War Stories

by Oliver North

  And they’re having a great deal of success. Second Lt. Tim Mayer told me, “When we first got here, things were a little challenging. But every day, the situation seems to get a little better. We’re getting weapons and IEDs turned in by the local people, and they are happier that we are here.”

  A lot of the Marines who are here now were also here for the first semester of the war. Many, including those in Conyers’s unit, which was in Okinawa this time last year, have been away from home and their families for the better part of eighteen months over the last two years. Their motivation and morale remain high. But to Andy Rooney, these courageous young Americans “are victims, not heroes.”

  OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #47

  Ramadi, Iraq

  Tuesday, 11 May 2004

  1400 Hours Local

  A video was posted on a militant Islamic website today. The grisly tape shows the beheading of Nicholas Berg, a U.S. civilian whose body was found near Baghdad three days ago.

  Just about a week or so ago, CBS News showed some other videotaped footage on its 60 Minutes television show. It was part of a report on abuse of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison by U.S. soldiers. It’s pretty obvious that things were not what they should have been at Abu Ghraib. But those responsible will be held accountable, and rightfully so. However, those acts are an aberration compared to the thousands of acts of kindness that U.S. troops are showing to the Iraqi people daily. And as bad as the Abu Ghraib misdeeds were, they pale by comparison with the brutal atrocities being perpetrated by the terrorists here in Iraq.

  Bush administration officials rightly condemned the repugnant behavior at Abu Ghraib. The president called it “abhorrent,” and Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld said it was “totally unacceptable and un-American.” The Pentagon announced that those responsible would be court-martialed. But that isn’t enough for the press and the president’s political opponents in an election year.

  Sadly, the drumbeat over Abu Ghraib is having an adverse effect on morale. Tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines who have served honorably in Iraq now wonder if their service will be tainted in the minds of their countrymen by the shameful behavior of a dozen or so miscreants.

  Over the past two years, I’ve spent months in the field with U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout the Middle East. During the march to Baghdad in April 2003, I saw hundreds of Iraqis taken prisoner—many of whom turned themselves in to American forces, knowing they would fare much better in U.S. custody than in Saddam’s army. They were all treated humanely.

  In battle, I watched a Marine risk his life to rescue a wounded Iraqi woman. Troops in the units with which I was embedded treated the Iraqi people with dignity and respect. U.S. forces have played soccer with the kids and built schools with supplies sent by the American public. I’ve seen Marines give their last MREs to hungry Iraqi children.

  I’ve also seen why these troops are in Iraq. I’ve looked into Saddam’s mass graves—a site that makes you sick to your stomach. I saw the evidence of atrocities committed by Saddam, Uday, and Qusay—tapes showing innocent Iraqis having their tongues cut out, or being blindfolded, bound, and marched off the edge of two- and three-story buildings. I saw Iraqi schools turned into ammunition depots and mosques used as bunkers.

  U.S. forces are hard at work in their daily efforts to free Iraq and pave the way for their coming democracy and free elections. And just yesterday, American forces destroyed the Baghdad headquarters of rebel Shi’ite Muqtada al-Sadr and killed eighteen of his high-level cohorts during an overnight firefight.

  There is no doubt that crimes were committed at Abu Ghraib. But if Abu Ghraib becomes the story that Americans most remember about this war, that would be a crime too.

  OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #48

  Baghdad, Iraq

  Thursday, 19 June 2004

  0950 Hours Local

  Eleven days ago, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 1546. Sponsored by the U.S. and Britain, the resolution is intended to end the formal occupation of Iraq on 30 June and transfer “full sovereignty” to an interim Iraqi government. This temporary authority—composed of people selected by Iraqis, not Americans, Britons, or the United Nations—will in turn arrange for nationwide elections in January 2005. The resolution also authorizes a continuation of the U.S.-led multinational force for Iraq until a constitutionally elected government takes power, expected by early 2006, or if the Iraqi government requests it.

