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Carcieri surprises troops in Iraq |
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Thursday, 13 December 2007 |
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By JIM BARONA matter of months ago, Ramadi -- in Iraq’s Anbar Province, where the RI National Guard’s 169th Military Police Company is headquartered -- was only months ago written off as a hopeless no-man’s-land, called the most dangerous spot in war-torn Iraq and perhaps anywhere on the globe.
Now, says Gov. Donald Carcieri, who spent much of Wednesday walking the city in a battle helmet and body armor, “there has been a sea change there in the last 12 months. It has almost done a 180 (degree turn). They haven’t had any kind of – keep your fingers crossed – bombing any attacks in weeks there. The violence level is down dramatically.”So far for December, he said it has recorded the lowest number of violent incidents in years. Essentially, our teams have driven al Qaeda out.Visiting Rhode Island troops he found their attitude “very positive. The morale is terrific.”Carcieri who had briefings in Washington D.C. from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before leaving for Baghdad and then had dinner Tuesday with General David Petreaus, said part of the reason for the renewed optimism is that Iraqi citizens have begun cooperating with the Americans. “Where they observe, maybe explosives being buried, identifying people in the community who don’t belong there -- I think that kind of cooperation has been a big morale booster,” he said. “”I didn’t fully appreciate and was pleasantly surprised at the level of cooperation between the concerned citizens, what we might call neighborhood watch groups back home, they have actually come forward in increasing numbers, big numbers, and are really making a big difference working with our troops. It puts a whole new level of involvement on the average, everyday Iraqi Carcieri described as “cautiously optimistic” the view of the men and women “on the ground” in Iraq. “The momentum has begun to shift,” he said, with the Iraqi people coming to realize that “al Qaeda is not their friend, that al Qaeda is happy to kill Iraqis as well as our soldiers. They want to see al Qaeda gone because it is not helping their nation.He said personnel from the Ocean State’s 169th, many of whom are police officers back home are giving pointers to their Iraqi counterparts. They are working very closely right now with the Iraqi police, setting up stations because right now there is a big effort to expand the size of the Iraqi police force and assist in the cities and out in the provinces with the local security. The military people are upbeat that more areas of the country are able to be turned over to Iraqi security and the numbers of the Iraqi police force are on the rise, the governor reported. “I think from General Gates’ standpoint, he’s cautiously optimistic that the progress of this thing on the ground will enable us to hand over (responsibilities) to Iraqi security forces and allow us to draw down (troop levels), which was the original plan,” the governor siad.On the positive side, he said, there are a lot of good things happening. At the same time, there are huge challenges. Among these challenges is the slow progress from Iraq’s political leadership, which Carcieri characterizes as “slow slogging.” But he senses movement.Talking with the governor of Anbar Province, Carcieri said, “it was kind of interesting because you would think you were talking to one of our governors in the United States: Let us get on with making some decisions, give us more control over the building of the roads and utilities and the things that affect our citizens.”Carcieri said he doesn’t want to overstate the progress, “because it is kind of unheard of in this region, but there is what we might think of as a de-centralizing authority away from the federal center or balancing it out. That has great, great promise.Carcieri is traveling with Govs. Bill Ritter (D-CO) and Michael Rounds (R-SD) on a trip arranged and paid for by the U.S. Department of Defense. He said they are the 25th, 26th and 27th sitting governors to be taken to the war zone to visit troops. This is Carcieri’s first visit to the region. The governor brushed aside a question about being in Iraq while Rhode Island is facing a fiscal crisis. “There’s plenty of time for that,” he told a reporter. “We’re already working on all of those things. The important thing is we have men and women over here right now, just shy of 400 deployed, which is moving up to a high level for us. These men and women are putting their lives on the line and are just doing a great, great job. So for me to take time to come over here and tell them they are doing a great job, particularly during the holiday season, I thought it would be a good thing to do.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, 07 January 2008 )
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