Q & A: Inside Iraq

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Seattle Times reporter Hal Bernton recently returned from a month in Iraq, reporting on the U.S. military campaign and the lives of Iraqi civilians. He answered a selection of your questions about his experiences inside Iraq:

How did the people of Iraq react when they saw a reporter from the United States? How has your trip to Iraq changed your views? Are the U.S. efforts in post-war Iraq going smoothly or are they marred by all the bombing and attack on the U.S. military?
— Henry, Seattle

Hal Bernton: Most Iraqis I met were open and eager to talk. But they have starkly different views on the U.S. occupation. Some of the Shiites now revere President Bush like some sort of deity, and want his picture to put on their walls. Some Shiites, and a few Sunnis I talked to, say they hope that the United States stays for years. Yet many want us out of Iraq ASAP.

My impressions of Iraq vary widely depending on where we went. Baghdad is obviously tense - the violence horrific - and even though it is quite possible to get around in daytime hours to restaurants and markets, it's a dangerous place for civilians and military alike.

In the south, cities like Kut have seen very little anti-American violence and I felt quite comfortable. The town is on the mend, new businesses are opening up and Mercy Corps, and the Pacific Northwest-based aid group has been able to do a wide range of grassroots organizing and economic development projects.

In terms of changing my own life, obviously I feel a lot closer to Iraq and am even more fascinated than before with the epic story of the U.S. intervention and attempts to shape a new nation.

I fully expect there to be many setbacks and some breakthroughs in the months ahead as the U.S. prepares to transfer power.

What is the status of the repairs on the infrastructure, water, electricity, sewer, and roads? Also schools, libraries, hospitals and the like?
— Dave, Bellingham

HB: It really depends where you are. Some cities like Kut in the south escaped the war with relatively little damage, and appear to be on the mend. Though electricity is sporadic there - as all over the country - the roads are in good shape and U.S. aid money is helping to improve water and sewer.

In Baghdad, the trash is now collected and essential utilities are improving. But you still see all sorts of bombed buildings with flanks of concrete in precarious balance and the demolition and rebuilding job yet to begin. Also, many - if most of the traffic lights - still don't work in Baghdad.

Why are the reserves - civilians with jobs that depend on us, and families that did not sign up for this - being left out to dry? Why have the Guard Chain of Command not had their troops prepared for their wartime mission all these years? Why can't the Pentagon account for these failures?
— No name

HB: I know that Alpha Company has had its return date revised several times, and that its been a huge issue on morale. I fully understand the frustrations of the company, and we will be asking the Pentagon to see if this is an isolated incident or part of wider round of delayed returns that stretch beyond the 12-month tour of duty rule.

HB: It is hard to pick out one moment. We only had a month in Iraq, just a brief slip of time compared to the troops slogging through 12-month tours of duty. Yet, we did cover a lot of ground and meet a lot of people - it was a very rich few weeks.

Night flying with the Chinook helicopters; watching the combat engineers respond to a New Year's Day mortar attack; and finally getting a chance to ride in a Stryker vehicle were certainly a few highlights.

On a more somber note, so was our night at the Al Kindi hospital, walking the wards and meeting the innocent young girl and boy injured during the fighting and then coming right out of those wrenching encounters to face an emergency room fight to save the life of an Iraqi gunshot victim.

We wanted to stay all night at the hospital but the later it got the more nervous our driver - and the doctors were - about our safety. We returned to the relative safety of the Palestine Hotel about 11 p.m.

But for the frustrated hospital doctors, their struggle to save lives continues on, in perilous conditions and without a great deal of support.

HB: Some good news did come out in my reporting, all of which is accessible, along with Thomas Hurst's photograph at seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/nation-world/insideiraq/.

I wrote about the Washington Army National Guard soldiers helping to rebuild the town of Ad Dujayl in central Iraq, and helping launch a new city council.

I wrote about a Baghdad used car salesman, earning money like never before - and the overall economic boom underway in that city despite all the violence.

And then in the south, there also is a lot of good work underway to rebuild schools and water systems, and engage women in the conversation about a new Iraq, and the other development work undertaken by Mercy Corps and other aid groups funded largely through U.S. taxpayer dollars.

