A month ago, when Rush Limbaugh first blasted U.S. troops who disagree with the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq as “phony soldiers,” the far-right host and his eager caller also insisted that the “real” troops want to be there and support the mission. During the “phony soldiers” call, Limbaugh’s listener argued, “If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they’re willing to sacrifice for their country.” Limbaugh agreed, saying, “They joined to be in Iraq.”
But more and more, one need not look too hard to find ample evidence to the contrary. The WaPo’s Joshua Partlow has a chilling front-page piece on soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, who arrived in southwestern Baghdad 14 months ago — now leaving bitter and downtrodden.
Next month, the U.S. soldiers will complete their tour in Iraq. Their experience in Sadiyah has left many of them deeply discouraged, by both the unabated hatred between rival sectarian fighters and the questionable will of the Iraqi government to work toward peaceful solutions.
Asked if the American endeavor here was worth their sacrifice — 20 soldiers from the battalion have been killed in Baghdad — [Sgt. Victor Alarcon] said no: “I don’t think this place is worth another soldier’s life.” (emphasis added)
While top U.S. commanders say the statistics of violence have registered a steep drop in Baghdad and elsewhere, the soldiers’ experience in Sadiyah shows that numbers alone do not describe the sense of aborted normalcy — the fear, the disrupted lives — that still hangs over the city.
The troops who spoke to Partlow described a scene far more distressing than the talk you’ll find in the Weekly Standard or Joe Lieberman’s press releases. The article quotes Maj. Eric Timmerman, the battalion’s operations officer, describing the descent of Sadiyah: “It’s just a slow, somewhat government-supported sectarian cleansing.”
Sounds like another troop for Limbaugh and the right to smear.
And what does government-supported sectarian cleansing look like? A bit like this:
The focus of the battalion’s efforts in Sadiyah was to develop the Iraqi security forces into an organized, fair and proficient force — but the American soldiers soon realized this goal was unattainable. The sectarian warfare in Sadiyah was helped along by the Wolf Brigade, a predominantly Shiite unit of the Iraqi National Police that tolerated, and at times encouraged, Mahdi Army attacks against Sunnis, according to U.S. soldiers and residents. The soldiers endured repeated bombings of their convoys within view of police checkpoints. During their time here, they have arrested 70 members of the national police for collaboration in such attacks and other crimes.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the national police, has said that officials are working hard to root out militiamen from the force and denied that officers have any intention of participating in sectarian violence.
But in one instance about two months ago, the American soldiers heard that the Wolf Brigade planned to help resettle more than 100 Shiite families in abandoned houses in the neighborhood. When platoon leader Lt. Brian Bifulco arrived on the scene, he noticed that “abandoned houses to them meant houses that had Sunnis in them.”
“What we later found out is they weren’t really moving anyone in, it was a cover for the INP to go in and evict what Sunni families were left there,” recalled Bifulco, 23, a West Point graduate from Huntsville, Ala. “We showed up, and there were a bunch of Sunni families just wandering around the streets with their bags, taking up refuge in a couple Sunni mosques in the area.”
Staff Sgt. Richard McClary, a section leader from Buffalo said the American people don’t fully realize what’s going on — it’s worse than we’re led to believe.
“They just know back there what the higher-ups here tell them. But the higher-ups don’t go anywhere, and actually they only go to the safe places, places with a little bit of gunfire,” he said. “They don’t ever [expletive] see what we see on the ground.”