were turning into SCUDS.“
He says the most hazardous aspect of disarming a missile in the desert is its propellent.
“The missile‘s warhead is not armed, but they use liquid propellents with two components, and both are highly toxic. The batteries are also highly toxic and explosive; there‘s more to disarming it than just the warhead. You‘ve got hundreds of tons for propellents to get rid of.“
Page‘s team of 12 experts covered an area of hundreds of square miles in southern Iraq, disposing of abandoned explosives and ammunition. “We don‘t deal with mines unless they‘re of a very exotic nature,“ he says. “We have competent engineers using heavy equipment for mine disposal, but if they find something unique, they may call in a specialist from one of our units. We‘re troubleshooters.“
Page and the U.S. forces in Desert Storm occupied the southern portion of Iraq which has since been designated as a “No Fly Zone“ along with a similar zone in northern Iraq. In addition to serving as a barrier to invading Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the No Fly Zones protect minorities in Iraq, including the Kurds in the north, who oppose Saddam Hussein‘s regime.
“The southern No Fly Zone was established to protect people in the organized opposition living in Iraq,“ he says. “It keeps Iraq from bringing gunships down and just butchering the people who live there.“
Similarly, “the No Fly Zone in the north protects the Kurds from being completely overrun in a genocidal campaign.“ Page adds that there are 25 million Kurds in the region -- more than the population of Iraq -- but they are spread throughout Turkey, Iran and northern Iraq and essentially have no homeland. “They‘re like the Palestinians without the media coverage. They‘ve been homeless quite a while.“
As a U.S. soldier operating out of Saudi Arabia, Page says he was shocked by the treatment of women.
“Women are virtual slaves in that society. It‘s not unusual to see a pickup truck going down the road with sheep in the back along with the mother and daughter while the father and son sit up front in the seat of privilege. It‘s like that everywhere; women there have no rights whatsoever. When you‘re exposed to it, it‘s an overwhelming thing.“
When Page was in Iraq, he saw signs from the locals welcoming U.S. troops, begging them to stay. If a U.S. invasion does come, he expects that Iraq‘s oppressed minorities, at least, will be glad to see the return of troops and the fall of Saddam Hussein‘s regime.
-- by Robert Downes