And of course, there is that taste of freedom that so many Iraqis are now savoring. I talked to a lot of people who spent time in prison, lost loved ones during the Saddam Hussein regime, or were forced to serve in the Iraqi Army for eight long years during the war with Iran.

Though there is a lot of fear about the prospects of civil war in the months ahead, there is also plenty of hope.

Oh, one last thing, on leaving Iraq, my driver pointed out a lot of new oil wells up and running along the southern border. That oil is what will help pay to rebuild a new Iraq.

HB: The equipment situation varies quite a bit depending on the unit. Certainly, the soldiers in the Stryker Brigade had pretty much all the latest gear as well as new uniforms. Others, including a support unit we profiled that works with the Stryker brigade, definitely wanted more armor and protection.

The protective armor issue certainly is huge in central Iraq and Baghdad. There are a lot of efforts to improve the Humvees and trucks. There are metal inserts behind some of the Humvee doors, and truck bed protection includes sandbags and wood. That work is ongoing, and there is a lot of innovation as soldiers try to figure out ways to shield themselves from roadside bombs.

HB: Those vehicles have all made the move up from central Iraq to Mosul. If you son was assigned to one of those vehicles, he should be assigned to one by now. But not all the brigade travels in the Strykers. Please get an update from your son and let us know.

HB: Yes, we rode twice with the Alpha Company. Both missions were relatively uneventful but underscored the dangers inherent in any nighttime mission in Iraq.

The running lights were off and the crew didn't want so much as a flashlight turned on inside the Chinook. The crew had donned night-vision goggles. It was quite cold as the side windows were open so the crew could scout the ground for signs of hostile fire. The rear ramp was open as well, and the flight engineer who scouted the rear had to be tethered to the Chinook for safety.

The Chinook traveled extremely low - just a few hundred feet off the ground. The idea was to minimize the ability of anyone on the ground to see the aircraft. If there was hostile fire, the first plan of action basically was just to keep moving and blow past it.

But the flight engineers were authorized to fire on anyone on the ground that appeared to be hostile. We were fired at on our first trip. But it was in the distance, and unclear whether it was just somewhat shooting randomly in the air or someone just way off the mark.

A big danger that the pilots mentioned was high-voltage wires that could get in the way of a low-flying Chinook. They had to make darn sure to avoid them.

HB: Thank you for this question. It is an important issue that needs more study - there is a lot that is not yet known, or at the very least, contested. We all know how many people came back with severe ailments from the first Gulf War, and it is still unclear how big a health problem U.S. troops may suffer from this time around. Several soldiers I met expressed concerns about the long-term effects of breathing so much dust and grit kicked up at the former Iraqi bases now occupied by U.S. troops. They were concerned that the dust might have some trace contaminants.

As your question suggests, there are a lot of concerns about depleted uranium from the munitions used by the U.S. troops. I didn't research that during out trip - but that is a big issue for civilian populations exposed to the depleted uranium, now from both wars.

HB: I didn't hear any new news about Capt. Speicher, sorry. Earlier reports suggest his disappearance remains very much a mystery.

HB: Forward Operating Base Vanguard is no garden spot. It was a former fuel depot marked by bunker-like mounds that rise out of a very bleak, flat and treeless expanse. They didn't have their own cooks, so all the meals were trucked over from the much larger Balad Air Base. The meals were decent but certainly nothing like the Air base mess halls.

On the positive side, they all had trailer-like container units to live in, rather than tents, and that was a great thing with all the rain we encountered. They also had a really fine "morale hall," with television and a great 24-hour Internet cafe with lots of computers.

These guys were all very engaged with the Iraqi people, as well, helping both to chase down insurgents and work in the nearby town. They were a great group of people, and, yes, it was hard to leave them behind as we headed over to the Stryker brigade from Fort Lewis.

HB: We often forget that many Iraqis in the '70s and early '80s had a relatively decent standard of living, which their country's oil development had helped to pay for. Then as Saddam Hussein went to war with Iran and then invaded Kuwait and was hit with sanctions, the country's fortunes changed dramatically, as did conditions for many civilians.

