Thunder Rumblings
Commander's Update, February 1, 2004
Tim Ryan, LTC, Commanding Officer
2/12th Cavalry
Hello from Baghdad!
I’m proud to announce that the main body of Task Force 2-12 arrived safely at Camp Victory North, Baghdad yesterday afternoon after making the two and one-half day and 250 mile drive up here from Kuwait. Although they were ready for anything the enemy could throw at them, the members of the convoy made it without incident. Our trail party (about six people) will finish closing out accounts down in Kuwait and head up here by the 4th.
I say “they” in this case, because several key members of the staff, company executive officers, the Command Sergeant Major and I did not travel with the convoy. We all flew up on the 27th and 28th to begin the transition for our relief in place of 2-70 Armor early. Major Scott Kendrick, the Battalion Executive Officer (XO) and the company commanders took charge of the five-serial convoy of about 200 vehicles and crews from the task force for the move. All went well and everyone is getting settled into the new camp.
Camp Victory North, our new home, is situated in the northeast corner of the Baghdad International Airport compound in western Baghdad. The camp is still under construction and many of the facilities, such as the PX, dining facility and our headquarters building, are not completely finished yet, but they will be complete in the next couple of weeks. The 1000+ acres of land the camp is being built on was once Saddam’s hunting preserve. In its prime, the preserve was complete with antelope, gazelle, pheasant and various waterfowl for Saddam’s hunting pleasure. On the southern part of the preserve, there are several lakes with ornate mansions built along the edges (weekend places for Saddam’s guests) and finely manicured grounds. Out on an island in the northernmost lake, is the Victory Palace itself that now houses the Coalition Joint Task Force-7 headquarters. The palace is huge and resembles a state capitol building. Not too bad for a weekend place.
In contrast, right on the other side of the north wall of this incredibly posh weekend palace compound is the gritty destitution that defines the Task Force 2-12 sector. Our sector is the poorest, meanest and most volatile municipality in the greater Baghdad area. The principle city in the sector is Abu Ghurayb (aboo gray-eb), “father of strangers” in Arabic, and is the eastern point of the so-called “Sunni Triangle”. Unemployment runs somewhere between 60% and 70% as many of the factories these people worked in before the war were part of the former military industry (missiles, tanks, trucks, ammunition, etc.) and are now out of business. Unfortunately, all of these factories and many others were completely looted out after the fall of the former regime. When I say looted, I’m not just talking about tables, chairs and electronics; these people have continued to pick the facilities apart like ants on a carcass until there is absolutely nothing left now but the foundations. This thievery makes it extremely difficult to rebuild the factories in the area for a new purpose and get these people back to work. We certainly have our work cut out for us but we will prevail.
In closing, your troopers are doing great and continue to execute with a discipline and professionalism that would make you all proud. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, as they are a source of strength for us all. Mail should start arriving at both ends of the pipeline here soon as our APO has been open for about ten days now. Our email connection on Camp Victory North won’t be up for a couple of weeks yet. So, it may be a while before I can get another letter out. Until then, please take care and keep those cards and letters coming!
THUNDER!
LTC Tim Ryan, Thunder 6
P.S.: Also attached is a transcript of my remarks to the Task Force just before we headed north this week.
Thunder 6 Remarks to TF Thunderhorse
January 27, 2004
Camp Udairi, Kuwait
Tim Ryan, LTC, Commanding Officer
2/12th Cavalry
Men,
In a couple of days we are going to head north in to Iraq. We’re not the first to make that trek, but it is still hazardous none the less. Many of you may be wondering if what you are about to do is the right thing. You wonder about your own mortality, or possibly if this operation is worth risking your life for. These are all valid questions. I can’t answer them for you but I can give you some facts as I know them and let you decide.
First, stability in the Middle East is vital not only to our security but also to the economic interests of this country and to the world. The Middle East region lies at the center of commerce and trade routes between east and west and it is rich in oil. The fact is, the World’s economy relies on petroleum and when someone like Saddam Hussein threatens the security of this vital resource, it makes your Grandmother’s oil bill go up in New Hampshire, among other things. Saddam long had intentions to influence the oil supply in the region for his own profit. He proved it in 1990 when he invaded the country you stand in right now and continued to negatively influence oil prices throughout the 1990s by constantly threatening his neighbors. In addition, his regime continually violated the cease-fire his generals negotiated after Operation Desert Storm in 1991, which caused us to commit a huge amount of resources to this region in order to keep a lid on his aggression. Many of us have deployed over here several times for months at a time because of his actions. We could not continue that status quo. Economic stability in this region is too important to the rest of the World and to us. ‘This is about oil?’ you say. Well, that’s part of it, but international relations are not nearly that cut and dried.
