Sitting ducks for snipers' bullets, far from home and unable to contact their families, US troops in Iraq are finding their morale slipping away. Lee Gordon talks to servicemen and women for whom victory in the Gulf now has a hollow ring
We now know that current estimates of the cost of the Iraq War have reached $3.9 Billion a month, double of what we were told it would be. But given the horribly wrong estimates that the Bush Administration has made so far, this is hardly a shock.
But there is another, more personal, cost of war which is being felt in both Iraq and at home.
Parents wait daily for news of their children, participating in a horrible lottery where their perfectly healthy child will return to them crippled or killed, with the announcement of another death causes quiet dread.
Every time they hear of another soldier shot, they hold their breath ... for another 12 hours.
“That's how long it seems to take them to notify the families,” said David Campo of Waterford, whose little brother Peter is patrolling the streets of Baghdad with the 82nd Airborne. “You keep your eye on the phone and hope nobody calls.”
In today's Independent on Sunday, a grim picture of US troops emerges:
'We didn't win this war, not at all," said reserve infantryman Eric Holt, on guard outside the Republican Palace in Baghdad. "I don't know what I'm doing here and I don't like what's happening in this city," continued the 28-year-old from New York State. "It ain't right for the folks here. You know, there are a whole lot of our girls getting pregnant just so they can go home quick."
Morale among troops in the Iraqi capital has plunged, not least because of new orders that could see them there for a year instead of six months. Four soldiers have been shot by snipers or at close range near Baghdad University in the last seven days, in apparently random killings similar to that of the British journalist last weekend. The 24-year-old former British army officer was killed by a single shot to the back of his head after leaving the university, where he had been meeting Islamic groups.
Only one company of about 100 former New York and LA army policemen is responsible for investigating crimes, and the order to stay away from the university means it has not been able to interview witnesses or find forensic evidence such as the spent bullet. Meanwhile his body is understood to be at the airport waiting transfer to Britain. The British embassy has declined to say more.
Violence is commonplace in Baghdad. On Monday a soldier was killed and three others injured when a home-made bomb was tossed on to a military convoy as it emerged from an underpass. The explosion ripped into a Humvee military car, tossing it across the road.
A crowd gathered to watch as the three injured soldiers were loaded into another Humvee. Asked about the incident, a sergeant in the military police smiled and lifted his helmet to wipe the sweat that was running down his face. "We're going to help clean up this mess and move out of here. Quickly. There is no damn chance of us catching anyone." Pointing to his men, who were trying to hold back a crowd of around 100 pushing towards the debris, he said: "There is nothing more we can do."
Outside Baghdad the situation is also difficult. Border guards, far away from internet cafés and international telephones, find contacting their families particularly problematic. Forbidden from using military satellite communications, they often stop passing Iraqi traders and ask to use their telephones. A 22-year-old guard, part of a tank unit at the border, said he had not spoken to his wife for three months. It takes at least two months to receive a reply to a letter.
Perhaps not surprisingly, anecdotal evidence points to a growing number of breaches of military discipline. A spokesman said any soldier who fell pregnant would almost certainly be dishonourably discharged from the army and might even face a court martial, unless she was pregnant by her husband.
Prostitutes have now appeared. Rana, a 21-year-old Iraqi woman from Saddam's home town of Tikrit, said she had been working as a prostitute for a month near the army barracks in Abu Nawaz Street, central Baghdad. Most of her clients are US soldiers. She charges $50 for a night, including a room in a hotel in nearby Saddoon Street.
A receptionist at the hotel, where rooms are $30 for a twin, said there was no prostitution before the invasion. "We don't want our women to do these things," he said, adding that soldiers also try to sell handguns to make money. "They come in here and ask if I want to buy small guns a few times a week but we don't need any, we have a Kalashnikov."
The 11pm curfew means prostitutes and the brothels conduct their business early in the day. "Commanders turn a blind eye to soldiers who consort with prostitutes," a tank soldier said. "They understand the pressure on their troops."
"We're working 14 hours a day guarding and on patrol," a 21-year-old female reservist from Oklahoma said. "I finish and go straight to sleep then wake up an hour before duty, shower and start again. I don't think I can take an extra six months. I was looking forward to going home in October. But we're lucky in our squad because we drew down some cops from New York. The sergeant is from the Bronx. They're real tough and they're holding us together."
She spoke on the condition that she remain anonymous after her commander ordered troops not to give media interviews. Her colleague, a 26-year-old reservist from Houston who was studying to become a police officer, said she planned to quit the army as soon as she got home. "I've been in the army eight years and I can't do it any more, not after this. We're sitting here like targets and the Iraqis are getting bolder. They're taking a pop in broad daylight." One of the military policemen from her squad had cracked up and been sent home this week after a skirmish with Iraqi attackers, she said. "When I heard we might get another six months I wanted to cry."
Americans have always been skittish about sex in overseas locations, but the rise of prostitution leads to both security issues and local ire. When to the fundamentalists flip out and blow away a whole brothel? They've killed for less.
The lack of preparedness on the part of the US and the inability to rotate troops, is leading to a slow, steady collapse of discipline which will eventually get people killed.
Bush and his men have lived lives without consequence. Now, consequences are coming due,. but unfortunately, not only for them, but for hundreds of thousands of American families as well.
UPDATE: I apologize for the fright and pain this post has caused the family of Sargeant Patrick Compton who have commented here about the shock of viewing this post. The factual content of this post is from the Independent News from England and the article can be viewed here news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=424006. I don't know if this was due to an error on the part of the Independent correspondent, or if it referrs to another soldier with the same name. The purpose of my post was to show the human cost of this war that is also borne by the families of our troops. Obviously this post has done just the opposite for this family for which I am deeply sorry. In the future I will remove all references to names of service people who are killed or injuried, regardless of the source, just to avoid the possibility of this happening again.