  But Americans are an impatient lot. We’re used to movies on demand, fast food from drive-thru windows, express oil changes, and high speed Internet service. Americans want it when we want it—and we want it now!

  Our eagerness for instant results has served as a stimulus to the U.S. economy, inspired scientific progress, and promoted advances in technology. We now build homes and commercial structures in days and weeks that used to take months and even years.

  But when it comes to constructing institutions of democracy, the desire for immediate outcomes is a vice rather than a virtue. When interim Iraqi president Ghazi al-Yawer visited the United States, he thanked the American people for the sacrifices we’ve made in liberating his country and offered assurances that, despite the difficulties, things are on track for a real democratic government in Baghdad. There is, of course, one pre-condition—the transition to democracy will only work as long as the U.S.-led coalition continues to stay the course.

  Therein lies the rub—staying the course. According to recent public opinion surveys, a majority of both the American people and the population of Iraq have lost patience with our efforts to bring democracy to Baghdad. Fifteen months after the fall of Saddam’s statue in Firdus Square, and six months after he was dragged from a rat-hole, most Iraqis and most Americans want U.S. troops out—now.

  Set aside the fact that both U.S. and Iraqi polls sampled public opinion in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prison fiasco and its attendant tidal wave of negative publicity. As long as Abu Ghraib remains the focal point of a hostile media, it is unlikely that public perception of recognizing the progress in Iraq will improve.

  In addition to Abu Ghraib, the media is focused on the perceived increasing violence of the jihadists. Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld answered a salvo of press-conference queries based on the premise “that because the violence is escalating,” shouldn’t we “cut our losses?”

  Such a course of action is unthinkable. In the months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, President George W. Bush warned that the War on Terror would be a long, tough fight. Marines and soldiers on the ground in Iraq acknowledge that the violence is likely to increase, right through the establishment of a new Iraqi government. They see the rash of terror attacks on Iraqi civilians and leadership targets as a sign of increasing desperation by foreign terrorists, tribal sheiks and imams who will lose power once a democratic regime is installed in Baghdad.

  Progress in Iraq was never going to be immediate. The global War on Terror was never going to be won in Afghanistan alone. Don Rumsfeld referred to it as a “long hard slog.” That’s the kind of message Franklin Delano Roosevelt repeated time and again during our last war of national survival—World War II. It’s the kind of message that Lyndon Johnson failed to deliver during Vietnam.

  But the war on jihadist terror in Iraq isn’t Vietnam. We survived fatigue and failure in Vietnam. We won’t survive failure in this war. Unless we want our children to live in constant fear of Islamic radicals bringing down buildings on their heads, there has to be a democratic outcome in Iraq. That’s why the president’s words at MacDill Air Force Base on 16 June were so important. “With each step forward on the path to self-government and self-reliance,” Bush said, “the terrorists will grow more desperate and more violent. They see Iraqis taking their country back. They see freedom taking root. The killers know they have no future in a free Iraq. They want America to abandon the mission and to break our word. So they’re attacking our soldiers a
nd free Iraqis. They’re doing everything in their power to prevent the full transition to democracy.”

  President Bush added, “We can expect more attacks in the coming few weeks . . . more car bombs, more ‘suiciders,’ more attempts on the lives of Iraqi officials. But our coalition is standing firm. New Iraq’s leaders are not intimidated. I will not yield, and neither will the leaders of Iraq.”

  The troops out here are hoping that the American people in the fast lane have the patience not to yield either.

  OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #49

  Ramadi, Iraq

  Saturday, 23 July 2004

  1500 Hours Local

  “There was about a half-mile stretch of the main road in town that instantly became a battlefield as we moved through it,” explained Maj. Mike Wylie, the executive officer of 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines. Wylie was describing the genesis of a truly violent clash on “Wicked Wednesday” here in Ramadi, the provincial capital that lies about seventy miles west of Baghdad.

