“Soldiers’ Doubts Build as Duties Shift: For Many, Prolonged Stay and New Threat Have Eroded Early Optimism,” by Daniel Williams, Washington Post, 25 May, p. A11.
Company A of the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division “has seen all sides of the post-invasion phase of the Iraqi conflict” (e.g., community policing, fighting insurgents, battling crime, defusing bombs, construction projects). They came to topple Saddam and expected to be back in Germany by now.
“This shift in responsibility is hitting hard at soldiers who moved into this area south of Baghdad last Wednesday for a short mission to fight [Shiite cleric Moqtada] Sadr’s militia. In the view of many troops in Company A of the division’s Task Force 1-36, the old battle, though filled with hardship, was imbued with the optimism of liberation. The new one is tinted by pessimism. Soldiers feel themselves mired in an effort to navigate the indecipherable intricacies of Iraqi politics.No exit means no exit strategy. The Leviathan force gets to come home, the Sys Admin force does not. Promising one outcome and then tacking on another is a morale killer.
‘I just think it’s a lost cause,’ said Spec. Will Bromley, a gunner who sits inside the turret of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle and mans a 25mm cannon whose rounds can blast walls to pieces. ‘This has become harder than we thought. Getting rid of Saddam Hussein, that’s one thing. Getting Iraqis to do what we want is another. It’s like we want to give them McDonald’s and they might not want McDonald’s. They have to want it or we can’t give it to them.’
Sgt. Jerry Sapiens, a specialist in nuclear, biological and chemical warfare, suggested there was no end in sight. ‘We’re in the baby-sitting phase and my question is, how long can we baby-sit for the Iraqis? We want the Iraqis to change, to be like us, and to do this we will have to be here forever.’”
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