With Dagger Brigade set to re-deploy, Strike troops will play a vital role in Baghdad

Courtesy Photo | The personnel security detachment of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne...... read more read more

Courtesy Photo | The personnel security detachment of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), prepares to conduct a movement to Forward Operating Base Justice. The Strike Brigade will take over combat operations from 2nd BCT, 1st Infantry Division, and continue to work toward improving the essential services within their area of operations in western Baghdad. (U.S. Army photo/Sgt. James P. Hunter, 2nd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. Public Affairs)  see less | View Image Page

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

11.14.2007

Courtesy Story

Multi-National Division Baghdad

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By Sgt. James P. Hunter
2nd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. Public Affairs

BAGHDAD – "Thirty-two hundred years of invaders and oppression in this land," said Maj. Timothy E. Collier, civil affairs officer, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). "From Genghis Khan on, this part of the world has been invaded time and time again."

This area has been devastated and destroyed from years of destruction. For nearly the last five years, as Coalition forces try to reconstruct and revitalize the Iraqi government, terrorists and insurgents have wreaked havoc throughout the area, not enabling the government, the economy and the people to move forward with their lives.

To achieve the goal of a stable, self-controlled government and economy, those responsible for the destruction needed to be weeded out.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, ran counter-insurgency operations – such as joint patrols, cordon and searches, house clearing, and cordon and knocks – to weed out these insurgent forces responsible for the violence.

"When I look at the history of this brigade combat team in northwest Baghdad from February of this year to September of this year, it's what I label as the battle for northwest Baghdad," said Col. J.B. Burton, commander, 2nd BCT, 1st Inf. Div. "In that, we saw some very high rates of violence."

Starting in January, preceding this battle to control northwest Baghdad, they placed joint security stations out in the neighborhoods, and established safe neighborhoods with the gated communities through controlled entry and exit points to these communities, Burton said.

The JSSs are patrol bases within the Iraqi communities, where U.S. and Iraqi Security Forces run combat patrols and dismounted presence patrols out of to get face-to-face with the Iraqi people, said 1st Lt. Kurtis Larson, executive officer, Company B, 2nd Squadron, 12th Cavalry Regiment.
In March, the surge in Baghdad began, Burton said. This is where they began to see a significant increase in violent indicators, especially in May and June.

Burton attributes that to his Dagger Soldiers, the ISF and local volunteers being more active on the battlefield, 24-hours a day in areas where the enemy was determined to control.

"A lot of people sacrificed (their lives) to get this city where it is right now," said Collier.

The surge in Baghdad seemed to push out the terrorists and thwart their activity. The volunteers can take much credit for the decreased activity in the area.

"The single most dramatic thing that has happened I think is what we call the concerned local citizens, or the Ameriyah freedom fighters, or the Ghazaliyan Guardians, or some of the Sunni citizens groups— a lot of them former al-Qaida, former anti-Coalition fighters— that have decided that nothing good is coming of al-Qaida," Collier continued, "and nothing good is coming of further extremism and violence after four and-a-half, five years. They've seen enough death and destruction."

These volunteers stepped-up and paved the way for economic growth, volunteering themselves for the greater good by providing safety, justice, peace and order to their friends and neighbors, Collier said.

"Nobody wants to see their neighbor suffer," he added.

So the U.S. troops had to adapt and become ever-changing. Instead of focusing solely on insurgent forces, their focus now became improving the essential services of the Iraqi people. This was always a focus, but became the essential, main focus.

Baghdad is an old city— it's an ancient city, with its municipal services laid in between the fifties and seventies. It is critical these repairmen get into the areas and fix these essential services.

"Essential services absolutely cannot go forward unless the municipal workers can go across the city and do their jobs," said Collier. "A trash collector or utility repair guy isn't going to go into a hostile war zone because he's not trained as a Soldier. Unless there is security in an area, the trash doesn't get picked up, the sewer lines don't get fixed, the water lines don't get fixed, the electrical lines don't get repaired, then the neighborhood falls apart."

Since July, power went from one-to-two hours a day to six to eight hours a day. The Dora Thermal Power Plant brought all its boilers on line, and al-Qaida is no longer targeting the high-tension electrical cables coming into the city. Repairs are proceeding on all the substations and transformers and a lot of that is because of security, Collier said.

Now with the Dagger Brigade's deployment on its final leg, it's up to the Soldiers of the 2nd BCT, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) to continue the success of the Dagger troops.

"So now we've hit a turning point. Now (the Strike) brigade is taking over where it's pretty critical," said Maj. Henry Delacruz, civil affairs officer, 2nd BCT, 1st Inf. Div. "The (government of Iraq) has got to take advantage of the improved security and help provide essential services, help create employment through various means, whether through essential services or through economic needs.

"This is the hard part," he continued. "As Soldiers, we know how to fight; we know how to find the bad guys. The hard part is this nation building piece. It's helping facilitate governance in an area. It's tough trying to revitalize the northwest Baghdad economy, and it's tough trying to revitalize essential services, especially something that has been broke for the last three, four or five years."

It will take time, hard work and dedication from all to improve the economic capacity.

"If we could get 20 hours of electrical services across the city, that would be immense. You would see a greater boom of prosperity, and people able to educate themselves," Collier said. "The industry can get back on their feet much easier."

First they will have to take care of the essential services, the physical structures and get the markets and the economic physical stores open again, said Collier. This, up to this point, seems to be happening. When the security was set, it sparked a dramatic turn-around. Of the eight of 10 markets open, 90% of the shops within are operational.

"The next piece is building some of the economic structures that nations and economies have," said Collier. "People need money to start a business."

Iraqis need to deposit money and get a loan from a bank; write business plans and manage their money, all of which would be based on the Islamic traditions, he added.

The third step is the continual expansion of markets, and building associations, and increasing the amount of business that goes through the neighborhoods. They strive to bring these aspects together and bring society back on line again.

Also, the Iraqi government needs to play a larger role in securing Iraq's future. Thus far, there is a huge gap between the government and the people of Iraq, said Collier.
"We want to bring the government to the people," he continued. "We want to broker a relationship between the government and the people."

The government has to act for the benefit of the people, said Collier. Strike Soldiers will help them and support them, but ultimately it will be the Iraqis who will make this happen.