  Marines and soldiers were on patrol, making their way through town in 120-degree mid-afternoon heat, when insurgents set off an IED in an attempted ambush on the Marine convoy. The IED exploded beside the vehicle that was carrying our FOX News cameraman, Mal James, who jumped out of the Humvee to capture some of the most dramatic war footage since the major hostilities of sixteen months ago.

  The ensuing battle, involving more than 600 soldiers and Marines, lasted well over four hours and raged over ten city blocks in the vicinity of the government center. During the battle, twenty-five insurgents were killed, seventeen more wounded, and another twenty-five taken off the streets and into custody. Fourteen Marines sustained only minor injuries during the clash.

  The IED—and its deadly cousin, the VBIED (Vehicular-Borne Improvised Explosive Device) or car bomb—is now the preferred form of attack against coalition forces and the new Iraqi government. They are used in every way conceivable—in vehicles, hidden in trash cans beside the road, even placed in dead animals. The enemy no longer wants to face soldiers and Marines head-to-head, as evidenced by the lopsided outcome of Wednesday’s firefight.

  One evening earlier in the week, just after 2100 hours, the Marines responded when Iraqi police called in a suspected VBIED. The Iraqi officers pulled up to a vehicle parked in the middle of a six-lane highway, inspected it, and quickly realized it was a car bomb. Though the Iraqi police are training to deal with IEDs, they don’t yet have the kind of equipment that the Marines do to neutralize them. So the Marine Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team was dispatched with a security force from Weapons Company.

  While the engineers and EOD specialists attached to the Weapons Company prepared to deploy a robot to detonate the bomb, insurgent mortars attacked us. Since speed was now a necessity, the Marines decided instead to use a TOW, a wire-guided anti-tank missile, to destroy the VBIED. Mal James’s camera caught the dramatic effect of Sgt. Jeremiah Randall, the TOW section leader, firing his weapon and eliminating the IED before it had the chance to do any harm.

  Here in Ramadi, the Iraqi national police and national guard are now out in force. It’s noticeable how much they have progressed since I was here in April. They now patrol streets, guard checkpoints, and search neighborhoods, helping to root out terrorists. As one Marine put it, “The Iraqi police realize it is up to them to provide safety and security for their fellow citizens,” so it gives them incentive.

  When I interviewed Gen. Michael Hagee, the commandant of the Marine Corps, during his visit to Ramadi, he acknowledged the complexity of the task—as well as the progress. In speaking of his Marines, he said their job “is difficult. But, are they making a difference? Are they helping the Iraqis to help themselves? Absolutely. And, if you call that winning, then we probably are.”

  OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #50

  Ramadi, Iraq

  Thursday, 18 August 2004

  1925 Hours Local

  There is little doubt that the violence is escalating as the U.S. and Iraqi elections approach. An insurgent missile killed six Iraqis and wounded twenty-one others in Mosul today. In a central Baghdad neighborhood, a mortar round killed seven and injured another forty-seven.

  Here in Ramadi, an Iraqi male suspected of hijacking vehicles to be used for car bombings was hauled into police headquarters. We were granted unprecedented access to watch and listen while the chief of police interrogated the suspect, who confessed to hijacking two cars and four trucks. Without coercion or humiliation, he also confessed to being “a soldier of God” and of killing a police officer.

  Yesterday we were embedded with the Marine Weapons Company when an IED was detonated beside the convoy nearly killing the 2nd Brigade commander, Col. “Buck” Conner. Staff Sgt. Michael Drake, a Weapons Company platoon sergeant, described the attack this way: “We received a call while we were at the hospital with the battalion commander that the brigade commander had been hit by an IED and was taking fire, and they were forced to respond. We hurried to their location, became engaged behind the mall, and took heavy fire for over four hours.”

  In fact, it was an amazing demonstration of Marine and Army firepower. Though they had Cobra gunships and two fixed-wing aircraft overhead, the close urban streets had to be secured building by building, using firepower from Marine infantrymen, armored Humvees, and a platoon of Army Bradley fighting vehicles. When it was over, twelve enemy combatants were dead, four were wounded, and fifteen others were detained. During the fight, eleven Marines were wounded—including Cpt. Mark Carlton, the Fox Company commander, who suffered dozens of shrapnel holes in his body from an enemy RPG.

