Off
the shelf
By
Pete Creighton
Salvaging
Iraq
Rob Schultheis, Waging Peace, a Special
Operations Team's Battle to Rebuild Iraq, Gotham Books, $26.00.
In this 180-page book the reader meets and joins a
squad of about a dozen civil affairs soldiers who in other wars are non-combat —
but in Iraq are armed and padded at all times. This is the men (and two women)
of Civil Affairs Team 13, a company of the 425th CA Battalion (Reserve). They
are spread thin to patrol the Al Khadimiyah neighborhood of northwestern
Baghdad.
The author, Rob Schultheis, asked to join the CA
unit and reports his intimate adventure with this little-known branch of the Army
which tries to win over the populace after the bombs have done their damage. He
describes Baghdad as "the most wretched city on earth."
The men and women of the CA battalion do all they
can to make life a little better for the long-suffering Iraqis. Their theme is:
You can't win a war without winning over the people. Whereas most of the
Americans in Baghdad are safely enclosed in the well-guarded Green Zone, the CA
units are billeted outside where you have to "watch your back" at all
times.
A more encouraging statement is that of Team 13
Commander Mark Clark, who says, "90% of Baghdad residents would never do
anything to harm an American soldier." Most or many of these realize we
are determined to democratize Iraq, and for this tolerate us in their country.
In all four of the "inside Iraq" memoirs
I've read, it's the American troops in combat who most want to see this war
through to the bitter end. War is their thing and they want to stay with their
comrades regardless of the constant strain of facing death from an unseen
enemy.
After reporting all the misery seen and strength of
the enemy, author Schultheis is "convinced we can salvage Iraq." To
do so he would advise to: recruit 10 times more civil affairs soldiers, teach
more of them Arabic, triple the overall number of troops, and pay them more.
Many of us wish, after 9/11, the war against terrorism
had ended in Afghanistan — where there is still much to do to create democracy. Now we have a much greater
challenge, greater sacrifice — and a need for greater leadership of the
world's superpower. That's us, staring into an uneasy future.
This book is available at bookstores and at the Galesburg
Public Library.