Iraqi allies in the war

Dave Karle:

It was easily 130 degrees at 11:00 a.m. and both the American and the Iraqi soldiers were hot and tired from the hard training. An Iraqi soldier kept falling behind during the training, so finally his Iraqi squad leader pulled him over to me and started explaining in Arabic that he was in pain from an injury and asked that he sit out during a portion of the training.

Suspiciously, I asked him to show me this injury. As he pulled up his pant leg a fresh bullet hole appeared – he had been shot on his way to work by a gang of insurgents. The young Iraqi was afraid if he missed training he would be kicked out of the unit.

At that moment, I thought to myself, how many Americans would be willing to look him in the eye and tell him that America should withdraw because his people don’t have the courage and commitment to rebuild their country?

I have witnessed firsthand the mistakes made on the ground in Iraq. From April 2004 to March 2005 I lived and worked with an 800 soldier Iraqi combat unit north of Baghdad. When I arrived, there was very little equipment, no vehicles, and the AK-47 ammunition was corroded and unusable. Perhaps most importantly, over a quarter of the unit was missing along with their weapons. However the joint American and Iraqi Task Force successfully changed the landscape.

We secured better ammunition and weapons, created facilities that were usable for training and living, and acquired vehicles. None of this would have been possible without American soldiers on the ground. Mentoring the Iraqis in the workings of a modern army, while challenging, was critical to the foundation of a democratic Iraq.

There is a misconception that creating the Iraqi security forces should be entirely self sustainable. It is an unrealistic view, in the near term. It takes time. By my estimation, it takes, at a minimum, the better part of a year to create a battalion.

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We have a very long way to go, but the first stage of the surge has resulted in decreased violence in Baghdad and progress in political reconciliation. It is a small but welcomed sign of hope for Americans that believe in winning.

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Abandoning the Iraqis will result in chaos, genocide, and leave al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations a safe haven from which to regroup and launch future operations in the region and beyond. I know this because I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

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I have seen other stories of the courage shown by individual Iraqi soldiers. Unfortunately Democrats do not care. They have kept themselves ignorant of what is really happening and are still acting as if the sectarian civil war of several months ago is still the major problem. They stubbornly ignore the new reality in the country in their desperation for defeat. The author is a support of John McCain and you can read what he has to say about him between the ...'s.