Hunter's start building trust for a secure Iraq

Photo By Spc. Paul Harris | Lt. Col. Monty Willoughby, commander, 2nd Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, listens to the issues of the town's people from Medina Wasl at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif.  

FORT IRWIN, CA, UNITED STATES

06.01.2007

Story by Spc. Paul Harris 

3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division

FORT IRWIN, Calif. – Kedar Kamal Latif al-Dulaymi, the mayor of Medina Wasl, along with key town leaders met with Lt. Col. Monty Willoughby, commander, 2nd Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, and his staff June 1 to discuss his ideas for improving the security of the town.

"More guns, cars and training," said Rafaz Arfan, chief of police for Medina Wasl. "We need to do more patrols of inside the village and outside the village with the U.S. forces and the Iraqi Army."

Medina Wasl is the fictitious Iraqi town located in the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. The town's people might be Arabic speaking actors but the ideas discussed during the meeting had real world themes.

"Job growth will lead to security," expressed Arfan knowing that a lot of his fellow Iraqi's turn to the insurgents based on economic reasons.

"I agree economic development will help assist the people and help them believe in the government and help coalition forces," Willoughby said, but was quick to retort that it will not be a one-sided job.

"Coalition Forces cannot do it alone," he said. "I think we proved today the partnership we will establish between Iraqi Army and leadership from both towns will provide (stability). Having them here today just to meet them and understand who we are is paramount."

Willoughby also met with Lt. Col. Sajad Saadon, commander of the Iraqi Army's 3rd Battalion, 11th Brigade, to discuss rooting out potential insurgents of both the Iraqi Army and Police.

Saadon suggested to Willoughby that funding be provided to institute a better screening process for new applicants to help weed out possible insurgent double agents.

"Before we can provide good security we got to make sure the people that (provide the security) are trustworthy," Willoughby said. "(Saadon) and I specifically talked about that this morning. It will be a long road, but it had to get started somewhere."

The role Willoughby and his command staff will play in dealing with the local populous is important. After the meeting, the 'Hunter' commander suggested that it might be the junior enlisted Soldiers who could play the most pivotal role in the fight against terrorism in this region.

It is imperative at the lowest level the Soldiers understand the culture of the Iraqi's since they, out of any of us, will come in to contact with them the most, Willoughby said.

"Treat them like human beings, how you would like to be treated, with dignity and respect," he said. " What we do not what to do is turn people who are maybe on the fence into coalition non-supporters, we want them to be coalition supporters and Iraqi Army supporters."

• Date Taken: 06.01.2007
• Date Posted: 06.04.2007 10:02
• Story ID: 10648
• Location: FORT IRWIN, CA, US