  In the aftermath of the battle I asked Lt. J. D. Stevens, who has been here since March, if democracy could work. His response: “If given enough time, yes.”

  That’s the key. Democracy in Iraq is taking root, but it won’t be built overnight.

  OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #51

  Fallujah, Iraq

  Friday, 17 December 2004

  2200 Hours Local

  “It’s stuff you hear about in boot camp, about World War II and Tarawa Marines who won the Medal of Honor,” said Lance Cpl. Rob Rogers of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines in the aftermath of the seven-day battle for Fallujah. Rogers was describing the actions of his fellow Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, a Mexican immigrant who enlisted in the Marine Corps the day he received his green card.

  Most Americans haven’t heard about Rafael Peralta. With few exceptions, most of our mainstream media haven’t bothered to write about him. The next time you log onto the Internet, do a Google search on Rafael Peralta. As of this writing, the Internet’s most used search engine will provide you with only forty-nine citations from news sources that have bothered to write about this heroic young man.

  Then, just for laughs, do a Google search on Pablo Paredes. Hundreds of media outlets have written about him. The wire services have blasted his story to thousands of newspapers. Television and radio debate programs gladly provide the public with talking heads who can speak eloquently on the actions of Pablo Paredes.

  You see, Pablo Paredes, a Navy petty officer third class, did something the liberal elites consider “heroic” and the media consider “newsworthy” He defied a military order. Last week, Paredes refused to board his ship bound for Iraq along with 5,000 other sailors and Marines. He showed up on the pier wearing a black t-shirt that read, “Like a Cabinet member, I resign.”

  We know this because Paredes had the courtesy and forethought to notify the local media that he would commit an act of cowardice the following day. Perhaps he hoped to follow the lead of another famous war protester who went on to become a U.S. senator and his party’s presidential nominee by throwing away his military medals.

  Paredes stopped short of trashing his military ID in front of the cameras because he said he didn’t want to be charged with the destruction of government property. The media, we are promised, will continue to follow this story intently.

  But it’s a shame th
at the media focus on such cynical acts of cowardice when they could tell stories about real heroes like Peralta, who “saved the life of my son and every Marine in that room,” according to Garry Morrison, the father of a Marine in Peralta’s unit—Lance Cpl. Adam Morrison.

  On the morning of 15 November 2004, the men of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines awoke before sunrise and continued what they’d been doing for seven days previously—cleansing the city of Fallujah of terrorists, house by house.

  At the fourth house they encountered that morning, the Marines kicked in the door and “cleared” the front rooms, but then noticed a locked door off to the side that required inspection. Peralta threw open the closed door, but behind it were three terrorists with AK-47s. Peralta was hit in the head and chest with multiple shots at close range.

  Peralta’s fellow Marines had to step over his body to continue the shootout with the terrorists. As the firefight raged on, a “yellow, foreign-made, oval-shaped grenade,” as Lance Cpl. Travis Kaemmerer described it, rolled into the room where they were all standing and came to a stop near Peralta’s body.

  But Sgt. Rafael Peralta wasn’t dead—yet. This twenty-five-year-old immigrant, who enlisted in the Marines as soon as he was eligible, and who volunteered for front line duty in Fallujah, had just saved the lives of his buddies by taking the first bullets from that room full of terrorists. But he still had one last act of heroism in him.

  Peralta was the polar opposite of Paredes, the petty officer who turned his back on his shipmates and mocked his commander in chief. Peralta was proud to serve his adopted country. On his bedroom walls in his parents’ home hung only three items—a copy of the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and his boot camp graduation certificate. Before he set out for Fallujah, Sgt. Rafael Peralta wrote to his fourteen-year-old brother, “Be proud of me, bro. . . and be proud of being an American.”