The following post is a piece written by Marshall Adame who is a North Carolina Democrat running for U.S. Congress in 2008. Mr. Adame spent 3 years working in Iraq and had a few things to say about the situation there.
Original at Daily Kos
Iraq; A Hell on Earth Made in Washington D.C.
Why America went into Iraq is something for the pundits, academics and the politicians to discuss into the next century. What has happened there since our arrival is something I can only hope will be fully realized and understood by the American public and every elected official in our country.
From my personal experiences of living in Iraq for three years, I have concluded America’s leadership is solely responsible for the entire country of Iraq becoming a living hell of suffering, poverty, starvation and depravation, unimaginable to either Iraqi or U.S. citizen just prior to our arrival in Iraq in 2003.
I personally attended and participated in many high level Coalition, State Department and DoD meetings and briefings in Iraq from 2003 until late 2006.
I remember being astounded, on many occasions, about the way we addressed the needs and requirements of the Iraqi people and their government. On one occasion after another, where the decision makers in Iraq had glowing opportunities to move Iraq in the right direction, the smallest suggestion that action being considered might be politically incorrect could, and often did, derail any further talk or action and everyone would be back to square one. More than not, it was the Military planners in the Embassy who would stop any worthwhile State Department initiative.
It seemed to me that the leadership in the Embassy in Baghdad were very unaware, almost detached, from what the average U.S. Soldier was experiencing on a day to day basis outside of Baghdad’s green zone where life was actually pretty close to just being normal. Although the senior officers in the Embassy would, from time to time, fly out to the Forward Operating Bases (FOBs), their arrival and departure was always very scheduled and planned. Very rarely would any of these officers actually go outside of a FOB where the troops were going everyday amongst the Iraqi general population.
Let me be very clear here. No act of courage, sacrifice, bravery, or selflessness is ever wasted, or for nothing, irregardless of when or where it happens. Our soldiers are carrying out their duty as they took an oath to do. You will not find any soldiers in Iraq who are not faithful and dedicated to their Commanders and to each other. Risking their lives for each other is a daily event for our soldiers in Iraq. This is as it should be. The senior officers however seemed to me to be somewhat different in that regard. Their future in the military and their promotion potential seemed to be factored into just about every decision. The real exception was the National Guard and Reserve component Senior officers who seemed always determined to get their soldiers what they needed and to be there for their soldiers. This is not to denigrate the Officer Corp, but it is what I noted during my extensive time in Iraq.
Donald Rumsfeld and General Casey seemed obsessed with ensuring The State Department (Condi Rice) did not get a firm foothold onto the leadership or management of the Iraq development planning, and that included the diplomatic part of the mission. From my perspective, the U.S. Ambassador was a figure head who simply did what General Casey and Don Rumsfeld decided needed to be accomplished by the State Department.
The Generals had all the money, they had the President’s ear and they controlled almost all the resources. They still do. The golden rule; He who has the gold, makes the rules. State Department diplomatic efforts, or operational plans were seemingly a nuisance to the Military planners in the Embassy.
This was very in evidence right into the later part of 2006. Recently I spoke to a Diplomat friend of mine in the Embassy in Baghdad who told me he would be leaving Iraq as a direct result of the way the Military has totally ignored the diplomats in Iraq and the Military leaders conduct in pushing the "Baghdad surge" now in place.
Why shouldn’t the Generals ignore the State Department? The President is squarely on the side of blunt force. Diplomacy to our President, apparently, is a tool for the weak. America has a long history of civilians controlling our military. In Iraq the U.S. military has no civilian control. The U.S. Ambassador is toothless.
The Military Commanders throughout Iraq were very suspect of any Department of State program where the military was not in primary control and would often, quickly and openly, moved to derail it. The most visible example of this type of stonewalling is the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT). The PRT is a State Department Program developed for the purpose of assisting the Provisional Governments, in the 14 Provinces of Iraq, in Government Capacity Building, Rule of Law, City planning, Contracting, taxing, revenue sharing, and other aspects of Governmental Services Delivery and maintenance.
I was a key player in the initiation of the PRT in Iraq during 2005 and 2006. My exposure was all encompassing and I personally traveled throughout the Provinces of Iraq to conduct the initial PRT surveys for the State Department. The PRTs were overseen and managed through an office in the Baghdad Embassy called the National Coordination Team (NCT). I was a member of the NCT.
Almost all of the planning and execution aspects of the PRT development was conducted without the smallest participation of any Iraqis, governmental, or not. In some construction projects, in the provinces, the Iraqi Provincial Councils were allowed to communicate their desired projects to the State Department. In most cases, either the U.S. Corps of Engineers would decide what they wanted to do, or a Military General in the U.S. Embassy would decide what would be most advantages from the American Point of view. U.S. Contractors were big players here. The State Department had no real say-so at all in the selection of projects being conducted under the auspices of their own program. In 2006, the newly appointed civilian director of the NCT was a retired Army General. This appointment thereafter ensured the PRT compliance with the Military commanders in Iraq.
Many projects started by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers throughout Iraq, were never finished and many were simply de-scoped and made to appear complete when in fact they were not. Water plants and Electric plants in Iraq were built and never turned on. Iraqi Military bases were built under the auspices and direct supervision of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who would complete the projects, only to standby and watch the Iraqis loot the newly built and furnished facilities to the bone. The U.S. Army Corps of engineers and the Program Contracting Office (PCO) themselves took a very large piece of the Iraq construction money; A very large piece. If it is ever investigated, I feel another scandal of waste, fraud and abuse will be in the headlines.
The Muslim Mosques, we built for the Iraqi Military, would usually remain intact. (We never built any Churches that I am aware of, although many Iraqis are of the Christian faith. Damaged or destroyed Churches remained rubble. For faiths other than Muslim, little or no money would ever be available for rebuilding or new development form the U.S. Government).