There are several other key elements to the equation of why this is important. You have heard much said about the connection between Saddam’s regime and weapons of mass destruction or WMD and about a possible connection to terrorism—this is part of the Global War on Terrorism after all. Then there is the matter of U.S. resolve to see the task through. Let me talk about each of these for a minute or two.
There is much speculation about whether Saddam had stockpiles of WMD. Here are the facts as I know them. No one has discovered any large stockpiles of munitions or weapons, but they have found small amounts of a variety of chemical and biological agents that were produced in a very active weapons program. Inspectors and Coalition forces have also found empty chemical-capable artillery rounds that were ready for the addition of an agent when the time came. Third, Saddam purchased long range missiles from North Korea but did not get delivery in January of 2003 as expected because of U.S. world wide pressure on the export of such items. Saddam was not buying these things to deliver Christmas presents, I can assure you. It wouldn’t take much agent to do a huge amount of damage to life and property. One envelope with a small amount of anthrax shut down a huge postal distribution center for over a year in D.C. and cost millions to clean up. Imagine what a terrorist could do with even a pound of this stuff. Saddam had a history of use and the stated intent to use WMD against the U.S. or its allies. He was just waiting to get all of the parts together, go into production which would take 30 days or less by some estimates, and launch an attack. The threat was real. It was just a matter of time.
The larger issue with WMD is about showing our commitment to stopping the spread of these weapons both to rogue states as well as to terrorists. Let’s review the impact of our actions over the last three years on the spread of WMD. In Afghanistan, we stopped Al-Queda elements from developing chemical agents, which they were pursuing. The Pakistani Government, that used to export nuclear technology, is now our ally in the Global War on Terrorism and has greatly improved its relations with India, another nuclear power. Libya, one of the recipients of Pakistan’s technology, has now decided to show their cards and is dismantling its nuclear program. North Korea is at least making overtures of showing their cards and Iran has invited the IAEA in for a look. We also have a delegation in Iran for the first time in over twenty years and they have provided some assistance in tracking down terrorists. These are just a few examples. The point is, these countries see what happened when Iraq didn’t play by the rules and their changing their behavior as a result. Because of our resolve, the region is getting safer and more stable each day as a result.
The next issue you may be wondering about is Iraq’s association with terrorists. It is certainly debatable whether Saddam had direct links to Ussama Bin Laden or not. What I do know is that both Saddam and Bin Laden would sleep with the Devil for a chance to make a catastrophic strike against the U.S. We also know that there were and are active terrorist groups working out of Iraq and the largest group, Ansar-Islam, sustained a crippling attack by U.S. forces at the outset of Operation Enduring Freedom. Al-Queda is active in Iraq today and we continue to take the fight to them daily. In addition, We know that Saddam paid the families of each Palestinian suicide bomber $2500 for their attacks against Israeli civilians. That constitutes support of terrorism in my book. He was using the Oil for Food Program money to pay them which made it even worse. The immediate possiblity that these two maniacs to get together was too dangerous to risk. So, rather than wait until it happened, we took action and we’ve put the enemy back on his heels.
Now we must stay the course and see this mission through. The prevailing opinion among our potential adversaries is that we don’t have the national will to persevere, that with enough casualties we will withdraw. Unfortunately, we have a track record of doing just that or taking little action at all. We pulled out in 1983 after the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, we did a limited attacks after the 1986 disco bombing in Berlin and the Pan Am bombing over Locherbie, Scotland. We did nothing of substance after the ’92 World Trade Center bombing and we pulled out of Somalia in ’93 after the we suffered the loss of eighteen soldiers, that really sent a bad message to our enemy. The list continues, the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in ’95, the Embassy bombings in Africa in ’98, the attack of the USS Cole in 2000 and the grand-daddy of them all: the 9/11 attacks. Our enemies, both terrorists and leaders of rogue nations, saw our inaction over the years as a sign of weakness and decided to take advantage of it, resulting in a huge loss of American lives on 9/11 and on American soil.
With the Global War on Terrorism and Operation Iraqi Freedom, we have put them all on notice; if you mess with us, we’re going to hunt you down anywhere in the world and make a permanent change to your behavior. We are showing them now that we will be relentless in our pursuit of anyone who threatens the American People or our National Interests. That is where all of you soldiers fit in the picture. Your presence and perseverance is vital to showing our current and potential future allies that we will not give in to terrorism or accommodate leaders like Saddam Hussein. The sacrifices made in this conflict will save many lives in the future. We have begun to clean up a long festering sore that is the Middle-East and Iraq is right in the center of that infection. These are historic times. We are now shaping the direction the World will take for at least the next ten to fifteen years.
In closing, I honestly believe that what we are about to do, the risks we will take and possibly the ultimate sacrifice you or I may make is worth the security that it will provide to our children in the future because we showed resolve. Freedom does not come free, like our brothers and sisters before us, it is now our turn to ante up. Thank you all for what you are about to do.
Thunder!