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November 10, 2005

Serving in Iraq: Fletcher Students Share Their Experiences and Perspectives on the Iraq War

Every year, the U.S. armed services send distinguished field grade officers as fellows to the Fletcher School to attend seminars and lectures and to join the activities organized by the International Security Studies Program, while some former and active U.S. military officers decide to take on the regular MALD and MA degree programs. Their participation in classes and other activities offers other Fletcher students practical insights on defense and security issues.

Fletcher students Troy Schnack, Ben Parry, Joe Rupp, Jeffrey Walsh, Mike Wagner and Joshua Jones, who all went on military duty in Iraq, Mike Spiros, former communications officer at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and Iraq native Abeer Mohammad shared their experiences on living and serving in Iraq and their views on the war during the “Iraq Reconstruction Panel” discussion held on November 1.

Beyond the news reports on the ongoing war and insurgency in Iraq, what is life really like for the Iraqi people and for the thousands of U.S. soldiers who are fighting the war there now?

Troy Schnack, a second-year MALD student who led security and non-combatant operations in and around Al-Taji Army Airfield, recounted some of the challenges encountered by his troops when they came into Iraq in 2003.

“At that time, Saddam Hussein had not yet been caught, and the search for weapons of mass destruction was still ongoing. Several American soldiers were dying on the battlefield. The U.S. Government had no reconstruction plan yet, so an ad hoc plan was implemented. Among the soldiers, one of the biggest problems was the lack of translators. There was also a growing frustration with the insurgency that eventually erupted,” Schnack recounts.

Despite these challenges, however, Schnack said that he couldn’t see himself or the soldiers with him giving up.

“A soldier cannot underestimate the mission, especially since so many other soldiers have died for it,” Schnack said.

Joe Rupp, an MA student and Major with the Marine Corps, said the insurgency was the biggest challenge he faced in Iraq. Rupp was tasked to lead civil-military projects in Western Iraq and to provide a secure environment for the elections to take place.

“The Marines felt that we were making a difference. Improvements and reconstruction were moving slowly, but success has to build upon success,” Rupp said, adding that while some Iraqis were hesitant to be involved in the reconstruction efforts at the beginning and wanted to see how things would turn out before joining in, there was eventually a large degree of participation among them.

“We had to convince the local populace that they had a stake in the process,” Rupp said, on how they were able to encourage participation.

For Jeffrey Walsh, a first-year MALD student, what helped him hurdle the overwhelming task of leading the training of members of the new Iraqi Army was maintaining a positive attitude while all odds were against his team.

“When I came to Talafar in 2004, there were only 16 of us Americans who were supposed to train 750 members of the Iraqi army on all aspects of the military service,” Walsh said.

“Our main problem was the language barrier. The training proceeded very slowly, especially since we didn’t have a translator during the first two months. We simply had to adapt and make do with the little English that the Iraqis knew,” Walsh said, stressing that their bonding with the Iraqi soldiers—with whom they slept, ate and had regular interactions—fostered an understanding among them despite the language barrier.

However, for Ben Parry, a first-year MALD student, part of the challenge was in finding ways to improve the image of U.S. soldiers in order to elicit the cooperation of the Iraqis in their conduct of civil military operations.

“Some of our units were in restive neighborhoods. We didn’t want to be perceived only as an occupier. We wanted to be seen as a developer,” Parry said.

Standing 6’3 and armed with two machine guns and a knife, appearing to look nice didn’t come easy for Parry. “I couldn’t compromise my security by taking off my equipment so I had to make an extra effort to appear more accessible. This was something that I didn’t have coming into Iraq and which I had to struggle with.”

Mike Wagner, also a first-year MALD student, added that while the Iraqis’ initial perception of U.S. soldiers wasn’t very positive, their image eventually changed. “It’s not about what you wear. Rather, it’s how you do things and conduct yourself.”

During the open forum that followed, Fletcher alumnus Rockford Weitz asked the panel members what other resources the U.S. Government can provide to Iraq in order to improve the situation.

Joshua Jones, a first-year MALD student who served with the U.S. Army, replied that while the U.S. Government can continue giving assistance to Iraq in areas where they are weak, “we must also allow for transition for them to do things themselves.”

Jeff Walsh added: “A successful exit strategy for the U.S. is contingent on how effective we would be in developing the Iraqi army in order to effect a transition of the responsibility of maintaining order and security in their country to them.”

Ben Parry also stressed, though, that the Iraqi police must receive the same level of training as the Iraqi army. “The local police forces are unprofessional. They must receive training in processes and ethical standards,” he said.

The forum was preceded by a showing of two films dealing with the Iraq war. "Rumsfeld's War" takes an investigative look into Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's contentious battle with the Pentagon bureaucracy to assert civilian control of the military and remake the way America fights wars. As the U.S. prepared to respond to the 9/11 attacks, Rumsfeld, together with a core team in the Bush administration which includes his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, Vice President Richard Cheney and then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, reshaped U.S. military thinking about going to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The second film, “Gunner Palace”, presented a thought-provoking look into the lives of U.S. soldiers belonging to the 2/3 Field Artillery, also known as “The Gunners”, whose barracks are the bombed-out palace of Saddam Hussein’s son, Uday Hussein, which had been nicknamed Gunner Palace. The film presented the experiences and insights of these soldiers as they confronted the emerging realities of the Iraq war, particularly the insurgency, confrontations with suspected terrorists and the seeming disinterest of the American people in the situation on the ground.

Article by Sharon Rivera, MALD '07

Posted by jessica at November 10, 2005 09:56 AM