Soldiers under attack by those they train

DoD photo by Sgt. Tierney Nowland, U.S. Army

U.S. Army soldiers conduct a foot patrol in Yusufiyah, Iraq, to locate three missing soldiers on May 20, 2007. The soldiers are assigned to Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry).

According to this New York Times story, the gung-ho attitude of many U.S. soldiers has now turned to disdain as they face increased attacks from the same Iraqi Army forces they helped to train. In other words, we are training Iraqi soldiers by day and those same soldiers are using that training at night to attack U.S. forces.

That's what you call gratitude in the Islamic world.

An excerpt:

By MICHAEL KAMBER
Published: May 27, 2007

BAGHDAD -- Staff Sgt. David Safstrom does not regret his previous tours in Iraq, not even a difficult second stint when two comrades were killed while trying to capture insurgents.

"In Mosul, in 2003, it felt like we were making the city a better place," he said. "There was no sectarian violence, Saddam was gone, we were tracking down the bad guys. It felt awesome."

But now on his third deployment in Iraq, he is no longer a believer in the mission. The pivotal moment came, he says, this past February when soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the bomber's body, they found identification showing him to be a sergeant in the Iraqi Army.

"I thought, ‘What are we doing here? Why are we still here?' " said Sergeant Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the First Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. "We're helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us."

His views are echoed by most of his fellow soldiers in Delta Company, renowned for its aggressiveness.

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category | Iraq War
author | Lucente

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