lily
07-27-2006, 06:58 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601666.html?referrer=email
'Waiting to Get Blown Up'
Some Troops in Baghdad Express Frustration With the War and Their Mission
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A01
BAGHDAD, July 26 Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question
about morale for more than an hour. But not until his convoy of armored
Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the
soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns, and passed off the
bomb-detecting robot to another patrol, did he turn around in his seat and
give his answer.
"Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you
hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day,
in 120-degree heat," he said. "Then ask how morale is."
Frustrated? "You have no idea," he said.
As President Bush plans to deploy more troops in Baghdad, U.S. soldiers who
have been patrolling the capital for months describe a deadly and
infuriating mission in which the enemy is elusive and success hard to find.
Each day, convoys of Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles leave Forward
Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad with the goal of stopping violence
between warring Iraqi religious sects, training the Iraqi army and police to
take over the duty, and reporting back on the availability of basic services
for Iraqi civilians.
But some soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored
Division -- interviewed over four days on base and on patrols -- say they
have grown increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the
violence and their reason for fighting. The battalion of more than 750
people arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers
have been killed and 21 wounded.
"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get
blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim
Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor
University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."
"No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we
do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. "We were excited, but
then it just wears on you -- there's only so much you can take. Like me,
personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II. I want to fight an
enemy. And this, out here," he said, motioning around the scorched
sand-and-gravel base, the rows of Humvees and barracks, toward the
trash-strewn streets of Baghdad outside, "there is no enemy, it's a faceless
enemy. He's out there, but he's hiding."
"We're trained as an Army to fight and destroy the enemy and then take
over," added Dugger, 26, of Reno, Nev. "But I don't think we're trained
enough to push along a country, and that's what we're actually doing out
here."
"It's frustrating, but we are definitely a help to these people," he said.
"I'm out here with the guys that I know so well, and I couldn't picture
myself being anywhere else."
'Never-Ending Battle'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After a five-hour patrol on Saturday through southern Baghdad neighborhoods,
soldiers from the 1st Platoon sat on wooden benches in an enclosed porch
outside their barracks. Faces flushed and dirty from the grit and a beating
sun, they smoked cigarettes and tossed them at a rusted can that said
"Butts."
The commanders in Baghdad and the Pentagon are "looking at the big picture
all the time, but for us, we don't see no big picture, it's just always
another bomb out here," said Spec. Joshua Steffey, 24, of Asheville, N.C.
The company's commanding officer, Capt. Douglas A. DiCenzo of Plymouth,
N.H., and his gunner, Spec. Robert E. Blair of Ocala, Fla., were killed by a
roadside bomb in May.
Steffey said he wished "somebody would explain to us, 'Hey, this is what
we're working for.' " With a stream of expletives, he said he could not care
less "if Iraq's free" or "if they're a democracy."
'Waiting to Get Blown Up'
Some Troops in Baghdad Express Frustration With the War and Their Mission
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A01
BAGHDAD, July 26 Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question
about morale for more than an hour. But not until his convoy of armored
Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the
soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns, and passed off the
bomb-detecting robot to another patrol, did he turn around in his seat and
give his answer.
"Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you
hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day,
in 120-degree heat," he said. "Then ask how morale is."
Frustrated? "You have no idea," he said.
As President Bush plans to deploy more troops in Baghdad, U.S. soldiers who
have been patrolling the capital for months describe a deadly and
infuriating mission in which the enemy is elusive and success hard to find.
Each day, convoys of Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles leave Forward
Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad with the goal of stopping violence
between warring Iraqi religious sects, training the Iraqi army and police to
take over the duty, and reporting back on the availability of basic services
for Iraqi civilians.
But some soldiers in the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored
Division -- interviewed over four days on base and on patrols -- say they
have grown increasingly disillusioned about their ability to quell the
violence and their reason for fighting. The battalion of more than 750
people arrived in Baghdad from Kuwait in March, and since then, six soldiers
have been killed and 21 wounded.
"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get
blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim
Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor
University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."
"No one wants to be here, you know, no one is truly enthused about what we
do," said Sgt. Christopher Dugger, the squad leader. "We were excited, but
then it just wears on you -- there's only so much you can take. Like me,
personally, I want to fight in a war like World War II. I want to fight an
enemy. And this, out here," he said, motioning around the scorched
sand-and-gravel base, the rows of Humvees and barracks, toward the
trash-strewn streets of Baghdad outside, "there is no enemy, it's a faceless
enemy. He's out there, but he's hiding."
"We're trained as an Army to fight and destroy the enemy and then take
over," added Dugger, 26, of Reno, Nev. "But I don't think we're trained
enough to push along a country, and that's what we're actually doing out
here."
"It's frustrating, but we are definitely a help to these people," he said.
"I'm out here with the guys that I know so well, and I couldn't picture
myself being anywhere else."
'Never-Ending Battle'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After a five-hour patrol on Saturday through southern Baghdad neighborhoods,
soldiers from the 1st Platoon sat on wooden benches in an enclosed porch
outside their barracks. Faces flushed and dirty from the grit and a beating
sun, they smoked cigarettes and tossed them at a rusted can that said
"Butts."
The commanders in Baghdad and the Pentagon are "looking at the big picture
all the time, but for us, we don't see no big picture, it's just always
another bomb out here," said Spec. Joshua Steffey, 24, of Asheville, N.C.
The company's commanding officer, Capt. Douglas A. DiCenzo of Plymouth,
N.H., and his gunner, Spec. Robert E. Blair of Ocala, Fla., were killed by a
roadside bomb in May.
Steffey said he wished "somebody would explain to us, 'Hey, this is what
we're working for.' " With a stream of expletives, he said he could not care
less "if Iraq's free" or "if they're a democracy."