Photo By Master Sgt. Jim Greenhill | Lt. Col. Patrick Thibodeau, serving with the Indiana National Guard's 76th Infantry...... read more read more
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By Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau
JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – On a previous deployment, Spc. Seth McMurtrey kicked down doors; two years later, the Minnesota National Guard member escorts Iraqis to jobs.
"I'm doing a completely different job," he said. "You go from kicking down doors to helping people out."
Two years ago, the half-dozen Iraqis who work for Ghalid Aped Assaad, 29, could only speculate about American troops; now, they work alongside them.
"Most of my workers, they've never talked or been hand-in-hand with the U.S. Army," Assaad said. "And now you see the difference: They talk with them. They make jokes. They laugh. They sit, they eat together, they drink [tea] together – and that's a very, very good thing."
McMurtrey's new mission and Assaad's jobs stem from a program called the Iraqi-based Industrial Zone (I-BIZ), an initiative that's seen contributions from several branches of the armed forces, spearheaded at Joint Base Balad by the Indiana National Guard's 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The 76th returned to the U.S. last month, but the work it started continues.
Money as a weapons system
One way of looking at I-BIZ: Rounds are not the only possible response to a mortar attack. These days, troops might also fire back ... a job. To borrow a phrase from Gen. David Petraeus, money as a weapons system.
"We're trying to influence the operating environment," Lt. Col. Patrick Thibodeau, with the 76th IBCT, said here in October, referring to the elements of the operating environment – political, military, economic, social, security, information and infrastructure.
Diplomatic, information, military and economic initiatives can influence the operating environment. I-BIZ is intended to fuel the Iraqi economy, increase employment and help with the transition from U.S. to Iraqi control, according to program documents.
I-BIZ is a designated secure area on a coalition base where a variety of Iraqi businesses can operate, according to www.ibiziraq.com. Use of land is free of charge. Iraqi businesses provide products and services to the coalition. Iraqi workers are escorted on and off base by Soldiers like McMurtrey.
Joint Base Balad is on the vanguard of the I-BIZ program, one of 11 active sites around Iraq. Thibodeau was a project manager.
"We are not creating the need for Iraqi labor," he said. "We are looking for things that we already purchase – commodities, goods, construction." Improved security means more of those tasks can go to Iraqis rather than U.S. or foreign companies.
Guard leadership
The diversity of citizen-soldiers with a smorgasbord of civilian-acquired skills has made the National Guard a natural I-BIZ leader. Thibodeau, for example, owns a small business. "I have yet to have to turn a profit in the Army," he joked. "Nobody has asked me, 'What's the bottom line?' But on the civilian side, they have."
National Guard I-BIZ project officers have business and economics degrees. The brigade commander, Col. Corey Carr, is director of economic development for the city of Columbus, Ind.
Initiatives started here at Joint Base Balad since summer 2008 include oil changes. Assaad leads Iraqis servicing coalition vehicles. His uncle, Sheik Shihab Ahmed Saleh Al-Tamimi, owns the business.
"This is a very important business opportunity," Sheik Shihab said. "It provides employment opportunities for the people of the area around here to stop them from joining terrorist organizations."
Unemployment was estimated at between 18 percent and 30 percent in 2006, the latest year for which a number was available, according to the CIA World Factbook.
"This business also sends a message to terrorist organizations ... that we're willing to work with the coalition forces and help our country become a free country," Sheik Shihab said.
Reconditioning containers: Hiadel Hassah, 23, is a project manager leading 34 former Sons of Iraq who make the daily journey from a city near here to refurbish shipping containers. The goal is to employ up to 70. "I feel very happy, because we will learn something," Hassah said.
The U.S.-funded Sons of Iraq created jobs for military-aged males, such as running checkpoints. Improved security means former Sons of Iraq need new jobs. I-BIZ is one opportunity.
The Iraqi owner of the container project must hire 80 percent of employees from unskilled Sons of Iraq who live within a 45-kilometer radius of the installation. He must train them in skills such as welding or metal working, for which they receive certification.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, a Chinese proverb says. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. "We're teaching people to fish," Thibodeau said.
Iraq's economics make this feasible. "Labor is cheap," Thibodeau said. "$11 a day is the minimum wage – not an hour, a day."
"Now life is better than before," Mohamed Khemis, 18, who paints containers, said through an interpreter, adding he is very happy for the learning opportunity.
Some Iraqis working with I-BIZ find themselves rock stars where they live, inundated with questions about the program. "Just the glimmer of hope, of opportunity," Thibodeau said. "It's not even about, 'How much money can I make?' It's really more about, 'Is there an opportunity, a chance? Can I have a chance?' That's huge."
Recycling: An I-BIZ recycling center boosts the economy and saves the environment, Thibodeau said. "People can eke out a living doing something that's environmentally friendly."
Instead of paying someone to process aluminum cans and plastics, the U.S. base gets a no-cost contract with Iraqis who, in turn, benefit economically.
"We say, 'Here's the commodities, we'll give you a place and then you bring in your local Iraqis, you sort and segregate the commodities, and then you get to sell those commodities at a market price'," Thibodeau explained.
Could the recycling center plant a seed that grows across the country, creating a whole new business sector and tackling Iraq's trash problem?
