Here in Iraq, things happen differently here on the streets than what's being reported on the news. This is just an overview on how the war is currently being fought, I'm not going into details just yet.
The Iraq Report Vol.1
First off, I am a soldier currently in Iraq. For security reasons, I’m not going to say where I am, what projects I’m currently working on and what my mission outline for the next few weeks is. This information could cost the lives of me, my team members and Iraqi citizens, Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army members. I will however tell you current situations in Iraq in an un biased manner, straight from the streets themselves. I give you, the loyal members of ShoutWire, the first installment of the Iraq Report. However, this installment is just an explanation of how the war is being fought today, as I right this. Depending on the reception this gets, I will continue to write about this or discontinue, I am however always up to answer questions from you.
We all know that Iraq is a war zone. However, most people don’t understand how this war is being fought. Who is the enemy, to clear things up the enemies that we face our militias and al-Qaida, abbreviated as AQI, members. We don’t go out on search and destroy missions to find members and we don’t go busting down doors anymore. Primarily the enemies we have here, are not attacking us in all of the Areas of Operation, most of the time it is against a Sunni village or a Shi’a village in order to create violence between the two sects to create conflicts between them and impose that their new founded democracy is not working, they also attack schools, city improvements such as street lights, irrigation pipelines, sewage treatments, even going as far as to destroy a bridge on a busy highway to prove their point. This is where my job comes in to play.
It is my job to meet with the local Sheiks and Tribal leaders to assess the situations in their communities. From there I create projects that are executed through local national laborers, to increase employment rates, and oversee these projects until these are completed. These projects range from creating low income housing to laying down miles of pipeline for irrigation purposes or even set up a VOTECH or Vocational Technical Institute, so they can better manage themselves. I also create projects regarding security forces in Iraq, those being Sons of Iraq, local neighborhood security, Iraqi police and Iraqi army. So far my Area of Operations has been relatively quiet, however that is not the case in all of Iraq.
This is the new face of the war, Civil Affairs. To ensure a victory in this war and a withdraw from Iraq completely. The only answer is Civil Affairs. We gave freedom to people who never understood the concept of it. We gave them the opportunity to govern themselves and right now I can tell you this: They are doing a damn good job at doing so. The Government of Iraq is also making leaps and bounds by realizing the problems before we do. Creating projects of their own and funding it themselves, however this is a long process it is progress for a majority of the Soldiers here to go home.
What goes on here in the streets and what is reported in the news don’t add up. Sure there’s a little fighting in the green zone, or in Sadr city, but some places there isn’t always violence. There isn’t always someone taking a shot at you and in most of the places, you can go down the highway in your convoy and expect to not get blown up. Iraq has taken big leaps and bounds, despite what the news reports and progress is being made. With a little over 100,000 Iraqi’s dead and less than 4500 coalition forces dead, we’ve been doing a good job so far, we can only to continue on the progress we have made.
If anyone has any questions, comments or concerns about this article, let me know. Send me a private message or just comment below. I’ll be more than glad to answer any question relating to this article.
These kids love soccer, I couldn't understand what they were saying, but we played soccer for a good hour and a half that day.
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