The Iraqi people and their government were worlds apart in their existence. The Iraqi government, almost in exile from it’s people, is located in the extensively secured Baghdad Green Zone near the U.S. Embassy. The U.S. Military ensures their security. The Ministers live in the Green Zone and most of the representatives as well, in very comfortable circumstances. I am told that as of January 2007 almost one third of the elected officials in Iraq are actually living in foreign countries like Jordon, England, and France. Still collecting their pay, just not in Iraq.
The Iraqi population at large, with the exception of a few fearless and brave Iraqi politicians, never see their representatives, or even hear from them. Most Iraqi politicians are aligned with a Militia group who fight the U.S. on a daily basis, or are connected to the Shia Death squads that reign terror down on the Iraqi citizens every single day or their existence. An existence we created through very poor leadership, vision, planning or serious regard for the Iraqi population at large.
Just to get a glass of clean drinking water is a major effort in Iraq today, not to mention that many of those who are selling the clean water are also the same thugs, criminals and terrorist who are rampaging at night and profiting from the chaos by day. This after four years of U.S. Presence, over three thousand dead U.S. Soldiers, tens of thousands of U.S. Wounded and hundreds of Billions of U.S. Dollars. That is not even mentioning the hundreds of thousands Injured and killed Iraqi citizens, many who are children and women, and the millions displaced by the war and now living in abject poverty.
In Baghdad, should an injured Sunni Muslim show up to, or be brought to any government hospital in Baghdad, in all likely hood that person will not be alive the next day. Shia death squads, often members of the Iraqi Police, I am told visit the hospitals nightly looking for Sunni patients.
I believe the average American, or Iraqi citizen would be furious to know how President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Bremer and others caused the societal and institutional collapse of what was a fairly well running, civilized and organized institutional culture.
Their collective decisions facilitated the American and British contractors in bringing thousands of third world nationals into Iraq while excluding the poor and unemployed Iraqi citizens from even earning a living or participating in the reconstruction of their own country. Many of whom later turned to the insurgency to earn a living.
The exercise of blind leadership has brought America to the brink of irrelevance, the exception being where military power is concerned, in the world and in all other aspects an outcast of sorts. Albeit, a very powerful outcast.
Today the world of civilized societies who initially stepped forward with support and assistance, but later began to see the effort going far away from it’s intended beginning, now see a U.S. President out of touch with reality.
Most of those countries are now hoping America does not suffer further from President Bush’s continued presence in office. I am speaking of many countries who sent their own soldiers as well, although in very small numbers when compared to America and Great Briton.
Today I see a world of strong, democratic and free countries hoping and praying for America, their model, to once again find her bearing and lead the world in freedom, strength, integrity, as a force against those who would seek to derail mans progress into a future of liberty and justice for all. I believe they do want America to succeed for they know our downfall could well mean their own destruction.
When President Bush took office in 2000, America was a healthy, free, culturally expanding society whose reach and influence for good in the world was being embraced by friend and potential foe alike. During the preceding President Clinton years, the countries of the Middle East were looking to the U.S.A. to be the true and honest broker for peace. Israelis and Palestinians alike were beginning to believe that real peace could come to them after so many decades of war and suffering.
America had no debt to the world, after having been a debtor nation under the previous administrations of George Bush Sr. and President Ronald Reagan, President William Clinton was able to lead America out of debt and indeed left a surplus of over 250 Billion Dollars in the U.S. Treasury when he left office.
Now, under the leadership and authority of President George Bush Jr., America is between 8 and 10 Trillion dollars in debt to nations who do not consider us as real friends. Nations like China who holds over 1.3 Trillion Dollars of American Treasury Bonds. Bonds President Bush permitted them to buy. Consequently, we are broke, broken and groping for vision and leadership in America as the whole world watches the spectacle George Bush and the Republican Party has made of my country.
All of this our President continually blames on our tragedy of 9/11, Katrina and our failure to drill for oil in everyone’s back yard from N.Y. to Alaska. For a while America bought it. We wanted to believe that we were heading in a direction that could bring peace and safety back to the U.S. and the world. We were attacked and we struck back, as we had every right to do. Suddenly we diverted our eyes from those who attacked us and focused on Iraq where most of our precious resources were diverted to. Those who attacked us on 9/11? Still at large in Afghanistan and Pakistan knowing the U.S. will not seek them out so long as they remain bogged down in Iraq.
The Hell we have created for the Iraqis? Out of our control now. It has evolved into a full fledged and unhealthy civil war between religious factions who both are more than willing to sacrifice their children, their women, their boys and girls in order to get the advantage over the other they seek. I feel, in the final analysis, the numbers of foreign fighters purported to be in Iraq will turn out to actually be far fewer than the administration would have wanted us to believe. I believe it is the Iraqis we are fighting and who are fighting us.
By dissolving the Army, Police force, civil institutions and governmental control and program entitlement ministries, Paul Bremer started Iraq on the road it walks today. His de-bathification program sealed the fate and future of Iraq in 2003 and, I believe, caused the insurgency to be born. When Paul Bremer returned to America, he was awarded the American Medal of Freedom by President Bush.
In the mean time, my youngest son, Sergeant Benjamin Adame will return to Iraq for his second tour next month. My second son, Staff Sergeant William Adame, was also scheduled to return soon, but has been delayed due to complications from the shrapnel wounds he received in Baqubah Iraq when his convoy was ambushed in 2006.
Thank God for small favors.
Today there is chaos in Iraq. When we leave, there will be chaos in Iraq for a time, but until we leave Iraq, the beginning of the end of chaos in Iraq cannot start.
Tags: Reconstruction Military George W. Bush Condi Rice Iraq Marshall Adame Baghdad
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