Asphalt, concrete and gravel: Iraqis paid for, designed and built an on-base asphalt plant that will hire former Sons of Iraq to tackle projects on- and off-base. Iraqi gravel vendors also have a market right here on base. "In the rainy season, this place becomes a giant mud hole," Thibodeau said.
Stores and restaurants: I-BIZ partnered with AAFES, the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, for four initiatives – two Iraqi-owned and -operated restaurants, a bicycle repair shop and an office supply store.
The restaurants challenged I-BIZ. Thibodeau said officials navigated a minefield of health and food source requirements and employee health screenings. "There's no program or process set up in theater for local Iraqis to be in the food service industry on a military base," he said.
I-BIZ planners see an obvious market for the bicycle repair shop. "This is a big base," Thibodeau said. "A lot of people ride bikes."
The business will rent or sell used bicycles to Soldiers. The PX, or Post Exchange, has agreed not to assemble new bicycles, allowing the bike shop to do that. "It's not a big initiative, but we think it'll be two or three employees, and it'll be profitable," Thibodeau said. "We see the demand."
Though small, the AAFES partnerships create opportunities for Iraqis to get a foot on the economic ladder. "We'll talk to anybody," Thibodeau said. "A guy who doesn't have shoes to a guy who has several million dollars in capital and a large conglomeration of businesses."
Joint effort
Although the coalition offers some advice and help to fledgling Iraqi businesses, "We try to get them to do it on their own," Thibodeau said.
The 2nd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment – so-called "landowners" who control the area around the base – and other active duty Army and Air Force units, the U.S. Department of State's Provincial Reconstruction Team, the regional contracting command and others have teamed up to make I-BIZ a success, Thibodeau said.
"We have all these different stakeholders," he said. "All these different units all bring something to the table. You're all trying to get to the same place."
Thibodeau brought a field artillery officer's targeting mindset and a background that includes tactical information operations training to the task.
"We're not kicking in doors anymore, but we want to keep moving the ball forward – how do we do that?" he said. "Initially, we thought of this operation as a non-lethal operation or non-kinetic in support of kinetic operations. We almost find that now it's shifting to kinetic operations in support of non-kinetic operations.
"When you start talking 'non-kinetic,' sometimes people think, 'Oh, you might be a soft Soldier,' but it's kind of like being in a fight and you've got a strong right and a good left hook; why would you fight with one hand?
"I'm all for finding a high-value target in the battlespace and going and getting it, but you can't always find those. There's other ways to influence behavior."
Message resonates
Seven Iraqis work at Sheik Shihab's oil change and service center.
Said Thibodeau, "That's seven people out in the neighborhood saying, 'I make a living, I work on the base, I know these people, these are good guys, they're my friends.' Seven people from that area that are bringing that message back. It carries. It resonates throughout that community."
Assaad was hesitant at first. "In the beginning, I was like, 'I'm afraid to work with the National Guard'," he said. "I was afraid because most of the National Guard, they've never been here in Iraq before, so they don't have any idea about the Iraqi culture and Iraqi customs."
But Guard members defied Assaad's expectations. "These people are more flexible than I thought," he said. "They do a great job, and they help us a lot. These people are here to help us. They are not here to do something wrong. Soldiers, they learn some Arabic, and my workers, they learn some English, but you see them all the time sitting, talking, communicating – and that's a very, very nice thing. I want to thank the 76th IBCT for this opportunity – not just for me, but for the Iraqi people, too.
"These people here are trying to help us by providing us with jobs."
Although Assaad has two degrees, he said he would be unemployed off-post. It would take up to three years to find work, he said.
Economic stakeholders
McMurtrey, the Minnesota National Guard specialist with the 834th Aviation Support Battalion who accompanies Iraqis in the I-BIZ program throughout their workdays, said Iraq is different on his second deployment.
"You can tell the change," he said. "It's good to see the change – it's really good."
One example: "There's a lot less explosions going off – a lot less." Proponents of I-BIZ say initiatives like it are part of the reason.
"It makes a difference when everybody from all around the installation is a stakeholder economically in the safety and security of the installation," Thibodeau said. "It's been absolutely huge. This used to be called 'mortar-i-taville,' and I haven't heard that for months."
Thibodeau attributes a 90 percent reduction in indirect fire in part to I-BIZ. And he sees similar initiatives as a natural role for the Guard.
"We've got the expertise," he said. "It's a shame the National Guard does not have more civil affairs or civil-military operations or information operations assets."
He's not under any illusions that I-BIZ will make everyone love us. "They don't have to love the U.S. or Soldiers or coalition forces, but what we want to do is influence their behavior," he said. "Goodwill goes a long way here, just shaking a guy's hand. I'll tell you one thing about the Iraqi people: They are very smart, very resourceful people."
Thibodeau gestured to the 76th IBCT patch on his right arm.
"If you put this patch on and you go out into the battlespace, you know what would happen to you?" he said. "The first guy who finds you is going to take you to his house, he's going to sit you down, and he's going to stuff you full of chicken.
"And then he's going to give you a proposition for a business plan that he has."
| Date Taken: | 12.04.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 12.04.2008 10:07 |
| Story ID: | 27179 |
| Location: | BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 200 |
| Downloads: | 188 |
This work, Firing back jobs: Guard helping to nurture local businesses in Iraq, by MSG Jim Greenhill, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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