There is still evidence of the old wealth; you see a lot of villas, though some of them are now run down.

One of the biggest things we can do, as an occupying force, is to make a difference in living conditions - to improve on the sanitation and water systems and childhood nutrition and to try bring down the very high infant mortality rate that arose during the economic sanctions. That effort is underway - but this is a long-term thing that will take years.

The neighborhood markets now have a lot of produce in them. Tomatoes, eggplants, grilled chickens, lamb and lots of lettuce. But I know that a lot of people are having a hard time buying this stuff due to the very high inflation rates and high unemployment rates. They are falling back on the very basic stuff in the food rations that are distributed throughout the country in a program that the United Nations set up before the war and that continues to be very important source of nutrition in post-war Iraq.

HB: In the town of Kut, I watched a demonstration by Shiite Muslims who were opposed to Saddam being labeled a "prisoner of war," which carries with it the protections of the Geneva Convention. They said he was a criminal and they definitely wanted to seen him punished. There were similar demonstrations in other cities, including Baghdad.

So many people suffered under Saddam's rule. I'm sure that the surviving victims have thought of all kinds of ways they would like to see him meet his end.

HB: In the summer and fall months, all of the soldiers at the major U.S. base - Anaconda - had to endure a lot of mortar attacks. Some of the shelling did injure people and I heard some frightening stories of close calls.

The mortar attacks are less frequent now, and so the risk for soldiers who stay within the base confines has diminished. The threat level for helicopter pilots remains high - with the risk of accidents probably just as serious as the risk of hostile fire.

For the guys out on patrols or on the highways, the risks of IEDs - the roadside bombs - is a serious and ongoing threat. No one takes it lightly. Even though they find a lot of the bombs, they certainly don't find them all, and they continue to maim and kill.

I was fortunate on one southbound trip into Balad Air Base to be preceded by combat engineers who swept the road and found two IEDS in front of our supply convoy. One was detonated, one was defused in some fashion, and we were able to have an uneventful ride to the base.

HB: Sorry, no news on that. I know that other units that I visited were able to rotate the troops through at different dates so that not too many soldiers were gone at any one time. The brigade's new assignment is in Mosul and they are expected to stay there for the rest of their tour. They can catch flights out of Mosul directly to Germany.

HB: It has been a long haul for a lot of soldiers who never expected this would be a 12-month or longer tour of duty. I was there during the Iraqi winter when a bit of cold weather and rain was all that we had to deal with. The men and women who sweated through the fierce heat of the summer have really had a tough go of it - and I know that many, many people are counting the days until they can go home.

HB: I was impressed by the amount of money - billions of dollars - that is being poured into the U.S. bases in Iraq, and there is a feeling among some of the troops I met that the U.S. is not going to leave anytime soon.

Just this week, Gen. Peter Schoomaker disclosed that he is working on contingency plans to rotate troops through Iraq into 2006. This will be a big strain on the military, and it could continue to be a risky posting as the soldiers face the ongoing insurgency and also have to deal with the tensions between Shiites and Sunni over the political future of Iraq.

Why can't the Sunni and Shiite Muslim people get along now that Saddam is out of power?
— Lauri, Seattle

HB: Some Sunnis and Shiites do get along, particularly in Baghdad, where they live side by side. But the Shiites in the south were subject to so much persecution from Saddam's brutal Sunni-led Baath Party. Because Shiites represent the majority of the country's population, they are eager to claim control of the new government, and many are demanding direct elections.

This is a huge shift in power in a nation that hasn't had a lot of experience with any sort of democracy, and it is hard to know how events will play out in the next year or two.

Did you guys bring back any souvenirs or keep sakes?
— Robert, Seattle

HB: A few. We were given a few patches and medallions from the the Army Reserve helicopter, National Guard combat engineer, and Stryker units that we visited. We also brought back some fragments from a bomb on a highway near Forward Operating Base Pacesetter. And finally, in the Baghdad market, I picked up a painted copper plate for our editor, Mark Higgins, who endured a lot of long, long days back here preparing our copy for print, consulting on travel plans and trying to keep track of our progress.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company